Knicks exec Houston helps win shooting stars

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Knicks executive Allan Houston hit a pair of half-court shots to lead Team New York to victory in the NBA All-Star Weekend Shooting Stars competition Saturday night. The former Knicks guard was teamed with current Knicks guard Landry Fields and the Liberty's Cappie Pondexter in the four-team competition.

Houston, 40, last played in the NBA in 2004-05. He attempted a comeback in 2007 with the Knicks but called it off after one preseason game. He still occasionally scrimmages with the team . . .

"Stop it," he said when he was asked if he might want to lace 'em up again for real. "Stop it right now. That was a lot of fun. It feels good to have a uniform again, but that's about the limits of it."

Houston was asked about the emergence of Jeremy Lin while Lin was with Erie of the NBA's Development League. Lin had a triple-double for Erie on Jan. 17; Houston was there in his role as Erie's GM.

"It was a good opportunity because one of the things you want to make sure, if you have an affiliation with the D-League, is you have a coach who's trying to run the same style, same terminology,'' Houston said, "and fortunately, our coach, Jay Larranaga, was doing that."

Jeremy Evans won the Slam Dunk contest, Kevin Love won the three-point shooting contest and Tony Parker took the skills competition.

Kobe on Lin

Kobe Bryant scoffed at the notion that Lin could have fallen through so many cracks. "The biggest thing to me is how everybody missed that," he said. "They would all be fired if I was owning a team. I hear this stuff about how he came out of nowhere . . . You can't play that well and just come out of nowhere. There has to be something there and everybody missed it. So heads would roll."