I watched every single event in this year’s All-Star Weekend, which was hosted by the Golden State Warriors. And well, some were better than others. Today, I will be recapping every single All-Star Weekend event, and giving my thoughts on how they turned out.
Event 1: All-Star Celebrity Game
This game was, well, rather boring. Team Bonds defeated Team Rice by a score of 66-55. Team Bonds’ roster included Kai Cenat, Baron Davis, Rome Flynn, Allisha Gray, Mickey Guyton, Tucker Halpern, Noah Kahan, Danny Ramirez, Masai Russell, Pablo Schreiber, and Dylan Wang. Team Rice’s roster included Matt Barnes, Bayley, Chris Brickley, AP Dhillon, Druski, Walker Hayes, Shelby Mcewen, Terrell Owens, Shaboozey, Oliver Stark, and Kayla Thornton. Rome Flynn was named the MVP, who tallied 22 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal. Other than this and a few flashy dunks from Shelby McEwen, this game consisted of a lot of airballs and missed shots. It was nice to see Kai Cenat and Druski get some points, however. I also enjoyed watching the segment where every foul put somebody in the penalty box. It was a 3v2 at one point which I enjoyed.
Event 2: Rising Stars
I enjoyed watching the Rising Stars games. It is good to see promising young players show what they can do, and all the games were competitive. Not to mention, watching the G League team’s first-round upset was quite a surprise. Team T which was coached by Tim Hardaway consisted of Brandin Podziemski, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Gradey Dick, Anthony Black, Zacchaire Risacher, Alex Sarr, and Tristan da Silva. Team M, which was coached by Mitch Richmond, consisted of Amen Thompson, Ausar Thompson, Bilal Coulibaly, Toumani Camara, Bub Carrington, Julian Strawther, and Matas Buzelis. Team C, which was coached by Chris Mullin, consisted of Stephon Castle, Dalton Knecht, Jaylen Wells, Keyonte George, Zach Edey, Trayce Jackson-Davis, and Ryan Dunn. Team G League, which was coached by Jeramy Lin, consisted of JD Davidson, Mac McClung, Bryce McGowens, Leonard Miller, Dink Pate, Reed Sheppard, and Pat Spencer. Games 1 and 2 were played until one team got to 40 points, then the final game was played until a team got up to 25 points. Game 1 was Team C vs. Team T, where Team C won by a score of 40 to 34. Game 2 was Team M vs. Team G League where Team G League pulled off the surprising win by a score of 40 to 39. Then Game 3 was Team C vs. Team G League where Team M won by a score of 25 to 14. Stephon Castle was named Rising Stars MVP, and Team C then moved on to play Team OGs in the first round of the All-Star Games. Again, I thought these games were fun, and it was cool to see Stephon Castle ball out.
Event 3: Skills Challenge
The Skills Challenge was not very exciting. Usually, they do it where there are different games each team plays, but this time it was just the one obstacle course. There were 4 teams, and the 2 teams with the worst score got eliminated after the first round, and then the top 2 teams ran the obstacle course again, and whoever had the faster time won. There were 4 teams of 2, which were Team Cavs, which consisted of Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, Team Rooks,s which consisted of Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr, Team Spurs, which consisted of Chris Paul and Victor Wmebenyama, and Team Warriors, which consisted of Draymond Green and Moses Moody. Team Spurs was eliminated in a controversial matter, having the fastest time in the first round, but getting disqualified as at the spots where they had to shoot they simply tossed the ball instead of making a legitimate attempt at making a basket. Team Rooks was the other team eliminated in the first round with a time of 1:40:6. Team Cavs had a first-round time of 1:20:6 while Team Warriors had a time of 1:10:4. In the second round, team Cavaliers won with a time of 1:00:3. Again there was nothing really exciting about this as the teams simply ran through the same obstacle course twice. But, congrats to Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley.
Event 4: 3-Point Contest
The 3-point contest is a classic event during All-Star weekend. Damian Lillard was attempting to be the first person to ever three-peat in the contest. The contestants were Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyler Herro, Buddy Hield, Cam Johnson, Damian Lillard, and Norman Powell. The way the contest works is each player shoots 5 shots in each of the 5 main 3-point locations (corners, wings, and top of the key). Each ball made counts as 1 point, except for the last ball in each rank which counts as 2. Each player gets to choose 1 location as their “money-rank”, where each shot is worth 2 points. There are also 2 Starry 3-point locations which are deeper than the regular 3-pointer. If you make that then it is 3 points. The top 3 shooters with the most points move on to the final round, and whoever scores the most points is the winner. The scores of the first round were as follows: Norman Powell 14, Cam Johnson 14, Cade Cunningham 16, Damian Lillard 18, Jalen Brunson 18, Tyler Herro 19, Darius Garland 24, Buddy Hield 31. Herro Garland and Hield then moved on to the final round, where Garland put up a score of 19, Hield a score of 23, and Tyler Herro a winning score of 24. This contest is always fun to watch, and congrats to Tyler Herro for winning.
Event 5: Dunk Contest
There was a stretch where the Dunk Contest was not very enjoyable. No true superstars wanted to do it as there was no monetary incentive, and it was getting worse and worse each year. That was until Mac McClung came along and completely revived the dunk contest, and did not disappoint this year. The contestants in this year’s dunk contest were Mac McClung, Stephon Castle, Andre Jackson Jr., and Matas Buzelis. The way it worked was that each player had 2 minutes to make their flashy dunk, and then the judges would score the dunk. The scores would get averaged out, and this would come out to be the score of the dunk. Each player got 2 dunks, and the 2 dunkers with the highest combined score of both their dunks moved on to the final round, where they would have another 2 dunks. Whoever had the highest score would be the winner. What was interesting this year was that the fans could put their scores in for each dunk on the NBA app and this was counted towards the overall score, which I very much enjoyed doing. Matas Buzelis was the first to dunk in round 1, and he did not make a single dunk, giving him the lowest possible score of 40. Next was Andre Jackson Jr., who was running out of time so he did a rather simple 2-handed slam, awarding him a score of 43.8. Next was Stephon Castle, who did a very nice reverse windmill, giving him a score of 47.2. Then went Mac McClung, who did an insane dunk where he jumped over a car, grabbed the ball from someone standing in the car, and then finished a reverse slam. This insane feat awarded him a 50 and was extremely exciting to watch. Round 2 started with Montas Buzelis, who caught a pass off the backboard and then did a reverse slam. This dunk was solid, awarding him a 47.4, bringing his total score to an 87.4. Next was Andre Jackson Jr., who again was initially struggling to get his dunk. He settled for a simple windmill, giving him a score of 45, bringing his total score to an 88.8. Next was Castle, who caught a pass off the backboard and then did a reverse slam. This got him a score of a 47.8, bringing his total score to 95. Next was McClung, who jumped over a person holding the ball, grabbed it, did a 180 twist then dunked the ball. This gave him another 50, bringing his total score to 100. Castle and McClung moved on to the final round. Castle started things off by catching a made shot after it went in, going in between the legs, and dunking it. This dunk was also insanely cool, giving him a score of 49.6. It was then McClung’s turn again. He had one person standing under the rim holding a ball while spinning, and another person standing on a ladder above the rim with another ball. He jumped over the spinning guy, grabbed the ball, then grabbed the other ball off the ladder and dunked them both. This was insane, and another 50. Castle’s final dunk was a 360 behind the back, which gave him a 50. McClung’s final dunk was him jumping over Cavaliers’ star Evan Mobley who was standing on a step, grabbing the ball, hitting it off the front rim, then dunking it. This gave him another 50, making him the first person to three-peat the dunk contest. Watching McClung dunk is always super fun, and I think I speak for all NBA fans when I say I hope he does it again. Castle also performed very well, so I hope he returns.
Event 6: All-Star Game
The All-Star game was very disappointing. In 3 hours of coverage, only 40 minutes of it was basketball being played. There were 80 minutes worth of ads, which was very annoying, and then the rest was Kevin Hart. I will admit Hart is funny, but I’d rather watch basketball at the All-Star game than one of his comedy shows. I was also not a fan of the format, which was tournament style like the Rising Stars games. I wish it were its regular format where they played one 4 quarter game instead of trying to reach a target score in 3 different games. 4 teams were competing in this tournament style. Team Young Stars, which was coached by Kenny Smith, had Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards (who did not play), Darius Garland, Tyler Herro, Jaren Jackson Jr., Evan Mobley, and Jalen Williams. Team Global Stars, which Charles Barkley coached, had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Donovan Mitchell, Alperen Sengun, Pascal Siakam, Karl-Anthony Towns, Victor Wembenyama, Trae Young, and Giannis Antetokounmpo (who did not play). Then there was Team OG which was coached by Shaquille O’Neal who had Jaylen Brown, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Lebron James (who did not play), Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, and Anthony Davis (who did not play). Finally, the Rising Stars Tournament winner Team C, which was coached by Candace Parker. Game 1 was Team Young Stars vs. Team Global Stars. Global Stars won by a score of 41-32. Game 2 was Team Rising Stars vs. Team OG. Team OG won by a score of 42-35. Then the final game of the Tournament was Team OG vs. Team Global Stars, where Team OG won the tournament, beating Chuck’s team by a score of 41-25. Stephen Curry won MVP, which was cool to see as he was the home representative. Again, I did not love this format, and there were way too many commercials. I did think though that the intensity level was higher than normal and there was more defense being played, which is a very good sign.
Overall, All-Star weekend had some highs and some lows. I felt the Rising Stars, 3-point Contest, and the Dunk Contest were successes, while the rest got some things to work on. At the end of the day, it’s still basketball, the sport we love. Any basketball is better than no basketball.
