PHILADELPHIA -- Jason Richardson has a whole new appreciation for Dr. J.

Facing fellow rookie Gerald Wallace of the Sacramento Kings in the finals of the NBA's slam dunk contest, the Golden State Warriors guard had to duplicate Julius Erving's signature dunk -- his takeoff from the free-throw line and one-hand slam. Wallace got the dunk down with a step just inside the foul line. Richardson took two shots at it, missing it the first time and barely getting the ball down the second.

	Richardson ended up with the three highest-scoring dunks of the night.

"I only practiced that once and I got it down twice," Richardson said. "This time, I couldn't get a grip on the ball like I wanted to. I don't know. I'm not a one-legged jumper anyways. I'm just glad it went in and I got some points for it."

Richardson got more than enough points to beat Wallace with his second and final dunk. Needing a 45 to win, Richardson came through with a twisting, reverse, two-hand slam that brought the First Union Center crowd out of their seats. Richardson received a 49 to defeat Wallace 85-80.

Before the winning dunk, Richardson got some words of encouragement from Philadelphia 76ers star guard Allen Iverson.

"He just told me to put it down, that's all," Richardson said. "Everybody wanted to see another windmill, but I got tired of doing windmills for the night so I tried something different."

The league tried something new, reducing the field from eight to four and adding a new copy-the-greats round akin to a TV game show.

For one of their dunks, contestants had to spin a wheel listing Erving, Dominique Wilkins, Michael Jordan and dunking greats of the 1980s and '90s. Players watched video tape of a classic dunk, then had to duplicate it.

Richardson knocked out defending champ Desmond Mason of Seattle in the first round with an exact copy of Wilkins' trademark windmill slam for a perfect score of 50. Richardson, who recorded the three highest scores (48, 50 and 49), easily defeated Mason 98-84.

"I think it was pretty cool," said Richardson of the new format. "A couple of hard dunks were on there. I don't think too many people can do a 360 off one leg."

That dunk -- by Terrence Stansbury -- was too tough for Houston's Steve Francis, who got booed for not copying the dunk. Wallace barely threw the ball down himself, winning the round 84-77 to set up the showdown with Richardson.

The dunk title capped a busy Saturday for Richardson, who also won the Rookie Challenge's most valuable player award in the afternoon with a game-high 26 points.

"I was trying to approach it as a business-like trip," said Richardson, the fifth overall pick of the 2001 draft. "But I still had a lot of fun."

However, his biggest thrill was winning the approval of the Doctor himself.

"It's a great feeling, winning a dunk contest in front of a legend like him," Richardson said of Erving, who judged each dunk along with fellow Sixers great Darryl Dawkins, George Gervin, Kenny Smith and voters on the Internet. "He invented (dunking), all the free throw lines and stuff like that. It was a great deal for me."

Joe Lago is an NBA editor for ESPN.com.