The NBA All Star game and all of the festivities that go with it will take place from February 12th to the 14th and will include a multitude of events. It starts lightly on Friday, when the celebrity game is played. Usually this game sort of makes the celebrities seem normal because you realize they are absolutely terrible at basketball. But it is still fun to watch, Kevin Hart is a regular at these games and tends to make for good entertainment. Then it continues on Friday night with the Rising Stars game, which is essentially an All Star game for the rookies and second year players. The teams are divided up between international and American players. On the international team there are players such as Kristaps Porzingis, Andrew Wiggins, and Nikola Mirotic. Players such as Jabari Parker, D'Angelo Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor highlight the United States team. This game is always a good chance to see who the best prospect is out of the last draft class. I don't think any of the players taken really early in the 2015 draft can be called busts yet. The most questionable pick at the time of the draft was Kristaps Porzingis, but now he is one of the most popular rookies, he is averaging around 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game.
Then my favorite part of the weekend is on Saturday, that's when the skills challenge, three point contest, and dunk contest all take place. Last year Steph Curry torched the 3 point contest and Zach LaVine had some of the best dunks I have ever seen. It really revitalized the dunk contest and the whole All Star weekend, which had been lacking. The participants in the dunk contest haven't yet been revealed, although I'm guessing Zach LaVine will be a headliner. I think the NBA should reach out to guys like LaVine, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Demar Derozan, Andrew Wiggins, and Gerald Green so they can get some real competition going. We are still waiting to see Lebron in the Dunk Contest, as he is one of the best power dunkers in NBA history, but we may never see it. I think the NBA should encourage the players to attend the side events more, especially the star players. I say this because those are the players everyone wants to see. They should put less importance into the actual all star game, that should be a game played at half speed where everyone just messes around, it shouldn't be taken very seriously. The NBA should do whatever necessary to avoid having their all star game end up like the NFL Pro-bowl, which has very low ratings.
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