The Phoenix Suns’ 5 best NBA All-Star Weekend moments

Isaiah Thomas is set to represent the Phoenix Suns in the 2015 Taco Bell Skills Challenge on Saturday.

Feb 14, 2015, 2:30 PM Updated: Feb 15, 2015, 2:18 am

Isaiah Thomas was knocked out in the first round of the 2015 Taco Bell Skills Challenge during State Farm All-Star Saturday Night.

Nonetheless, the Phoenix Suns have a track record of success in that event, along with other competitions held the day before the actual All-Star game.

Here’s a look back at the Suns’ five finest All-Star moments that didn’t occur during the game itself.

5. Amar’e Stoudemire, 2005 Slam Dunk Contest

The Hawks’ Josh Smith won the ’05 dunk contest, but Stoudemire’s dunk off the head of teammate Steve Nash won the night.

Soccer is Nash’s second love, and it showed when he delivered an alley-oop header to Stoudemire that led to a spectacular jam in Denver a decade ago. STAT finished as the runner-up in the ’05 contest.

4. Quentin Richardson, 2005 Three-Point Contest

On the same night Stoudemire shone in the dunk contest, teammate Quentin Richardson connected on each of his last nine attempts in the final round of the annual three-point contest, edging out the 76ers’ Kyle Korver 19-18.

Richardson went on to set a Suns record for most 3-pointers in a single season before being traded to the Knicks after the 2004-05 season.

3. Larry Nance, 1984 Slam Dunk Contest

Four years before he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Kevin Johnson, Nance defeated an NBA legend in the the league’s inaugural dunk competition in Denver.

In just his third NBA season, Nance outperformed Julius Erving in the finals with some incredible jams that set the tone for future dunk contests won by Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins.

2. Steve Nash, 2005 and 2010 Skills Challenge

Nash remains the only two-time Suns champion of any NBA All-Star Weekend event thanks to his skills challenge wins that came half a decade apart.

In 2005, the two-time league MVP completed his final run in 25.8 seconds to beat out the Denver Nuggets’ Earl Boykins. Five years later, Nash edged out the Utah Jazz’s Deron Williams with a time of 29.9 seconds in the finals to add another piece of hardware to his trophy case.

1. Cedric Ceballos, 1992 Slam Dunk Contest

It was one of the most creative dunks the world had ever seen — but the guy doing the dunking (supposedly) didn’t see it.

In his final dunk of the ’92 contest in Orlando, Ceballos — with some assistance from teammate Dan Majerle — donned a blindfold, ran the length of the court and performed a dunk without the benefit of sight. It was enough to beat out the Charlotte Hornets’ Larry Johnson in the finals and secure the Suns’ second slam dunk championship.

But come on — was Ceballos really blind during that dunk? We’ll likely never now. After the contest, when reporters requested to inspect the blindfold, Majerle said it had mysteriously gone missing.