NEW ORLEANS — Big men continue to reign supreme in the NBA All-Star skills competition Saturday night.

New York Knicks 7-foot-3 forward Kristaps Prozingis won it, beating Utah’s Gordon Hayward in the finals.

Those vanquished in earlier rounds included guards John Wall of Washington and Isaiah Thomas of Boston, both because they couldn’t make their initial 3-pointers required to close out the course before Hayward did.

Porzingis emerged from the big-men’s division that included the Pelicans’ Anthony Davis and Denver’s Nikola Jokic.

Porzingis and Hayward were neck and neck until the end of the course, but Porzingis hit his 3 first to end it.

3-POINT SHOOTING: Eric Gordon of Houston dethroned Klay Thompson of Golden State as the contest champion.

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Gordon’s score of 21 in a final-round tie-breaker defeated Kyrie Irving of Cleveland, the 2013 winner who had 18. They each finished with a score of 20 in the final round, meaning they each had to shoot 25 more balls to decide it.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league remains in a very good place, citing the continued international growth of the game and successes from a business standpoint.

Silver gave his annual All-Star Saturday night address, saying “the state of the league is as good as it’s ever been.”

A new seven-year collective bargaining agreement that assures labor peace for the foreseeable future is completed, the league is making forays into the eSports world and there’s never been more international players in the NBA than there are now.

D-LEAGUE ALL-STAR: Behind an MVP performance by Quinn Cook the East team edged the West 105-100.

Cook, the former Duke standout playing for the Canton Charge, led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including four of six threes. He also spread the wealth around with a game-high 12 assists.

Abdel Nader of the Maine Red Claws scored 16 points for the East, and Jalen Jones added five.

HALL OF FAME: Chris Webber, a career 20-point-per-game scorer in the NBA, and Rollie Massimino, the coach who led Villanova to a stunning upset of Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA championship game were among the 14 finalists unveiled for this year’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction class.

Other first-time Hall of Fame finalists include longtime NBA referee Hugh Evans, Connecticut women’s star Rebecca Lobo, two-time NBA scoring champion Tracy McGrady, five-time All-Star Sidney Moncrief, Baylor women’s coach Kim Mulkey, Kansas men’s coach Bill Self, and two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich.


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