Chris Paul lost to Deron Williams in the final round of the 2008 Skills Challenge. Here’s what CP3 said after the event:
Q: What are your thoughts on your rivalry with Deron Williams?
Chris Paul: Always, always. But it was fun. That was my first time getting to the second round. You know, I thought I had a shot going second, but then he got 25.8 and I can’t mess up. He set the bar real high but it was fun.
Q: What do you remember the most from watching All-Star Weekend when you were a kid?
Paul: Just all the excitement behind this and seeing all the glitz and glamor and flashing lights - and now to be a part of it is something that I would have never imagined.
Q: Is there one player you always looked up to and were amazed by?
Paul: MJ, all day long. It seems like he won MVP every year or the dunk contest or something like that. To actually know him on a personal basis now makes it even crazier.
Q: If you could add an event or change something about this weekend, what would it be?
Paul: Probably “Horse.” I play “Horse” just about every day with one of my teammates, Jannero Pargo, so we have a lot of crazy shots we do.

It’s 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend and the Saturday Night events are on. Now up is the Skills Challenge competition.
Deron Williams went first, missing a straight-in pass and one of the top-of-the-key shots, finishing in 31.2 seconds.
Jason Kidd went second and was flawless until shooting the top of the key shot, which he missed five times (after five misses a player can stop shooting and continue with the course), finishing in 39.7 seconds.
Chris Paul was up net, missing a bounce pass, but otherwise running the whole course perfectly, flying in at 29.0 seconds.
Last up was Dwyane Wade, who fumbled the ball during the obstacle-dribble in the beginning and had to go chase it, then missed three from the top of the key and quickly fired the next two up just to get through it, blew some passes, and slowly dribbled to the end, but then missed the layup, and missed the follow, for a disgustingly awful performance of 53.9 seconds.
CP3 and D-Will advance to the second and final round.
In the final round, D-Will went first. He dunked the first shot, ran the dribbling, hit the straight-in pass, and the bounce pass, swished the top-of-the-key jumper, hit the next straight-on pass, and ended it with a dunk, finishing with in terrific 25.5 seconds time, setting the all-time record best time for this event.
Paul is up and has to be virtually perfect for a shot at winning. He hit the first layup, dribbled the obstacles, missed the first straight-on pass, hit the bounce pass, missed once from the top of the key, hit the last straight-on pass, and hit the layup, getting 31.2 seconds — a respectable time but D-Will wins it with a brilliant performance.

A gold medal and MVP honours at EuroBasket 2007 and another strong showing for club side the Utah Jazz all add up the FIBA Europe Player of the Year Award for Andrei Kirilenko of Russia. The 2.09m forward takes home the prize after winning a vote of both fans and a panel of basketball experts, media and coaches from 25 different countries.
Last year’s winner, Dirk Nowitzki finished second while Jose Calderon of EuroBasket silver medallists Spain came in third.
Kirilenko led the surprise Russian side at EuroBasket 2007; averaging 18 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals to go with nearly two blocks per game. He had 29 points and eight rebounds in a crucial semi-final win over Lithuania and 17 points in the final against Spain.
On club level Kirilenko helped lead the Utah Jazz to the NBA’s Western Conference Finals where they fell to eventual champions the San Antonio Spurs. Kirilenko is currently averaging 11.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 blocks per game for the Jazz.