Rookie Challenge led the Sophomores team into victory and was named the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge
MVP. The
T-Mobile Rookie Challenge featured a team of standout first-year players ('
Rookies') against a team of standout second-year players ('Sophomores'). The game was divided into two twenty-minute halves, similar to
college basketball. The participating players were chosen by voting among the league's assistant coaches. The Rookies team includes the first overall draft pick in
2008 NBA draft,
Derrick Rose. The rest of the Rookies team consists of five of the top ten pick in the 2008 Draft and three players from the
2007 NBA draft who were in their first NBA season. The three players are the first overall draft pick
Greg Oden and two Spanish players
Rudy Fernández and
Marc Gasol. The Sophomores team features four players from
the previous Rookie Challenge game which are
Kevin Durant,
Jeff Green,
Al Horford and
Luis Scola. The head coaches for the Rookies and Sophomores teams were the lead assistants from the 2009 NBA All-Star Game coaching staffs,
Kurt Rambis from the
Los Angeles Lakers and
John Kuester from the
Cleveland Cavaliers. For the first time in the game's history, two active NBA players were selected as leading assistant coach. Two All-Star starters
Dwyane Wade and
Dwight Howard were selected as the assistant coaches for the Rookies and Sophomores team respectively. Unable to participate due to injury. The Sophomores won the game 122–116 with Sophomore
Kevin Durant named as the Rookie Challenge
MVP. Durant scored a record 46 points in the game, breaking
Amar'e Stoudemire's 36-point record from
2004. The Rookies led by 3 at halftime, but then Durant took over, scoring 30 of his 46 points in the second half as the Sophomores outscored the Rookies by 6 points to win the game. The game marked the seventh consecutive loss for the Rookies team.
Slam Dunk Contest won the 2009 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. The
Sprite Slam Dunk Contest was contested by defending champion
Dwight Howard,
2006 champion
Nate Robinson,
2005 contestant
J. R. Smith and rookie
Rudy Fernández. Fernández won the online voting on NBA.com to determine the fourth contestants, beating fellow rookies
Joe Alexander and
Russell Westbrook. This was the first time a dunk contestant was chosen by the fans. Fernández also became the first ever international player to participate in the contest. Smith was named as a late replacement for
Rudy Gay, who was forced to withdraw from the contest due to injury. Each contestant performed two
slam dunks in each round. The two best contestants in the first round, as rated by the panel of judges, advanced to the final round, where the winner was determined by fan voting. The panel of judges for this year contest consists of five former
Phoenix Suns players, the inaugural Slam Dunk champion
Larry Nance,
1992 champion
Cedric Ceballos,
1987 All-Star Game MVP Tom Chambers and three-time All-Stars,
Kevin Johnson and
Dan Majerle. Dwight Howard began his title defence with two 50-point dunks to advance to the final round with a perfect score. One of his dunks employed a 12-foot high hoop. Howard also used a prop
phone booth to change into his
Superman cape before completing the dunk on the 12-foot hoop. Nate Robinson also advanced to the final round with 87 points, beating Smith and Fernández who had 85 and 84 points respectively. In the final round, Robinson changed his uniform into the
New York Knicks' green uniform originally designed for
Saint Patrick's Day. The green uniform symbolized
Kryptonite, Cook won the first round with 18 points as he advanced to the final round along with Lewis and Kapono. The second round was a tight contest between Cook and Lewis, both tied at 15 points, and Kapono, with 14. Because of the tied score, Cook and Lewis played an extra tiebreaker round. Cook went on to beat his first round score with 19 points, while Lewis finished with 7 points.
Skills Challenge won the 2009 PlayStation Skills Challenge. The
PlayStation Skills Challenge was contested by four players.
Derrick Rose, the
first overall draft pick in
2008 NBA draft, was joined by three All-Star guards,
Devin Harris,
Jameer Nelson and
Tony Parker. However, Nelson was injured and was subsequently replaced by All-Star
Mo Williams. In this contest, the contestants have to complete an "obstacle course" consisting of dribbling, passing and shooting stations. A contestant who finish the course with the fastest time wins the contest. All contestants must comply with basic NBA ball-handling rules while completing the course. Unable to participate due to injury. Mo Williams was named as a replacement for Jameer Nelson. In the first round, the defending champion, Team San Antonio was eliminated along with Team Los Angeles. Both teams took over 15 shots from the half court location to score. Team Detroit and Team Phoenix both advanced to the final round. Team Phoenix recorded the fastest completion time in the first round with 53.3 seconds, six seconds faster than Team Detroit. In the final round, Team Detroit made the first five shots in 13 attempts and used only 7 attempts to make the half court shot with a time of 58.4 seconds. Team Phoenix responded by making their first five shots in a single attempt each. However, they needed 22 attempts to make the half-court shot, finishing with a time of 1 minute and 19 seconds. Team Detroit won their second Shooting Stars title, joining Team San Antonio as the only two-time winners of the competition.
Detroit Pistons legend and
Detroit Shock head coach,
Bill Laimbeer also became the first person to win the Shooting Stars Competition twice; he won his first title with Team Detroit in
2007.
H–O–R–S–E Competition was a participant of the H–O–R–S–E Competition. On February 5, 2009,
TNT announced the addition of
H–O–R–S–E to its All-Star Weekend coverage. The competition was held outdoors on a half-sized court during the special
Inside the NBA show prior to the All-Star Saturday Night events. The objective of this competition is to accrue as few of the five letters as possible. A player is given a letter every time they fail to duplicate the shot of another player. Each player was given 24 seconds to make or duplicate the shot (dunking was prohibited). Each player who fails to duplicate five shots was eliminated from the competition. An NBA referee was assigned to rule whether the shot was done properly. The inaugural
H–O–R–S–E Competition was sponsored by American
auto insurance company
GEICO and hence the word G–E–I–C–O was used in replacement of H–O–R–S–E. Three NBA players,
Kevin Durant,
Joe Johnson and
O. J. Mayo were selected to compete in the H–O–R–S–E competition. Johnson was the first to be eliminated, having failed to duplicate Mayo's shot from the free-throw line. Durant then made a series of three-point shots to eliminate Mayo to win the inaugural H–O–R–S–E Competition. Previous year's MVP,
Terrell Owens scored a game-high 17 points and led the East Sunrisers to a 60–57 victory over the West Sunsetters. Owens, an
American football star for
Dallas Cowboys, was also named as the Celebrity Game MVP for the second successive year. The game was marked by a surprise appearance by another Hall of Famer
Nancy Lieberman in the middle of the game, where she joined and played with the East Sunrisers.
ESPN play-by-play commentator Mike Breen also made a surprise appearance as the referee for the game. ==D-League All-Star==