NBA All-Star Game
NBA All-Star logo courtesy of the official All-Star Twitter (@NBAAllStar) and used under fair use
All-Star Weekend took place in New Orleans this past weekend. The All-Star game was played on Friday Feb. 19, with the Rising Stars game and the celebrity game taking place on Friday. Fans were thrilled to see the famous YouTube sensation Brandon Armstrong “BdotAdot” put his flashy moves up against other well known faces such as Jason Williams. Both games were exciting and warmed fans up for the future games.
Saturday is when the skills challenge, three point contest and dunk contest occurred. The skills challenge was a mix of centers and guards going head-to-head trying to complete passes and hit jump shots. The winner of the skills challenge was New York Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis. Many weren’t surprised by the final result because Porzingis is known for executing moves that are foreign to centers.
Next, viewers shot right to the three point contest. The three point contest winner was quite unexpected, straying from the predicted victors Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving. Houston rockets shooter Eric Gordon managed to seal the deal against Kyrie Irving in the final round.
“I put money on Klay and he choked,” junior Anthony Ahari said.
The highlight of the contest was at the end when they called upon celebrities like DJ Khaled and Michael B. Jordan to shoot shots to donate to Craig Sager’s foundation. The celebrities managed to get about $100,000 off of three point shots.
“This was one of the worst dunk contests,” junior Matthew Carpin said.
Most thought Aaron Gordon would seek revenge and pull out a win this year. However, he came up short when he attempted a “Drone Dunk” that took him 5 shots. Pacers guard Glenn Robinson III took the show away with his “In between the legs over three people” (including Pacers small forward Paul George) move. Predicted dunk contest winner, power forward Aaron Gordon later said in an interview “Third time’s a charm.” He implied his return for a third year to take the contest into his own hands.
Lastly, the most anticipated event was the actual All-Star game. East vs. West went head-to-head and put on quite the show. The talk of the night surrounded Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook and Golden State Warriors Kevin Durant playing on the same team after parting ways the previous season. A few minutes after tip-off, Russell was subbed into the game. Kevin Durant was already in the game and probably could feel all the eyes on him and Russell. On the next play, the unthinkable occurred, Russell passed to Durant to receive the ball back for an alley-oop. The crowd applauded as they walked towards the bench, and everyone was shocked yet happy.
As the game commenced, East’s Giannis Antetokounmpo managed to score 30 in his first All-Star appearance. Yet that wasn’t enough to stop the West’s Russell Westbrook scoring 31 and Anthony Davis scoring a record-setting with 52 points. The West managed to get buckets after buckets and win 192-182.
The weekend was exciting for all fans and drew many in who don’t normally watch due to its various events. Next year’s All-Star Weekend will take place in Los Angeles and more plan to attend due to this year’s excitement.
