By: Patrick Rivas, Posted February 14, 2017 Both players and fans are getting hyped up as the 2017 All-Star Weekend is around the corner. Prepare to be astonished with flashy dunks, crazy shots, and plays so fancy that they’ll look like magic acts. Don’t forget about all the fun and enjoyment to go around. All-Star Weekend is a can’t-miss event, especially for basketball fans.
The weekend will start with the All-Star celebrity game on February 17th. The rosters have yet to be announced, but it’s exciting to think about who the NBA will recruit for their teams. One potential celebrity the NBA could go for is the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. He’s known for being a sports fan and now that he’s out of office, he’s available to participate in the celebrity game. The Rising Stars challenge will immediately follow the celebrity game. This is a clash between the league’s best rookies and sophomores. The teams are then separated between “World” and “USA”, meaning that foreign born players play for “World” and U.S. born players play for team “USA”. Then on the following night of the 18th, the Skills challenge, 3 point contest, and the slam dunk contest will all commence. There are no confirmed participants for any of these events as of yet. The skills challenge will be the first contest of the night and is a contest of your playmaking ability and ball handling skills between big men and guards. The second event of the night will be the 3 point contest, which is simply a competition between the league’s best sharpshooters to see who can make the most 3 pointers in under a minute. It isn’t confirmed yet but it may be safe to assume that players such as Stephen Curry, J.J. Redick, and Nick Young could participate in this contest. To end the night, the slam dunk contest will take place. The slam dunk contest is a competition between four chosen players to see who can drop jaws with the flashiest dunks. Unfortunately, 2-time slam dunk champion Zach Lavine has stated that he does not plan on taking place in this year’s competition. That doesn’t mean that the contest won’t be filled with can’t miss dunks. As for the main event, the league’s 66th NBA All-Star game will conclude All-Star Weekend on the 19th of February. This is a competition between the league’s most elite players in the Eastern and Western conferences. The East will have Lebron James, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyrie Irving, and Demar Derozan to start off the game. In the West, they have Stephen Curry, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Davis. The All-Star game is always a fun game to both watch and play. Because of the lack of defense by the players, flashy playmaking isn’t a rare occurrence in the game. They never fail to wow the crowd. During the voting period, a bizarre event took place. A player by the name of Zaza Pachulia had gained over 1.5 million fan votes for the All-Star game. This caused an uproar for those that didn’t vote for him, They believed he shouldn’t be in the game because he only averages 5 points and 5 rebounds per game. Sophomore Carlos Rosas thinks that Zaza is a cool guy but thinks that him being in the All-Star game would’ve been weird. There have been plenty of All-Star snubs this year including, Portland Trailblazers point guard Damian Lillard, not making the team. When Carlos was asked he stated, “Russell Westbrook was the biggest snub for not starting in the All-Star game. The man is out there, playing his heart out, and is even averaging a triple double!”. Carlos’ favorite event is the 3 point contest. He says that it’s always interesting to watch. His favorite moments from last year’s event were watching Kobe Bryant’s tribute videos for his final All-Star game and seeing the chemistry between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook throughout the game. When asked who he thinks would win this year’s game, Carlos said that the West will win simply because of the fact that he believes the West has better players. Be sure to tune in to watch all the events from February 17th through the 19th! You won’t want to miss any of it. The All-Star Weekend is one of the most exciting parts of the NBA. I’m already feeling the excited for the event myself!
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