As we all know, the NBA All-Star weekend festivites came and went just a few short days ago. Unfortunately, I’ve been away from the internets for most of the past weekend, but was able to catch a truncated version of the events thanks to the miracle that is DVR. Also, last week I did have time to make some predictions with fellow NBA bloggers on the AS Weekend events over at fellow Bloguin blog, Hoop Heads North. You can check out the article with our conglomerate group of predictions by clicking here.
In the interest of complete disclosure and accountability, here’s a quick rundown of what I had predicted:
H. O. R. S. E.
College Wolf (Twolvesblog.com): “Durant – He’s got the most range and a wide variety of skills. Mayo’s good, but doesn’t strike me as a HORSE type stud. Joe Johnson is an odd choice as a participant.”
Reaction: Nice, but not great, call by yours truly. 3 of the six bloggers picked Durant.
Shooting Stars
College Wolf (Twolvesblog.com): “San Antonio – I drew this choice out of a hat..”
Reaction: Epic fail. I blame “randomness.” All six of us picked the Spurs. All six of us were wrong.
Skills Challenge:
College Wolf (Twolvesblog.com):“Derrick Rose – All these PG’s have the skills to excel in this competition. I like Rose here because he’s probably the quickest and time matters.”
Reaction: Ohhhhhhhh yeah, I totally rule. Really, I am great. Only one other person picked Rose. At least two of us bloggers are super duper smart.
3 Point Shootout
College Wolf (Twolvesblog.com):“Kapono – A very uninspiring field. I mean, Cook and Bibby?!?! I might as well go with Kapono to see if he can Three-Peat.”
Reaction: Cook?!?! Really!?!? Man, I don’t think anyone saw that coming…
Slam Dunk Contest
College Wolf (Twolvesblog.com): “Howard – Ugh, possibly the worst and most lame field in dunk contest history. What are they doing, giving Howard the victory on a silver platter?”
Reaction: Complete and Utter Epic Monster Fail. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Two people actually guessed Lil Nate was going to win. I was shocked. Then again, it was somewhat of a let down this year.
All-Star Game
College Wolf (Twolvesblog.com):“East – Their starting lineup is just insane. They have waaaaay too much firepower.”
Reaction: Unfortunately the game was a boring blowout. Really, it wasn’t even close. Much like my prediction.
To be honest, I was slightly disappointed in the AS Weekend in general. Perhaps it was because I didn’t watch the events in “real time” Saturday night, thus wasn’t able to fully appreciate the build up and suspense, I don’t know. Maybe they were just lame(r) than the past seasons. It also didn’t help that the 3 point contest was a disaster, and no one looked like they were even trying in the skills competition. I didn’t see HORSE live or on DVR, so I can’t comment too much there. I saw extended highlights of the AS game on Sunday, but not the entire game. Maybe the epic fail goes to College Wolf for not putting his heart into the events. I certainly won’t deny that.
As we have now established, I’m not qualified to recap this past weekends events. HOWEVER, some of our valued forum members posted some in-depth, interesting, and insightful reviews in our AS Weekend forum thread. You can check out the forum, or continue on reading for their comments that I have transcribed word for word below:
Click “Read More” For extended analysis of the NBA All-Star Weekend
From forum member “Bonk”:
Well, I’m a little late on this, but I got zero of my predictions correct anyways.
I’m a huge NBA rube, so I always love all-star weekend. That being said, I would tend to agree that it was a tad “down” overall this year, but I still found it enjoyable for the most part.
Rookie/Sophmore game: I ended up watching it, but it never really does too much for me. It was okay. Durant was impressive. Jeff Green is a stud. I greatly dislike Brooke Lopez (yes I spell it with an “e” on purpose). I have no real good reason – I just do.
H-O-R-S-E: I love the idea. The actual game was pretty cool. Weak at times, but considering it was the first one, and it was outdoors, and had 3 guys who are not the biggest names, I thought it was alright. Both OJ & Joe J were pretty cool. Durant is kind of lame. Me = Man Crush = OJ.
Whatever the shooting contest thing is called: I found it funny how the old guy made the half-court shot 4x, the woman did twice, and the NBA player did zero times. Aaron Affalo seems like a goon. Thunder Dan is a stud.
Skills Challenge: Enh. I really have no comments.
3 Point Shootout: This was definitely the low point of the weekend. Seriously, NO ONE even got in the 20’s?!? This had to have been the worst 3 point shootout EVER. Pathetic & atrocious. As Jackie Child’s would say, “Disgusting…outrageous…PROPOSTEROUS!”
Dunk Contest: It was alright. Probably a little below average, but still decent I thought. Fernandez’ 2nd dunk was the most under-rated. JR kinda sucked. Nate Robinson is fun to watch dunk. I gotta give both he & DHo props for creativity. And it was very big of DHo to be a prop in his competition’s winning dunk. Classy. The 12 foot hoop thing was cool, but I wish he would’ve pimped the dunk more. And I think he coulda nailed the free throw line dunk, and won the contest if he did so, so it’s too bad he took off a foot in front of the line.
The Game: ShaQ’s dance was so awesome. ShaQ’s between the legs pass was so awesome. I thought the quality of the game was actually up a little bit from usual. NO KG interview made me sad. Too much Kobe – made me nautious. Lebron is the best of the best. Co-MVP of Kobe & Shaq was a bit much. This is getting long, that’s what I got for now.
From forum member “9Deuce”:
For some reason I wasn’t as excited about this year than most year but it was still fun to watch.
HORSE was kind of lame. If they would of put KLove in there with his trick shots, now that would be more fun to watch.
Skills competition was ok. Derrick Rose won it with out any effort.
3 point contest was ok. No one was on fire and no one made up to 20 points.
Dunk Contest. It’s usually my favorite part of the weekend. This year was a little below average. All the dunks weren’t as crazy as Dwight’s last year. Nate Robinson just won it because he was a little guy, I thought he went a little bit too much with the kryptinite theme with green shoes, green ball, and green arm band, the jersey would of been fine. Dwight could of won it if he didn’t try the free throw line dunk because it just doesn’t look as cool with a 6-11 guy doing it, but it was really classy of him to let Nate dunk over him. Here’s my favorite dunks of the contest, in order:
1. 12 foot rim dunk. Dwight just made it look easy.
2. Dwight’s off the side of the back board dunk. This is just insane because as it hits the side of the back board it bounces away from the basket, so you have to jump further out to be able to catch it and dunk it.
3. Rudy’s off the back of the back board dunk was pretty cool, but he did lost some points for trying it like 10 times.
4. Nate’s dunk over Dwight. For a little guy to jump over a 6-11 guy is insane, but he did use Dwight to push off a little bit.
All the other dunks were pretty weak especially JR Smiths.
An Allstar weekend is not the same without Shaq. He was awesome, from his dance to throwing it between Dwight’s leg. It was cool to see Shaq and Kobe get co MVP.
From forum member “YoLeo”:
H-O-R-S-E: Missed it, wish I could’ve seen it though.
Rook-Soph Game: I always tend to love this game. Maybe it’s just the youth in it, but it tends to be way more competitive and exciting at the same time. I had my money on the Sophs, mainly because everyone was sucking up to the Rooks, Love was snubbed, and Pig Gasol was on that squad. KD is such a beast… anyone say underrated?
Shooting Stars: Eh… boring. Afflalo… seriously?
Skills Challenge: As Kenny Smith/Reggie Miller said, TP needs to stop thinking about his night with Eva and actually focus on what he’s doing out there. I have to give it to Derrick though… never thought he had a chance. Sick dunk at the end as well to add some spice. Too bad in the end, Tony Parker is going to be the real winner at night…
3-point Contest: I don’t know what you guys are talking about. Ok, no one showed up to nail more than 20, so what? I’d prefer a showdown like it was instead of people scoring 15-18 points, then 1 guy going to shoot 25 in a one-sided contest. Has there ever been a tiebreaker in the final round?? I actually changed my mind before the contest to have Granger take it, but after he was eliminated, I really wanted Cook to take it. I completely disagree with the notion that the contest should just be between “a star-studded cast”. Who wants to watch KD play HORSE, then the Rook game, then the 3-point contest, the dunk contest, then the All-star game? The all-stars should play the all-star game. The dunkers should compete in the dunk contest. The 3-pt shooters should compete in the 3-pt contest. Cook is an underrated shooter, and he (As well as Rashard) was clutch at the end of the 1st final round, sinking the last 4 buckets to keep it going. It’s all about the suspense, not the amount of shots made [i](Unless someone sinks all of them to score 30), and I’m stickin’ to my side.
Dunk Contest: Sonny Weems… seriously? JR Smith’s first dunk didn’t get the score it should have. His 2nd dunk, had he actually made the first attempt, would have been sick. I jumped out of my seat and ran around the couch once after seeing him miss it. It looked like he was going to do an assisted bounce behind the back dunk, that would’ve brought the house down. I was hating on Rudy Fernandez since Day 1, but the judges freaking robbed him. I don’t care how many attempts it took him, he still got it in the “legal” amount of attempts. It was still infinitely better than Nate’s “off Chandler’s back” dunk (Even though Wilson is my boy). I wanted D12 to take it before the contest started, but seriously… the judges need to get off his nuts. A 50 for his first dunk??? His off the side of the backboard dunk was sick though, no doubt. Nate still deserved to win though, even though he had some whack dunks (Again, the Chandler dunk. Then his 1st final round dunk. His first dunk of the night wasn’t all that either). He got my vote for creative with the Kypto-Nate thing. I liked his dunk over D12, but to be honest, anyone can jump over anyone as long as you can get your hand on the other person’s shoulders. LBJ in 2010… more on that later.
All-star Game: Even though I’ve always been in the West coast, and everyone in the room was calling me a traitor all game, I wanted the East to take it. I stand by the East as well, even though Shaq did surprise me. He almost made me like him… for a little bit. The West was too big for the East to handle, but I definitely think this game was extremely boring. Maybe it’s just my bias speaking since the East got stomped, but here’s my thoughts. There was hardly any defense played, as usual. However, exempting the East’s massive TO rate, the West was just doing things they would do in a game. TP was just doing pull-up jumpers. Duncan was shooting jumpers all day. There was hardly any showmanship from the West side, while the East was barely trying on the defensive end. Aside from a few sick dunks courtesy of CP3 to Roy/Kobe, I was falling asleep throughout the game. It was sad to see LBJ miss 2 self-alleyoop attempts, and ended the game with a somewhat disappointing off the glass to himself dunk. It was alright, I mean he got up, but that’s all he can pull out at the end of the All-star weekend with the entire lane cleared out for him? Hope the 2010 dunk contest won’t look like that…
Additional thoughts from Bonk:
First off, I enjoyed reading your extended thoughts, 9Deuce & YoLeo, & Howls will be given. I just thought I would add a few more thoughts I had.
How bad does YAO look in these all-star games? I am a big YAO guy, but wow, he looks horrible every year in this game.
I was disappointed in the lack of overall flair. At least KG, DHo, & Lebron were groovin a little bit during intros, and of course ShaQ was classic as ever. D. Wade & Lebron mixed it up on Friday & Saturday with some funky/retro outfits that kept it interesting, if nothing else.
Wow, I couldn’t disagree more with YoLeo’s thoughts on the 3 point shootout, but agree to disagree I guess. If I want to watch dude’s hit 50% of their 3’s I will just go watch warmups before the next Timberwolves game. The quality was severely lacking.
And I completely agree with the fact that D. Ho’s 1st dunk getting a 50 was totally absurd. That made no sense. I also noticed Tom Chambers eyeing up the other judges scores multiple times before he picked his number. Really Tom? C’Mon man.
It was pretty sweet in HORSE, when all three of them made the one footed & one handed 3 pointers from the wing. Mayo was the most creative, with the shots from the crowd, sitting down, banks, lefties, grannies, etc, so my man crush with him is still growing.
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