NBA All Star Weekend Full Recap

The 2017 NBA All Star Weekend is behind us and the season will resume. I think it is fair to say this season’s all star weekend was not as exciting as fans would have liked, however when you look back at the winners of the events the underdog victory seemed to be a recurring theme. Who doesn’t like that? Let’s breakdown the whole weekend, beyond just the events.

Skills Challenge

The skills challenge certainly had its ups and downs. For a start, the obstacle course itself was horrible. Players had to run down the court going through cones, make a pass through a hole, run down and make a layup and then run back and shoot a three. It was definitely nothing special and took all of a minute and a half to complete. The matchups themselves were exciting for the fans. From the start, guys like Isaiah Thomas, John Wall and Gordon Hayward all stood out as likely winners with Kristaps Porzingis and DeMarcus Cousins sitting as sleepers due to their all around talent despite their size. John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins were bounced first round leaving IT4, Gordon Hayward, Porzingis and Nikola Jokic. This round was a good one. Gordon Hayward beat out Isaiah Thomas and The Unicorn also advanced setting the finals. I’m sure everyone watching figured Hayward had this in the bag. To be fair he had to get by John Wall and Isaiah Thomas while Kristaps had an easy path consisting of Boogie and Jokic. Both Hayward and Porzingis ran down the court, made their first pass attempt, hit their layups at almost the same time with Hayward being slightly ahead and got to the three point line together. Porzingis knocked down his first three while Hayward’s was a little long, crowning Knick’s star Kristaps Porzingis the champ.

Overall Entertainment Rating: 7/10

Three Point Contest

Overall I don’t have any complaints about this contest. It was one of the better events at All Star Weekend. With that being said, we saw some of the worst performances ever. Super star point guard Kyle Lowry connected for only 9 points, CJ McCollum upped him by 1 and Wesley Matthews upped McCollum by 1. Klay Thompson choked away what could’ve been a second straight win much like he choked away a 3-1 lead. To advance to the finals he only had to get 20 points which he fell short of by 2 points, trying with Laker’s Nick Young. Klay was hot to start but froze up and showed no sign of life on his last two racks. Poor guy. Eric Gordon paved the way with 25 points followed by Kyrie Irving with 20 and Kemba Walker with 19. The final round was fun to watch though there was not necessarily a whole lot of shots going down. Walker had just 17 points and Kyrie tied with Gordon at 20 forcing an overtime round. Kyrie was able to muster 18 points while Gordon had 21 to take home the trophy. Other than the struggles of Lowry, McCollum and Matthews, all the contestants showed up and made this event interesting and fun for the fans.

Overall Entertainment Rating 8/10

Dunk Contest

I’m not going to sugar coat it, this year’s dunk contest was undoubtedly the worst I have ever seen. Where to even begin…

Well, big man Deandre Jordan was in it which wasn’t a great idea but I personally like Deandre so I guess I’ll give the NBA a pat on the back for that, even though it was a horrible move and they deserve nothing but criticism. Jordan did have a decent 360 between the legs dunk though he didn’t connect with the rim for the cleanest dunk possible so congrats to that. The refs were way too generous. I heard rumors that they were wandering the stadium giving people 8’s and 9’s for putting trash into trash cans. Aaron Gordon, the favorite, was awarded a fourth try after missing his first 3 attempts in the first round which I’m pretty sure should not be allowed. We should’ve seen it coming though after they gave Steph 4 extra tries at the $500,000 half court charity shot only to let a child dunk to earn the money which they should’ve done in the first place. Anyways, Gordon missed all of his dunks in the second round and was still awarded 34 points. Derrick Jones Jr. and Glenn Robinson III both had a pair of 50 point dunks which is odd because there was only one memorable dunk in this whole contest. Robinson took home the win, deservingly with the only good dunk of the night. Something has to change in future contests because this year was nothing but a disappointment.

Overall Entertainment Rating: 1/10

Entertainment

John Legend had a great performance at the All Star Game halftime show. Honestly, it was one of the best parts of the entire weekend which isn’t saying much but it was still very solid. We saw way too much of DJ Khaled. He was a prop in the dunk contest and also had a very poor performance on Saturday night. Not to mention he yelled “What’s up Miami” at one point. However, Khaled did somehow manage to knock down a three ball to raise money for charity. Still, his jump shot form made me sick to my stomach. Nick Cannon got some air time and though his outfit was strange he is always entertaining. James Harden was also rocking a ridiculous outfit but come on, who did not expect that? Overall, the celebrity hype was not as big as past years and not nearly as big as it could be although Beyonce was in attendance. Add it to the list of things to be fixed.

All Star Game

The last event of All Star Weekend was of course, the game. With controversy surrounding the voting, the game was pretty solid for what it is. When you have the top players in the league taking the ball up the court with no defense, the game tends to be boring to the average NBA fan. However I find it exciting to see the league’s super stars throwing each other off the backboard alley oops, hitting 5 threes in a row, showing off their handles and having a good time. The West took home the win with a score of 192 to 182. There were some major stories from the game though. Anthony Davis beat Wilt Chamberlain’s record of most points in an all star game by dropping 52 on his home court. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook teamed up for an alley oop pass and a monster slam dunk. Durant had the only triple double in the game. Westbrook put up 41 points with the help of 7 three balls. Celtic’s Isaiah Thomas had 20 points in just 19 minutes of action though he did fail on his lone attempt at dunking off his own bounce pass. Kyrie Irving went 6 of 8 from downtown scoring 22 while also dishing out 14 assists. The Greek Freak scored 30 points and had more than a few rim rattling dunks. It was also nice to see Melo swish a couple three pointers. Deandre Jordan bricked some threes but made up for it with a put back dunk over Steph Curry. And even Steph got in on the fun by throwing down a dunk. Overall, it was a great game that showed off how talented the league really is. We are definitely lucky to be getting to witness arguably the NBA’s most talented era.

Overall Entertainment Rating: 9/10

Overview

This weekend had good and bad events. It ended with DeMarcus Cousins being told he was traded during his post all star game interview (but that’s a story for another day). The bad events were absolutely disgusting (dunk contest, musical performances) however the good events (all star game, 3 point contest) seemed to make watching worth it for the most part. Though it was not that bad of an All Star Weekend, it certainly could have been better and has been much better in the past.

Overall Weekend Rating: 6.5/10