Even though this isn't a full season we, the NBA audience, still received a full slate of events at All-Star Weekend in Orlando. There were ups, there were downs, there was dancing, there music and although I think he's great, there was too damn much Kevin Hart. If you didn't get a chance to see everything, this is the post for you, and if you did see everything, let's relive the weekend together, shall we?FRIDAY NIGHT
Celebrity Game
The celebrity game was actually kind of entertaining this year. Despite there being a huge blowout, no Justin Beiber and Kevin Hart dominating the spotlight the entire time, the C-List was shining and there were a lot of pluses to this game. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and ESPN personality Doug Gottlieb showed some actual impressive and entertaining basketball skill.
Grade: B
Rising Stars Challenge
As you probably know, this was not your older brother's Rookies v. Sophomores Rising Star challenge. The NBA decided to borrow an idea from the NHL and add a new twist to the event with Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley drafted from a pool of all the first and second year players who would participate in the event. Team Chuck really surprised me. Coming in everyone I was watching with was talking about how Team Shaq had all the big names and talent, but let me put this is CAPS so the point is well taken, KYRIE IRVING IS LEGIT. Didn't miss from beyond the arc. Perfect 8-for-8.
As far as the entertaiment factor goes, Ricky Rubio was my MVP. Some of his passes were just a beauty to watch, and he had one Cousy-esque fake that sent me into a man-crush fit. And he dribbled through my boy Boogie Cousins' legs before throwing a lob to Mr. Lob City himself Blake Griffin, who provided some huge slams both Friday and Sunday night (but none Saturday night, I'll get to that). John Wall also had some highlight dunks and passes that are worth noting. Watch all these highlights here. Love the new draft format. Improvements are being made to this game and I like it.
Grade: B+
SATURDAY NIGHT
Can't say I watched the D-League All-Star game, but I'm a big Gerald Green fan and he won MVP, so an unofficial grade of A+ is in order.
Shooting Stars
This is almost always the most boring event of the night. Current pros are sort of lackluster with their effort and it's really all just about who can make a half-court shot first. On the positive side, it gets more guys involved in the weekend, plus includes some old timers and WNBA players, so it's a thing that should stick around as a decent opener. Still, it just isn't that great of an event.
Grade: C-
Skills Challenge
Skills is a pretty good event, but much like Shooting Stars players are clearly not giving it their all and basically just going through the motions. Plus, it's repetitive. They need to get a couple different course combinations in there and maybe some moving targets. Because what happens in that event that you can talk about the next day? Nothing. everybody in the event does the same thing, just slower or faster. Props to Tony Parker on the win.
Grade: C
Three-Point Contest
Some people were underwhelmed by the participants in this one, but not me. This had everything someone could want in a shootout. Two big names (Durant, Love) a home town guy (Anderson), a guy making a Drazen Petrovic shout-out and some other great chuckers. And this one came down to the wire! Ended on a tie forcing a one-on-one shoot-off, and that wasn't the only shoot-off of the contest. The favorite was defeated by an unorthodox winner and everyone went home happy. Congrats to Kevin Love and all the participants.
Grade: A
Slam Dunk
Woof. The NBA basically took everything I hate about recent dunk contests and put them under a high-powered microscope. First, no judges. All fan voting. Terrible. Luckily there weren't any players that the average fan recognizes so it didn't force a particular outcome like it did with Blake and Nate Robinson among others. If any notable name was involved the Slam Dunk would have been decided before it started. Which leads to another problem. No big names. Has anyone actually ever been injured during All-Star Saturday night? What is stopping the big stars from doing this? Jordan did it. Dominique Wilkins did it. Clyde the Glide did it. Kobe did it. What's the big deal nowadays? Can I just get LeBron, Blake, John Wall and Russell Westbrook in this event so we can have some actual excitement towards this thing?
And could this thing get any more scripted? I don't want to listen to Kenny Smith talk for five minutes before every single dunk. Do we really have to have an interview with Diddy asking him what his favorite basketball movie is? So that he can say White Men Can't Jump conveniently directly before Chase Budinger starts us off? And was Jeremy Evans really wondering who was on that jersey that was delivered by Kevin Hart dressed as a mail man? Are there writers for this event? If so, these players that participate need to take some acting classes. Evans' two ball dunk was the only thing that keeps this Slam Dunk competition from getting a big fat F. At least America got the fan voting right for the first time in history.
Grade: D
2012 NBA All-Star Game
Great. Awesome. Fantastic. The first half was what it's supposed to be, a highlight show (Here is a bunch of .gifs of All-Star highlights, just keep scrolling down). Westbrook, LeBron, Griffin among others throwing down big time. It seems like every player you expected something from gave it in that first half, the only problem was, the West was up huge at the half, so it the second half could have ended up a highlight reel as well. But luckily, LeBron James didn't feel like losing.
In most All-Star Games it starts getting competitive with about five minutes to go, if it's close. But LeBron started going to work early in the third. And he was hitting everything. Even if you're not a James fan, like myself, you had to appreciate what was going on there. Bron Bron goes off, the East comes back, and we have a storybook finish to the 2012 All-Star Game resulting in the new baby-face poster boy of the NBA, Kevin Durant, leading his West team to victory and getting the MVP.
Grade: A+
Other Stuff
-- The musical performances were cringe-worthy. I understand that you're trying to bring in viewers you wouldn't normally get, but try not to piss off your audience next time, NBA. When Nicki Minaj came out for her third song of the intro segment, was there any NBA fan thinking, "YES..."? I highly doubt it. Makes me wonder what Bill Russell is thinking when that's going on. Or Larry Bird if he ever went to one of those things. Can't you just play the game?
-- How did Dwight Howard not get booed at all? Did he, and I just didn't hear it? You do know he requested a trade and is leaving your team in the dust next season, don't you, Orlando?
-- I wish they could have involved more retired players in the 1992 Dream Team tribute, but that was still pretty cool.
Anything I missed? Tweet me @James_Bucklin
The celebrity game was actually kind of entertaining this year. Despite there being a huge blowout, no Justin Beiber and Kevin Hart dominating the spotlight the entire time, the C-List was shining and there were a lot of pluses to this game. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and ESPN personality Doug Gottlieb showed some actual impressive and entertaining basketball skill.
Gottlieb played at Oklahoma State and Notre Dame as well as the Russian Basketball Super League, so you knew he was going to be a ringer. He even administered a full court press on Ne-Yo! And we saw what Duncan can do in last year's game, but this year the two blew up and really caught my eye with some flashy moves and great team play. Kevin Hart was pretty funny, and when he got tossed from the game after throwing his shoe he locked up the MVP award right there. I was also happy to see that Michael Rappaport was not playing this year, because he annoys me, but was upset when they had him in the broadcast booth for what seemed like an eternity.
Grade: B
Rising Stars Challenge
As you probably know, this was not your older brother's Rookies v. Sophomores Rising Star challenge. The NBA decided to borrow an idea from the NHL and add a new twist to the event with Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley drafted from a pool of all the first and second year players who would participate in the event. Team Chuck really surprised me. Coming in everyone I was watching with was talking about how Team Shaq had all the big names and talent, but let me put this is CAPS so the point is well taken, KYRIE IRVING IS LEGIT. Didn't miss from beyond the arc. Perfect 8-for-8.
As far as the entertaiment factor goes, Ricky Rubio was my MVP. Some of his passes were just a beauty to watch, and he had one Cousy-esque fake that sent me into a man-crush fit. And he dribbled through my boy Boogie Cousins' legs before throwing a lob to Mr. Lob City himself Blake Griffin, who provided some huge slams both Friday and Sunday night (but none Saturday night, I'll get to that). John Wall also had some highlight dunks and passes that are worth noting. Watch all these highlights here. Love the new draft format. Improvements are being made to this game and I like it.
Grade: B+
SATURDAY NIGHT
Can't say I watched the D-League All-Star game, but I'm a big Gerald Green fan and he won MVP, so an unofficial grade of A+ is in order.
Shooting Stars
This is almost always the most boring event of the night. Current pros are sort of lackluster with their effort and it's really all just about who can make a half-court shot first. On the positive side, it gets more guys involved in the weekend, plus includes some old timers and WNBA players, so it's a thing that should stick around as a decent opener. Still, it just isn't that great of an event.
Grade: C-
Skills Challenge
Skills is a pretty good event, but much like Shooting Stars players are clearly not giving it their all and basically just going through the motions. Plus, it's repetitive. They need to get a couple different course combinations in there and maybe some moving targets. Because what happens in that event that you can talk about the next day? Nothing. everybody in the event does the same thing, just slower or faster. Props to Tony Parker on the win.
Grade: C
Three-Point Contest
Some people were underwhelmed by the participants in this one, but not me. This had everything someone could want in a shootout. Two big names (Durant, Love) a home town guy (Anderson), a guy making a Drazen Petrovic shout-out and some other great chuckers. And this one came down to the wire! Ended on a tie forcing a one-on-one shoot-off, and that wasn't the only shoot-off of the contest. The favorite was defeated by an unorthodox winner and everyone went home happy. Congrats to Kevin Love and all the participants.
Grade: A
Slam Dunk
Woof. The NBA basically took everything I hate about recent dunk contests and put them under a high-powered microscope. First, no judges. All fan voting. Terrible. Luckily there weren't any players that the average fan recognizes so it didn't force a particular outcome like it did with Blake and Nate Robinson among others. If any notable name was involved the Slam Dunk would have been decided before it started. Which leads to another problem. No big names. Has anyone actually ever been injured during All-Star Saturday night? What is stopping the big stars from doing this? Jordan did it. Dominique Wilkins did it. Clyde the Glide did it. Kobe did it. What's the big deal nowadays? Can I just get LeBron, Blake, John Wall and Russell Westbrook in this event so we can have some actual excitement towards this thing?
And could this thing get any more scripted? I don't want to listen to Kenny Smith talk for five minutes before every single dunk. Do we really have to have an interview with Diddy asking him what his favorite basketball movie is? So that he can say White Men Can't Jump conveniently directly before Chase Budinger starts us off? And was Jeremy Evans really wondering who was on that jersey that was delivered by Kevin Hart dressed as a mail man? Are there writers for this event? If so, these players that participate need to take some acting classes. Evans' two ball dunk was the only thing that keeps this Slam Dunk competition from getting a big fat F. At least America got the fan voting right for the first time in history.
Grade: D
2012 NBA All-Star Game
Great. Awesome. Fantastic. The first half was what it's supposed to be, a highlight show (Here is a bunch of .gifs of All-Star highlights, just keep scrolling down). Westbrook, LeBron, Griffin among others throwing down big time. It seems like every player you expected something from gave it in that first half, the only problem was, the West was up huge at the half, so it the second half could have ended up a highlight reel as well. But luckily, LeBron James didn't feel like losing.
In most All-Star Games it starts getting competitive with about five minutes to go, if it's close. But LeBron started going to work early in the third. And he was hitting everything. Even if you're not a James fan, like myself, you had to appreciate what was going on there. Bron Bron goes off, the East comes back, and we have a storybook finish to the 2012 All-Star Game resulting in the new baby-face poster boy of the NBA, Kevin Durant, leading his West team to victory and getting the MVP.
Grade: A+
Other Stuff
-- The musical performances were cringe-worthy. I understand that you're trying to bring in viewers you wouldn't normally get, but try not to piss off your audience next time, NBA. When Nicki Minaj came out for her third song of the intro segment, was there any NBA fan thinking, "YES..."? I highly doubt it. Makes me wonder what Bill Russell is thinking when that's going on. Or Larry Bird if he ever went to one of those things. Can't you just play the game?
-- How did Dwight Howard not get booed at all? Did he, and I just didn't hear it? You do know he requested a trade and is leaving your team in the dust next season, don't you, Orlando?
-- I wish they could have involved more retired players in the 1992 Dream Team tribute, but that was still pretty cool.
Anything I missed? Tweet me @James_Bucklin
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