For the First time since 1988 the NBA All-Star weekend took place in bean town, Chicago, Illinois. With a little bit of an updated arena from Chicago Stadium, the United Center was where basketballs biggest and brightest gathered to show off their skills and give the fans a show.
FRIDAY NIGHT
The weekend was kicked off on Friday night with the celebrity game. The two teams were coached by Sports world personalities Michael Wilbon and Stephen A. Smith, headline celebs from the game included rappers Quavo and Chance the Rapper. WNBA stars, country recording artist Kane Brown and more. The Celebrity game is followed up by the Rising Stars Challenge, which is two teams made up of players from all over the world that are up and comers in the NBA. One team is Team USA headlined by Ja Morant of the Grizzlies, Zion Williamson of the Pelicans and Trae Young of the Hawks. Team World featured young stars like RJ Barrett of the Knicks, Luka Doncic of the Mavericks, and Moe Wagner from the Wizards. This game was decided by 20 points, team USA beat team world 151 to 131. RJ Barrett of the New York Knicks from Canada led all scorers with 27.
NBA SKILLS CHALLENGE
The 3rd event of the night was the skills challenge, Bam Adebayo and Domantas Sabonis. Adebayo of the Miami Heat beat Sabonis of the Pacers in the finals. Buddy Hield of the kings beat Devin Booker of the Suns in the final round of the 3pt contest. The final event on Friday night was the Sprite slam dunk contest between 4 contestants: Dwight Howard- LA Lakers, Aaron Gordon- Orlando Magic, Pat Connington- Milwaukee Bucks and Derrick Jones Jr from the Miami heat. Jones ended the high flying contest with a win and capped off an exciting Friday night for NBA fans.
All- Star Saturday Night
This years All-Star game had a little bit of a somber tone with the passing of the late great Kobe Bryant. With the passing of Kobe, the NBA decided to change the format in his honor, the combined score of the first three quarters plus 24 would be the “goal score” that they had to get to in an untimed 4th quarter. This year the two captains were Giannis Antetokumpo and LeBron James, team Giannis started with Kemba walker of Boston, Trae Young of Atlanta, Giannis of the bucks, pascal Siakim of Toronto, and Joel Embid from Philadelphia. Team Lebrun came out with a star studded 5, Lebron, James Harden, Luka, kawhi Leonard of the Clippers, and Anthony Davis of the Lakers.
Kawhi Leonard of Team LeBron and also the LA Clipper’s was named the MVP of the game which was renamed the Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player Award. Leonard ended the game with 30 points, Giannis ended with 25 for his team leading the way. Anthony Davis grabbed 9 rebounds for Lebron’s squad, just to be out matched on the glass by Giannis and Rudy Gobert.
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