All-Star Weekend 2019

[Andrew]

It's approaching fast, so might as well make the topic for this year's midseason classic.

All-Star Game



D'Angelo Russell has been named as Victor Oladipo's replacement, while Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade have been selected as special additions. LeBron and Giannis will be picking their squads on February 7th.







Rising Stars Challenge



Slam Dunk Contest

TBA.

Three-Point Shootout

TBA.

[mp3]

I still don't think I'll be paying much attention to the allstar weekend again, the 3 point contest and maybe the dunk but the rest is just run and gun with no D

[skoadam]

Andrew, its confirmed and closed? no more Team Lebron and Team Giannis. Its West and East again?

[[Q]]

They get voted in by west and easy but LeBron and giannis will be captains and do a schoolyard pick like last year. I believe they will televise it this year after speculation on who was picked last in the last game

[Andrew]

That's correct. It still starts out as East and West, and then they pick.

[mp3]

Does anyone think that picking teams makes it more interesting to watch or does anything think it's example of all-stars playing buddy buddys like when they want to stack teams?

[Murat]

Well, unless Charania announces what LeBron and Giannis will pick before televising, I would be excited for teams.

[Andrew]

That Celebrity Game was something. Here's hoping it wasn't an experiment with an eye to adding a four point line to actual NBA games.

phpBB [video]

[shadowgrin]

Harsh

[cavs4872]

Give him a 0 overall Moments card, but at least Hustle Rebounder for that last play... almost could've gotten Putback King if he finished that.

What's your guys' favorite event of the weekend? The Skills Challenge is oddly mine, and I actually preferred it more when it was just one player running the course; it's definitely more exciting now, but I miss that.

[Andrew]

I preferred the old format as well, especially since it was timed. It was pretty cool to see Tatum hit that half-court shot to beat Young, though. Also, felt like Young was cheating by tossing it ahead instead of dribbling, but I guess dribbling violations aren't a thing in the modern NBA. I'm also not a fan of the entire money ball rack in the three-point shootout. All the high scores in recent years have come about because of it, and it felt like they did it because no one had been able to beat the old records for over twenty years. On the whole, I feel like they've been messing around a lot of the event rules and formats unnecessarily.

I know a lot of people have turned on the dunk contest over the years, and it admittedly varies in quality the most year-to-year, but I still think it deserves to be the main event.

[Andrew]

Decent dunk contest this year, though the final round was somewhat underwhelming. I also thought some of the scores were...well, puzzling to say the least.

Best Dunks: Bridges' 360 off the board, Diallo's honeydip over Shaq
Scored too high: Both of Smith Jr's 50s
Corniest Shtick: Collins' plane
Saltiest fans: Guys in SuperSonics gear booing Diallo

Some pretty cool dunks and the right guy won (seriously, Smith Jr's two 50s were very generous), which is all you can ask for year-to-year with the dunk contest. I thought it was solid, middle of the road but fun. Far from the best, nowhere near the worst either. A shame Bridges didn't get that between-the-legs off the board to go down.

[[Q]]

I can't believe it's taken 19 years since the original Honey Dip for us to see that again. Especially with Jordan Kilgannon and others doing two handed versions now

[cavs4872]

Doesn't the honeydip hurt like a mofo? Shame Bridges didn't advance. Probably the highlight of the night was Allie LaForce.

[JaoSming]

I can't believe it's taken 19 years since the original Honey Dip for us to see that again. Especially with Jordan Kilgannon and others doing two handed versions now

Griffin did it in 2011

https://youtu.be/0WUeB6oXlZs?t=303

phpBB [video]

[Andrew]

Everyone remembers the dunk over the Kia, but forgets about the honeydip, which was one of the best dunks of the night.

[[Q]]

Oh shit that's right he did do it. All I remember is the Kia dunk

[mp3]

Checking in on Twitter is enough allstar weekend I need and straight away I saw they put a 4 point line in the celebrity game... Just what the game needs...

Iam happy to catch highlights on YouTube but it still doesn't look like Iam missing out on anything lol

[Andrew]

So far, the game has been...well, up to the usual standard of recent All-Star Games, really. Westbrook missing a dunk while his defender casually trots along beside him and doesn't even challenge the attempt kind of sums up what it's become, along with all the three-pointers (including some ugly bricks from way downtown). Some nice alley-oops though, and it was cool to see Dirk come in and hit some threes.

[Andrew]

OK, George's 360 and Curry's insane bounce alley-oop to Giannis were awesome. More of that, less chucking threes within two seconds of crossing the timeline.

[Andrew]

To put things in perspective, through the first half of the All-Star Game, both teams have combined for 44 two-point field goals made, and 52 three-point field goals missed.

Yuck.

[shadowgrin]

Things got competitive in the 4th, that's all we could ask for for an ASG.
Neither the worst nor the best ASG, just about right what I expect from an ASG - usual shooting/layusps/dunks that are more in place in a practice drill, highlights here and there, and a competitive portion from the comeback.

[Andrew]

Pretty much. Also, Steph Curry with the bounce to himself for the reverse dunk at the end was pretty impressive. I didn't know he had that in him.

[mp3]

Just watched the highlights on YouTube, think I saw everything I needed too in 9 minutes.

[Andrew]

It probably plays out better as a highlight reel than watching the whole game, as there were definitely some cool moments.