Team Chicago’s Candace Dupree, Scottie Pippen (33) and Ben Gordon celebrate after thinking they won the Shooting Stars competition. Photos by K.M. Cannon. Former Detroit Pistons star Bill Laimbeer, left, and Swin Cash of the WNBA’s Detroit Shock celebrate Saturday after Pistons guard Chauncey Billups made a half-court shot in the final round of the Shooting Stars competition. The Detroit team won after Chicago was disqualified for shooting out of order.

Controversy marred the NBA Shooting Stars competition during All-Star Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. Not surprisingly, Bill Laimbeer was in the middle of it.

Unlike in his playing days, the former Detroit Pistons' Bad Boy did not cause the stir. Instead, Laimbeer and his Team Detroit teammates Chauncey Billups and Swin Cash were the beneficiaries of the referees' decision to disqualify Team Chicago in the finals.

The Bulls' Ben Gordon shot out of turn, leading to Chicago's disqualification despite the team completing the six required shots in 47.6 seconds. Team Detroit, which finished in 50.5 seconds, was declared the champion. Billups, Cash and Laimbeer will split $45,000.

"We all saw it," Billups said of the mishap in which Candace Dupree of the WNBA's Chicago Sky never make her baseline jump shot because Gordon rushed his requisite 3-pointer. "Bill, he's an animal out there. He's yelling at the refs ... he's crazy. But you can tell his passion to win."

Gordon said the blame for the disqualification falls on him.

"It's my fault," he said. "I had an itchy trigger finger. We got a little confused.

"But we definitely had their number. I blame the refs. They should have stopped it and straightened everything out. They were sleeping. They didn't come ready to ref."

Gordon might have had a point. Twice there were clock malfunctions as teams had two minutes to complete their rotation. In the first round, both Chicago and Team Los Angeles were allowed additional time after the clock stopped at one minute. The referees had to go to the TV monitor and review what happened before resetting the clock.

In Los Angeles' case, it didn't matter as former Laker Michael Cooper missed 15 straight shots from the top of the key before finally making one and allowing the rotation to continue. But it took the full two minutes to complete the six shots and Los Angeles failed to advance.

Defending champion San Antonio didn't get any help from its legend as former Spur George Gervin encountered similar problems. They came up short, taking 1:31 to finish.

That left it up to Detroit, which had a first-round time of 1:06, and Chicago, which finished its first round in 48.9 seconds.

Detroit went first in the finals, and Billups hit from half court, the final required shot, to complete the circuit in 50.5 seconds. Chicago was on track to win until the mishap with Gordon and Dupree. It denied former Bulls star Scottie Pippen a chance for some bragging rights against his old adversary Laimbeer.

"It was fun," Pippen said. "But it would've been more fun had we won."

Laimbeer, who coaches Cash with the WNBA's Detroit Shock, got the last laugh.

"It was explained very clearly to us that you can't touch the basketball until the person is finished shooting," Laimbeer said. "They didn't listen hard enough."