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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKENDFebruary 15, 2014John WallNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Q. Did you like the new format? JOHN WALL: I think it was cool. It was fun. Brought some excitement to it in the first round. And basically the second round you go toe to toe with the guy from the West, and you got to have a great opportunity to beat those guys. Q. Did you feel like thatonce that ended that you had won? It seemed a bit anti‑climactic. JOHN WALL: Well, no. I think it was just a good opportunity. First round was just to get the crowd into it and get ourselves warmed up, and the battle round you got to win. The first side to win three wins the whole thing. And it was getting tough with Terrence missing a couple and P.G., and those guys had a great opportunity for some dunks. And we just stayed positive. But it worked out in our favor to have the opportunity to go against Ben McLemore after he jumped over Shaq in that chair. Q. You said coming into this that this was going to be easy for you and that you were better, you were made for this kind of competition. Was it as easy as it seemed? Because it initially seemed like you were maybe a little overconfident. But it looks like you‑‑ this was pretty easy for you. JOHN WALL: No, it was only my second time doing it. My first time was on Thursday. So I just felt comfortable with myself and I knew it was a dunk that hasn't been done before. And I knew it was the main thing with coming up with the creativity, and it worked out in my favor. Q. You've always kind of been a showman from Kentucky with the dance, and then your home opener, your dance, what made you bring out your dance floor skills tonight? JOHN WALL: I don't know, I think it was the great opportunity, especially a dunk that hasn't been done before. And me and Paul was talking about it, and Kobe said what kind of dance I was getting on Twitter, I asked him what kind of dance I was getting, and the new dance out is the Nene, so I decided to do the Nene. Q. All the injuries, all the trials, tribulations, to not only get to All‑Star, but to win the dunk contest, how meaningful is this for you? JOHN WALL: It was great. It's a humbling experience for me, a great opportunity. Like I said, I wouldn't be here without my coaches, my teammates and my fans in the city of DC supporting me for my first three years. So I did it for all those guys and did it for my mom that's in the hospital sick right now, so it was a big moment for me. Q. Talk about the creative process for that last dunk. Did you come up with it by yourself? Did you have some help? Or what went into that? JOHN WALL: It was just watching YouTube. Somebody sent me a YouTube link on my Twitter and said 27 dunks that haven't been done in the NBA dunk contest. And the first one was that one, and it seemed hard, but for me it came out to be easy. So it worked out in my favor tonight. Q. Who are some of your favorite dunkers growing up? And the second part of the question is do you think with the new format more people will be encouraged to want to participate in the dunk contest in the future? JOHN WALL: I liked Michael Jordan, all those guys that I didn't get to see but just watching and hearing about it, but Nate Robinson, Vince Carter and those guys, Desmond Mason, and the new format I think a lot of people will like to get into it because it takes a lot of pressure off you. You don't have to have some dunks set up yourself and you don't have to go every round thinking, well, if I don't make this, I don't make that, I can't move on to the next round. So I think it's a lot easier and an easier chance for you to win. And why not go out there and have fun? I think it was a great opportunity for me to be my first All‑Star to go out there and show what I can do. Q. Do you get the feeling that people are sort of getting no more ideas and perhaps gimics are in the front? JOHN WALL: I think there's some ideas out there. It's just that dunks are very hard to do. And there's a lot of guys like the international people that's doing dunks in the Team Flight Brothers and all those guys. You look on YouTube, they do a lot of dunks that you haven't seen in the NBA, and it's very hard to do and you just got to trust yourself and go out there and try to master it. THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you, John. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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