All-Star Weekend, a smashing success

Last year Tracy McGrady said he didn't want to be a part of going to New Orleans for the All-Star Game. He felt it was unsafe, he felt the city wasn't ready for it. Well, McGrady was wrong, and he got his wish. McGrady wasn't named to the All-Star Team and wasn't even deserving enough to be on it, others were and this weekend was phenomenal.

Friday, the NBA did some amazing things in the city with over 2,000 members of the NBA (from players to team officials) doing community service in the city. It was fantastic to see, and something that the city definitely needed. New Orleans has came such a long way, but of course, there is plenty of more work to go. Kudos to the NBA for stepping up to the plate big time and making something like this happen.

Friday night was the celebrity game, which was pretty fun to watch. T.O. and Deion Sanders put on some shows, but the intensity and dancing of actor Terry Crews was definitely the highlight. The main event, was the Rookie/Sophomore Game and it was a pretty good game. The past few years the game has gotten sloppier and has seen big blowouts, this year, you never felt the rookies were in it. Daniel Gibson shot the lights out and Al Horford looked like the Rookie of the Year out there.

All-Star Saturday Night was the best show of the weekend. The event has had it's ups and downs in the past few years. The Slam Dunk Contest has received a lot of criticism over the years. There hasn't been much star power, there hasn't been much creativity, but all that has changed. Dwight Howard is a star, and he's done the event two years in a row. Rudy Gay is averaging 20 points, and is going to be a star in this league. If LeBron James and other players in his caliber are too pretty to do the dunk contest, let them, the contest doesn't need them.

Dwight Howard put on a show and won the competition. He had one of the most fantastic individual performances in the competition's history. Gerald Green pulled out his best first, but still managed to show that creative swagger as well. Jamario Moon and Rudy Gay had great dunks too, on the average year they would have been finalists. Though Howard and Green brought the big guns out from the get go.

The Three-Point Shootout was star filled, yet the role player Jason Kapono pulled out the victory and tied the record with 25 points in one round. He's a shooter, and Peja just could not get into a groove like years past to even challenge Kapono in the finals. The Skills Competition is always pretty fun to watch as well, and I love the Shooting Stars Competition. The San Antonio team was phenomenal and I loved seeing David Robinson back on the court (along with Laimbeer, Eddie Johnson and BJ Armstrong).

Saturday night was just fantastic, it was definitely one of the best All-Star Saturday's in recent memory, and maybe one of the best ever.

Sunday was of course the All-Star Game itself. We saw a great fourth quarter run by the West, led by Chris Paul. Ray Allen put on a shooting galleria (probably should have been in that Three Point Shootout), keeping the East alive during that fourth quarter. LeBron James led the way for the East from the tipoff, as well as Dwight Howard and we saw a pretty good game. James had the dunk of the game, going into traffic and throwing it down over Dirk Nowitzki and some other innocent bystanders.

The NBA did a fine job this year, all the events were great and they did some fantastic stuff for the city of New Orleans. Next year is in Phoenix and hopefully the NBA can top the smashing success which was NBA All-Star Weekend 2008.

WORST PART OF ALL-STAR WEEKEND: The Tyler Perry House of Payne Commercials.
BEST PART OF ALL-STAR WEEKEND: Dwight Howard in the Dunk Contest.
MOST SURPRISING MOMENT: Charles Barkley didn't lose his voice as much as I thought he would.
MOST UNSURPRISING MOMENT: LeBron James wins the fan voting MVP award.