All-Star Weekend 2012

[shadowgrin]

Kenny Smith should never be allowed to participate in any way or form in the dunk contest.

[_Steve_]

Kenny Smith should never be allowed to participate in any way or form in the dunk contest.

qft
Same counts for rhetorical battles...

[The X]

Kenny Smith should never be allowed to participate in any way or form in the dunk contest.

I'm assuming you're talking post-playing career, which I'd have to agree with.

Otherwise....

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

[Andrew]

Kenny Smith should never be allowed to participate in any way or form in the dunk contest.

Absolutely. I don't mind him commentating them, but that should be the extent of it.

[Sauru]

all "star" saturday is a joke now. all the events suck imo except the 3 point contest and that is lacking the actual best 3 point shooters now. its sad that i actually enjoy the celebrity game more than any other event lol

[Mavs4Life]

Oddly, I feel the same way, other than the Rising Star the Celeb game has been my favorite part of the weekend.

[benji]

It's stretched out and is truly a weekend now. They used to do the rookie game in the afternoon, then three point and dunk contest. I remember when it was "late" because the Dunk Contest was dragging past 10 and the entire night started at like 8.

Then we got 2Ball and skills challenge and shooting stars, and commercial breaks every five seconds. Now the Friday crap. Et. al.

I wouldn't mind if they did something like on Saturday had the rookie game, then two of dunk contest, shooting stars, skills, and three point, then on Sunday did the D-League dunk contest, etc. and then the All-Star Game. Then the next year would be the other two.

Plus we need to rotate in 2Ball, HORSE and some big man "games" into the jumble. That way you don't feel like you're doing the same crap everytime, and in a dunk contest you could have two or three years to plan. You could have bigger fields as well.

Fan voting for the contestants could be considered as well.

[Lamrock]

I actually like the drawn out nature of all-star weekend. All-star Saturday is my favorite because I like the events. I'd agree that rotating events like 2ball and HORSE in (with adjustments made of course) would be a good idea, but imo dunk and 3pt should happen every year just because they're the most popular.

[Andrew]

all "star" saturday is a joke now. all the events suck imo except the 3 point contest and that is lacking the actual best 3 point shooters now. its sad that i actually enjoy the celebrity game more than any other event lol

I disagree, some years are simply better than others. Even in the "good old days", there were some weekends that were clunkers. That's the way it goes sometimes, though the dunk contest needs to go back to the old format and the Shooting Stars could be dropped or turned into something else.

[Martti.]

Nicki Minaj, wtf?

[Oznogrd]

I think HORSE with gimmicks could be more fun than the dunk contest with all the gimmicks.

[Mavs4Life]

Already, what a game! Finally something really good out of this weekend, some great jams.

[Martti.]

Kobe sure is locked on passing Jordan.

[Andrew]

Kobe sure is locked on passing Jordan.

No question. He's looking like Dominique Wilkins in the 1988 game.

Pretty good start, they've come to put on a show. So long as it remains close through three, it should be a good one.

[Mavs4Life]

Dirk never gets the ball in these other than '10, it's rare for him to get a touch.

[Andrew]

So, I take it the East has just given up on this one.

[Mavs4Life]

I ask why? They've got the host on that team, suprised they're just sort of letting it go.

[Andrew]

They still get $25,000 per player if they lose. Should make it winner takes all.

[Mavs4Life]

Guess the East realized 50,000 is 2X more than 25,000

[Andrew]

Kobe ties MJ, I should think the record will be his by the end of the game (if not the third quarter). However, the East are making it a game again.

[Mavs4Life]

LeBron clutch in the least needed place haha, just killing it from 3.

[George7]

Damn,that's what I wanted to see!! A great game in the 2nd half!

[Andrew]

Glad to see Durant win MVP, partly because I picked it but also because I feared they'd give it to Kobe for sentimental reasons in light of the record. Not that Kobe wasn't lighting it up, but Durant top scored along with LeBron, had a few more rebounds and assists aside and the West let the lead slip as Kobe chased the record in the second half. Good choice.

Glancing at the boxscore, it's incredible the kind of numbers that were posted in this one. I don't want to be too negative here because there's always way too much of that online, but I think it does speak of the lack of defense and competitiveness throughout the game these days. Not that today's players aren't supremely talented because they absolutely are, but all these big scoring numbers, back to back triple doubles for a player and the third time overall in history after it eluded so many greats for years until MJ pulled it off in 1997...well, if the defense, physicality and competitiveness of days gone by were in effect in more recent All-Star games, I'm not sure the stats would be as inflated.

Having said that, it was cool to see a bunch of the stars put up big numbers, with MJ's career scoring record for the game gone I was hoping perhaps we'd see Wilt's record surpassed by Durant or LeBron. The second half was pretty competitive, you wouldn't have thought it was going to come down to the final minute the way the West were up big in the first half and early on in the third. Highlight plays, big numbers, records broken or tied, competitive in the fourth quarter...all in all, a pretty good All-Star game.

Reviewing my predictions:

Predictions: Awards & Contest Winners

Rising Stars Challenge: Team Shaq

Shooting Stars: Team New York

Skills Challenge: Deron Williams

Three Point Shootout: James Jones

Dunk Contest: Jeremy Evans

All-Star Game: West wins, Kevin Durant is MVP

Miscellaneous Predictions

• The Celebrity Game will certainly have its ugly moments, but I'm kind of looking forward to seeing Penny Hardaway back in action. I'm hoping that even at his age and after all his injuries, he's still got a little something left in the tank to have a few entertaining moments in a game like this. (It was one of the more entertaining celebrity games, it was cool seeing Penny.)
  
  
• Luol Deng will be one of the first players of the bench for the East and end playing around 24 minutes at least...unless Thibbs decides to be "kind" and gives the Heat's trio a lot of minutes. Something to think about, Thibbs...
  
  
• Griffin will have at least five dunks in the game, most likely somewhere between five and ten. (I'm pretty sure)
  
  
• On a not uncompletely related note, Paul is going to get double digit assists on the night.
  
  
• The amount of times Dwight Howard is asked about his trade demands or the situation is brought up by the commentators will make for a potentially lethal drinking game. (Could've been worse)
  
  
• Chase Budinger brings out the real Yao to try and dunk over him. (Diddy instead. Yao would've been better.)

Thumbs up for the All-Star game, thumbs up for All-Star Friday. Thumbs in the middle for All-Star Saturday: it was certainly watchable and we had some drama with tiebreakers in the three point contest, but the dunk contest was a letdown. Not a bad All-Star Weekend, the bad stuff was pretty bad but the All-Star game was a great way to cap it off.

[RedPhazon8]

It was a pretty interesting weekend, I think the Rising Stars game was pretty awesome. Although it would of been funny if Chuck and Shaq actually coached the games.

[George7]

Agreed in everything with Andrew.
Great all star Friday Night(Both Celebrity Game and Rising Stars were the best in a long time) ,Good All Star Saturday Night(+D-League's festivities,3 point contest, but a disappointing - to the Slam Dunk Contest,despite the fact that the 4 guys did what they could. It was not their fault),and the best way to cap the whole thing off with the All Star Game. Though it was clear that none of the teams were going to play D(Thibbs I'm surprised),game had some great plays and performances,3 or 4 records broken (I can quickly recall MJ's points,scoring total and 3pt's made records were beaten) and a great end! I only wanted to see Rose and Lu more in the game,especially D-Rose to see if he could be in the MVP talks. But I guess overplaying James and Wade and letting Rose and Deng to stay on the bench won't be that bad from a tactucal viewpoint