James Jones = 3-Point Champ
From Michael Wallace of ESPN.com | Watch Highlights of 3-Point Contest
LOS ANGELES — Miami Heat forward James Jones came to All-Star Weekend focused on negotiating a new labor agreement in his role as secretary-treasurer of the players’ union.
He got far more work done with his 3-point stroke. Jones capped his two-year journey from wrist surgery that left his career in jeopardy to 3-point shootout champion Saturday when he held off Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to become the third Heat player to win the title in five years.
“It’s a dream come true for me,” Jones said. “I put in a lot of hard work to get this opportunity. And you just want to represent your team and yourself as well as you can. It feels good.”
Jones got 15 points in the first round to advance, then scored 20 in the finals to hold off the two stars from the rival Boston Celtics. Jones is the fourth Heat player to win the 3-point competition and extends an odd-year trend that has seen Jason Kapono win it in Las Vegas in 2007 and Daequan Cook take the title in Phoenix in 2009.
It was an emotional victory for Jones, who defeated one of his idols in Allen and also won the shootout in front of another mentor in Reggie Miller, who worked as the television analyst for the competition.
But Saturday’s performance was especially meaningful for Jones because it validates his place among the league’s top 3-point shooters after his surgery setback just months after he signed a free-agent deal with his hometown Heat in 2008.
“As a shooter, to have that injury, my walls came crashing down,” Jones said. “So it’s redemption to me, to be labeled as one of the best shooters in this game.”
