I hope you enjoyed All-Star Weekend as much as I did. After that three-day experience, my mind is swimming with thoughts about various moments from all of the events that took place in The Six. Here they are in as organized a fashion as I can put them:
NBA ALL-STAR CELEBRITY GAME
The game was harmless fun, as it should be. My girlfriend called Kevin Hart's return to the court a mile away. Thankfully he was awful enough that he didn't even sniff a chance at the MVP. Kevin getting the MVP award again would have been the only thing that made me hate this game. I still like Kevin Hart and enjoyed him all weekend, but that would have been a bit much. I'm happy for the actual MVP, Arcade Fire's Win Butler. It sucks that people seemed to not know who he was even though this was his second celebrity game and his band is a Grammy-winning outfit that has been around for 15 years.
I also feel bad for Win that his acceptance speech got cut short there at the end by Sage. However, I do think Sage - and by extension the producers that were most likely in her ear- were in the right for what they did, despite doing it awkwardly. Considering how Win started off, I'm sure I would have agreed with the statement he was trying to make. But there's no denying that politics in general is a divisive topic, no matter what you're discussing. Nobody's trying to hear that stuff at the end of a goofy celebrity basketball game that is already bleeding 14 minutes into the next live event. I'm sure Win will, if he hasn't already, find better avenues to stress the point he wanted to make before being cut short, but that specific moment just wasn't the right time. But that's in the past, congrats to Win on your MVP!
I missed the Rising Stars Challenge, but I saw it was a high-scoring game that saw Zach Lavine take home the MVP. Who knew those two things would serve as harbingers for the coming days.
D-LEAGUE DUNK CONTEST
I tuned in with the intention of watching the D-League All-Star Game. I happened to come in at halftime, just as they were about to start the dunk contest.
Out of the six participants, I remembered four of them from their college days: Lemon, Sykes, Threatt, and Tokoto. I wasn't surprised Tokoto and Sykes were there. I was surprised to see Walt Lemon in the mix, but was glad he was there.
My two favorite dunks came from the guys I didn't know: DJ Stephens and John Jordan. Stephens in particular did a dunk where he slowly walked under the basket and exploded up for a behind-the-legs jam. I liked because he walked so casually towards the bucket, as if there was a chance he was going to survey the hoop and decide to forfeit: "Nah, no thanks, I can't reach up there. I'm out". Oh, but he could. John Jordan was overall amazing. He's my height, but has trampoline hops. He had an amazing display of athleticism and absolutely deserved the title.
SKILLS CHALLENGE
I figured the Skills Challenge was going to be fun for the comedic value of the bigs struggling with the obstacle course. The challenge turned out to be truly entertaining, all the way down to Karl-Anthony Towns's challenge-clinching three. I saw how the architect(s) envisioned their course to be run the way Towns and Isaiah Thomas weaved and finessed their way through. They nailed the format this year. Hopefully they keep it this way in the coming years.
THREE-POINT SHOOTOUT
The skit between Draymond Green and Kevin Hart was a fun thing. I like the fact that despite the tie, Draymond got a big ol' trophy while Kevin got a ribbon. While that result would have played out regardless, I do think it was funnier that they didn't for the tie, and it would have been morbidly hilarious if they still gave Draymond the trophy after the loss.
For the actual contest itself, the drama was intense throughout. I loved how it came down to the final rack to determine the winner of the contest. The way the Shootout is set up, it always has that inherent tension. This was another year that didn't disappoint.
SLAM DUNK CONTEST
Aaron Gordon got hosed. I really think the dunk contest judges should be players that have been in the dunk contest couple with the fan vote they did in the late early part of this decade. This batch of judges were annoying to say the least
At least Gordon's dunks will be immortalized, as opposed to the focus on who won. Everyone loved the sitting dunk, but my favorite was the Lazy Susan dunk. When Stuff came out on the hoverboard I rolled my eyes. Once Stuff started rotating, that's when my eyes widened. It's like being bemused with an average-looking obstacle course, and then having your jaw drop when someone flips a switch and there are flames around everything: degree of difficulty raised.
Even though I thought Gordon should have won, Lavine was amazing in his own right. And I really like the tribute he gave to the late Flip Saunders on Instagram after the win. If Gordon wasn't going to win, at least it went to a dunker and person as great as Zach Lavine. I hope they both come back next year.
ALL-STAR GAME
Sting put on a good performance, but considering how the NBA just seems to be more of a rap-and-pop league, it was a bit out of place. Walk the Moon, whom I enjoy very much, seemed a bit out of place too, but only because their performance seemed a bit subdued. But I didn't mind, and I'm open to whoever else they bring out in future years. The intro performance by Cirque du Soleil was epic, and Ne-Yo and Nelly did good with their respective country's anthems. The acts were good, and seemed to play more of the background to the festivities of the weekend.
I enjoyed the hell out of this game. I wanted the West to get to 200 points, but they sadly ran out of time. As you seen from my Scenarioball game, I love alley-oops and threes, and I got those in spades. They're like home runs, and not a lot of people get tired of home runs. The only complaints about the lack of defense I've seen from my corner of the world are from three ESPN personalities: Chris Broussard, Max Bretos, and Jonathan Coachman. Bah humbug to them! This game was fun! I'll admit I was surprised that the defense didn't ramp up in the 4th, but once the points and highlights kept piling up, that concern went away. This is an exhibition game! This is The World's Greatest Pickup Game! Why would you want to see defense?
Now it's Monday - and a Happy President's Day to you! I leave the weekend smiling at the memories of the last few days. I'm sure I'm going to remember a lot of those great moments for the rest of my life. But now it's time to look towards the fun that is yet to be had: the trade deadline, the end of the season, and of course the playoffs. Will anyone be traded by Thursday? Will the Warriors break the record? So many questions left to answer in this 2015-16 campaign.
But we'll always have Toronto.
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