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NBA
NEWS
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ROSE TO DEFEND TITLE IN SKILLS CHALLENGE
Milwaukee’s Jennings, Phoenix’s Nash and Utah’s Williams to Vie for Title - MORROW REPLACES ROSE FOR ROOKIE CHALLENGE - KAMAN TO REPLACE PORTLAND’S BRANDON ROY IN ALL-STAR GAME
NEW YORK, N.Y. USA Friday February 12, 2010 The Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose will defend his title in the NBA Skills Challenge against Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks, Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns and Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz, as part of NBA All-Star Saturday Night on Feb. 13, at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The 2010 field features three of the event’s six previous winners. The Skills Challenge was introduced at NBA All-Star 2003 in Atlanta and features four players competing in a two-round timed “obstacle course” consisting of dribbling, passing and shooting stations. All players must observe basic NBA ball-handling rules while completing the course. The two players with the fastest times from the first round advance to the finals with the order of competition determined by inverse order of the first round times. At the discretion of the referee, television instant replay may be consulted for clarification of rules compliance. A first-time NBA All-Star, Rose has followed up his Rookie of the Year campaign by averaging team highs in points (19.7 ppg) and assists (5.9 apg). Jennings, who will participate in the 2010 T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam, is averaging a team- and rookie-high 6.3 assists, and is second among first-year players in scoring at 17.5 ppg. Voted to start at guard for the Western Conference in the 2010 NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 14 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Nash, the 2005 Skills Challenge champion, ranks second in the league in assists (11.1 apg) and is on pace to shoot .500/.400/.900 for the fourth time in his career. Williams, another first-time All-Star and the 2008 Skills Challenge champion, is tied for third in the league in assists (9.7 apg) and is averaging 19.0 points. Williams, a Dallas native, holds the course record of 25.5 seconds, which he set in the final round in 2008. Last year in Phoenix, Rose finished his winning time of 35.3 seconds with an emphatic double-pump reverse dunk, as he became the first rookie to win the Skills Challenge. SKILLS CHALLENGE YEAR-BY-YEAR WINNERS 2003 – Jason Kidd, New Jersey 2004 – Baron Davis, New Orleans 2005 – Steve Nash, Phoenix 2006 – Dwyane Wade, Miami 2007 – Dwyane Wade, Miami 2008 – Deron Williams, Utah 2009 – Derrick Rose, Chicago MORROW REPLACES CHICAGO'S ROSE FOR ROOKIE CHALLENGE Golden State Warriors guard Anthony Morrow will replace Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose on the sophomore roster for the Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam, to be played Friday, February 12 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Rose was excused from the Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam in consideration of being named to the Eastern Conference roster for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game and his participation as defending champion in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge on All-Star Saturday Night. Morrow, in his second season out of Georgia Tech, is averaging 11.5 points and 3.6 rebounds in 36 games for the Warriors. The Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam will be televised live nationally on TNT at 9 p.m. ET and also will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio, while NBA.com will make live audio available to fans in multiple languages. LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS CHRIS KAMAN TO REPLACE PORTLAND’S BRANDON ROY IN ALL-STAR GAME Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman has been named by NBA Commissioner David Stern to replace injured West All-Star guard Brandon Roy (right hamstring strain) of the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2010 NBA All-Star Game in Dallas. Kaman will be making his first All-Star appearance. The NBA All-Star Game will air live on TNT, ESPN Radio and in 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages worldwide at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 14.
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