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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKENDFebruary 18, 2006Nate RobinsonSpud WebbHOUSTON, TEXAS Q. Yesterday, Nate, you said you were hopeful that he (Spud Webb) would be watching today. You obviously knew he was going to be here, but how long had this been planned in advance and how nervous were you just to get into the finals so you could use it? NATE ROBINSON: I was extremely nervous because I didn't know what exactly the other guys were going to do, you know. So just with the whole thing of making my dunks, it put me to the next round and the next round and I got to used it. And thank God I made every dunk, but he, Spud was willing to help me out. Q. How long had you talked about it? NATE ROBINSON: I knew for a while but I didn't want to tell nobody. My teammate Jamal (Crawford), we were on the plane and he was like, "I have the perfect idea, you should jump over Spud Webb." And I was like, "That is a good idea." It's been 20 years and he went over all the statistics and he was like, "We got to get in touch with him." After that, I just practiced my dunks for a week and a half. We came out here and practiced with Spud and everything went great. Q. Spud, can you just talk about what it was like to be a part of this, and were you obviously hopeful he would make it to the finals? SPUD WEBB: Yeah, you have a guy inside people doubt would jump anyway, we haven't seen much of Nate, so probably people didn't know the repertoire of dunks that he had. Now we know. But I wasn't that nervous. Like he said, we practiced it, you know, and he cleared. He was so high, I was telling guys all last night how high he jumped, trying to keep it in that he was going to jump over me. It's nice to see a guy that's humble and down-to-earth get to win an award like this because God gives us a gift to jump that we try to use to the best of our abilities and he does. Q. How nervous were you, recipe for disaster, one more inch and it wouldn't have been good. SPUD WEBB: Us guys we decided we have to believe in each other, you know that. So I seen him jump and that's all I needed, to see him jump, see how high he jumped, I talked to Herb Williams, his coach, about some of the things he does, and he was like, "Wait till you see." Now we looking forward to a lot more. Q. Nate, how did it feel for the first time ever that this Slam Dunk contest goes into tiebreak? NATE ROBINSON: It's a great honor, a great privilege to be in my shoes right now. I just thank God, because, you know, without Him, nothing would be possible. But like I say, thank Spud for helping me out, because I think that put me over the hump, just to make it to each round and then have a tiebreaker for the first time in the history, me and Andre, we can go down in history one day. Q. The crowd afterwards seemed to be not quite as excited as they were after your dunk with Spud and after what Andre did, did you interpret that in any way? Do you think they wanted Andre to win? SPUD WEBB: Let me answer that. They shouldn't get big guys to judge contests because they don't know good dunks. Tell Moses he should have won it when he dunked over me. It was good. It went to the playoff. It won. The crowd was into it, but this guy was incredible. Q. Nate, with the struggles the Knicks are having right now, does it do anything for the franchise? NATE ROBINSON: I mean, just the energy that I brought today, hopefully I can carry it to my team. I mean, God knows, you know, we need help. But besides that, our team, I mean, we're together. One thing, you know, about our team, even though we're losing, we're losing together and as long as we stick together we're going to get through the storm regardless of how the season turns out. We have so many years ahead of the line. But now after the All-Star Break, I know guys are going to be even more hungry. It's like the season starts all over again. It's 0-0 and everybody has the same record, and we just got to turn it around in the second half of the season and hopefully get a playoff berth and we'll be all right. Q. How much does this also mean to you, Spud, it being the 20th anniversary of your title? SPUD WEBB: Oh, it's awesome. Like I said, he's such a nice and humble guy just to sit there and get to know. I met him last week, and watching him in college and some of the games this year. But to me, it means that a guy this size can jump and do those type of things. But what Nate really wants probably in his life is to win a championship and to play for years, and that's what you want to be known for as a good basketball player. These individual achievements, you take pride in, and I didn't recognize how valuable it was until I retired from the NBA and people appreciate the things you do. He doesn't know the history he made today, but down the road he'll appreciate it with his kids.
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