Wemby, Paul DQ’d from Skills Challenge for skirting shooting rules
SAN FRANCISCO — Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul‘s bid at winning the NBA’s Skills Challenge crown on All-Star Saturday night ended promptly when San Antonio’s star duo was disqualified for not even trying to make real attempts on their shots.
The controversy erupted after Wembanyama and Paul were disqualified for trying to cheat the rules in the obstacle course that features players speeding through stations with various passing and shooting drills.
The two players had gone first in the opening round and were loudly booed by the crowd for failing to make even real attempts on their shots, just tossing the balls off the racks. They were ultimately disqualified.
According to ESPN Research, the shot-attempt format for the Skills Challenge involves a player completing shots from three separate locations in a sequential order, advancing from each shot location after either a make or three valid shot attempts.
With the disqualification, Paul has now gone six times in the Skills Challenge without a win, and his six appearances are two more than any other player and twice as many as any player all-time besides retired Spurs legend Tony Parker, per ESPN Research.
Cleveland duo Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell teamed up to eventually knock off hometown heroes Moses Moody and Draymond Green to win the competition.
The Cavaliers went first in the final round and raced through the course in 1 minute, 0.3 seconds as Mobley and Mitchell easily made almost all of their shots from three spots on the floor on their first attempt.
Moody made it through the first round easily for the Golden State’s duo but Green missed all three chest passes and struggled to make his shots. He couldn’t even make it to the final two stations before time ran out to match the time set by Cleveland.
The rookie team of Atlanta’s Zaccharie Risacher and Washington’s Alex Sarr were also eliminated in the first round with their time of 1:20.6 ending up 1.2 seconds behind the Cavaliers.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Source: espn.com