ONE OF THE GREATEST WEEKENDS IN SPORTS!!!
By Jeff Platt
This weekend might not get too much attention…but NBA All-Star Weekend is so much fun to watch!!!!
Let’s start with Friday…we’ve got the McDonald’s Celebrity game. I get pumped up for this one (somehow) because it’s the kickoff event to the weekend. It’s also pretty interesting to see how good or bad these celebrities play the beautiful game of basketball. Now I do get bored very quickly, but that’s fine because next up on the list is the Rookie Challenge. The Rookies and Sophomores always put on a good show. The Rooks are in a lot of trouble for this one, Kevin Durant and company face a very stacked Soph lineup (Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay, LaMarcus Aldridge). Sophs win big in this one, but look for plenty of highlights.
This takes us now to NBA All-Star Saturday night….first up is the Shooting Stars (teams haven’t even been released). It’s fun to watch the legends still shoot the ball well. The Skills Challenge is a quick, fun little event for the guards to show off a little bit. This year Dwyane Wade goes for the 3-peat vs. Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams. Look for him to get it!!!
3-point contest has defending champ Jason Kapono back, he’ll take on Steve Nash, Peja Stojakovic, Richard Hamilton (huh?!?!?! He doesn’t even shoot 3’s!!!), Daniel Gibson, and Kobe Bryant. I had Kobe as my original pick, but today he announced he would not participate due to a dislocated pinky. Guess I’ll have to go with his replacement…DIRK NOWITZKI!!!! He is my main man from Dallas, and takes this down for sure!!! The Slam-Dunk Contest will rely on fan voting this year (which I don’t like at all). Dwight Howard has to be the favorite because he is the biggest name. But I love Gerald Green’s potential in this one. Jamario Moon is a very popular sleeper pick—he can fly. And Rudy Gay is taking suggestions from street-ballers across the country. My prediction will be Green, and don’t be surprised if this is the best dunk contest in the last 10 yrs!!!
As far as the actual game itself goes, look for no defense at all until the last 5 minutes. West wins this one in a blowout!!!!
Thx for reading, have fun watching!!
-Jeff
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