What are your guys' thoughts on All-Star weekend so far? USA vs the World - Gobert, LaVine and Wiggins are really solid raw young projects. Add in Giannis and there are some guys worth seeing develop over the years. Skills competition - Patrick Beverley winning by not making any of his passes in the hoop two out of three times is ridiculous and stupid. I like the head to head at the same time, but they took out all of the "skill" involved. It was essentially dribble full court and do a layup, dribble back and hit a 3. That's not a skills competition, that's high school level drills. Put some skill in the competition, more hoops to pass through, have a dribbling station or something. Beverley had no business winning that last night and not making any passes is pathetic. 3 Point Shootout - Steph is a bad bad man Having Reggie and Smith commentating over the loudspeaker, I think messed some of the shooters up. Mainly Klay and Kyrie. Reggie started talking about Lebron and Kyrie started tossing up bricks in the middle rack. Kenny started talking about Steph/Klay shooting battles got him off his game as well. JJ Redick wins the Derek Fisher most long 2s in a 3 point shootout award. Haha. Dunk Contest - Zach LaVine was insane. I think he did too many between the legs dunks, but each one was amazing. Good to have a solid dunker back in the contest that can get dunks on the 1st try. Oladipo - 1st dunk was sick and then went downhill from there. I think he hurt himself at some point because he didn't look right in the final round. Giannis - Can do better than that. Shannon Brown 2.0, just a good in game dunker. Plumlee - Weak. His 1st dunk was pretty cool and I think he should have got a higher score. That Style show - What was that? Watched 5 minutes of it and turned it because it was stupid. I can't stand Kevin Hart anymore. His stand up comedy is funny, but he tries WAY too hard to be funny outside of it. Way too hard.
I thought the Skills Challenge was extremely disappointing. No bounce pass? Maybe a cross-over spot or a behind the back pass spot. There's no actual skill involved in what happened last night. Just more shooting which is all the competition has become. This event was supposed to go to the best PGs/ball handlers in the game and it went to... Patrick Beverly? Dumb. The three-person competition where they have to make a lay-up, mid-range, three pointer, and half court shot... boring. Seems like an event for a few players to have some fun. Whatever. Rising Stars competition was worse even than the All-Star game in terms of defense, but there's some young talent in the league. The three point contest was great. Steph Curry was my pick from the start. I don't know if I've ever seen a more natural shooter. Klay choked at the end, but he was fun too in the first round. Kyrie caught fire a little bit. Some of those guys might have won last year or the year before with the offerings they gave, but the field was too competitive this season. Dunk competition was generally a B+/A-. My expectations weren't great, but it ended up being really solid. Oladipo had some great creativity but he flamed out unfortunately. I thought Plumlee's stuff was underrated. His brother is 6'11" with his shoes on. Even if he boosted himself up a little bit, that's a hell of a leap for a big man. Giannis was a little disappointing, but I saw some solid ideas at least. Zach LaVine was my pick from the start and MAN did he not disappoint. He was spectacular. I'm not sure there's a limit to what people could come up with for him. I don't think he's got the big hands that Jordan did, but he's a way better leaper than Jordan was. If he can come up with some more creative stuff, and I think he can, then I can see him winning this competition a few years running.
Celebrity game was okay, entertaining as background to more productive things. I as well do not like Kevin Hart, he tries too hard to be funny. The rising stars challenge or whatever it is called was good, like seeing all the young talent that the league has, had absolutely no defense whatsoever though. Skills challenge was a joke. They need to add more obstacles and harder passes they need to do or something to make it harder. That NBA/exNBA/WNBA shooting thing is boring like usual. I guess it's fun but that was a nice break to grab food. Three point shooting was the best thing. A great group of shooters competing and Step got super hot. Some really high scores all around. Dunk contest was better than recent years with lavine but other than him everyone else was boring. Wish he added more variety to his dunks, hated seeing three between the legs. Big props on nailing his dunks on the first try, hate seeing guys get high scores for taking ten attempts. Still wish they have better competitors thoigh, looking at you Lebron. Going to miss the big game today though. Sucks to not have kobe there. Will miss him going at it all game instead of only in the fourth.
Lavine was one of the best dunkers I've seen in the contest in years. Pretty much got every dunk on his first attempt. While some of those dunks might have been done before, Lavine made it look so impressive because he's so quick with his jumps. Oladipo's first dunk might have been the best of the contest, but I hated the lame theatrics. I didn't care for Plumlee or Giannis at all. The three point contest was awesome, but they should get rid of the money ball rack. I've heard people say Steph set the record for the three point contest. No he didn't. If it wasn't for the extra money ball rack, his score would have been a 23 with the old scoring system. Still very impressive though. I had no idea that Kenny and Reggie's commentary was over the loud speakers. I thought it was just general commentary that only the people watching on TV heard. If the players were able to hear it, that was an atrocious idea. They're not the best commentators in general, and they were saying some stupid things. Like really, you're going to start debating over whether the credit for the Cavs rise should go to Lebron or Kyrie while he's shooting? Ridiculous. Everything else was lame, but they usually are. They need to come up with some new ideas. Rising Stars is just a half court shot competition. I didn't watch it live thankfully, but apparently HORSE was the worst thing ever. I heard they had to do shots chosen by the fans ... and they pretty much missed everything so the first person to make a shot ended up winning.
I agree about the commentating over the loudspeaker. I really really really didn't like that. It totally must mess up the player's concentration, especially when they are talking about the player. Totally unnecessary. I would think it would take away from the crowd's enjoyment as well. Let the crowd be the crowd, don't force them to listen to some commentators. LaVine was great. I think he could have had more creativity though, maybe next year? Looking forward to the Gasol's facing off.
I just went back and re-watched the dunk contest. Reggie is an idiot. He kept on going on about how Oladipo did a 540. No he didn't. He even proclaimed himself Mr. 360 afterwards.
If 'Dipo was just a couple inches taller...it looked like he didn't have enough height on some of those dunks he was trying. He would've been the best since J-Rich if he could've completed those in his first attempt. That's what I really dislike about the dunk contest these days, it takes them so many tries that the dunks lose the wow factor. Also, missed dunks should never get a score over a 5. EVER. Dr. J is a terrible judge. Lavine was impressive, though. He was the only one who didn't take multiple attempts. The only part of the retirement home competition I liked was getting to see Pip and Penny out there. Great 3 point contest. Curry was insane, although I wanted to see Kutcher win it. Point guard challenge was awful.
I only saw the dunk contest and 3pt contest. Curry is insane. I definitely agree about the announcers throwing them off their game by talking so much. I wanted to see Korver in the second round because I think he can go on a hot stretch like Curry, but oh well. Maybe next year. Lavine is crazy athletic. I know some people want creativity, but he had that in the bag. No gimmicks. He just went out and did some insane dunks. He also basically admitted to saving them for next year. He said he has some tricks in the bag still. He didn't do the dunk that almost made Wiggins "faint". Lol.
any contest that has Patrick Beverly as the winner...is not a contest worth having. I think vc pretty much ended the dunk contest 15 years ago. I'd like to see one guy simply emulate his dunks from that year and execute them as spectacularly as he did. they can't. I actually feel bad for the dunk contest participants. there are just limits to what the body can do, and throwing the ball off a different body part or part of the backboard doesn't do it for me. vc was the last time my jaw dropped. credit to lavine, though; he gets the artistry of the competition. he's just not vc or mj.
Curry just got a steal, and then threw a ridiculous alley oop to harden. Wow. LeBron is chucking from 40 feet, bricking and airballing, but gunning for MVP. As for last night, was fun. 3 point contest was great, and Zach Lavine made the dunk contest. I've never seen anyone do the dunks he did so effortlessly. I've seen the dunks, but he did them so smooth, it was awesome. Also, I actually like the shooting stars competition, it's fun to see retired old players out there having fun. I enjoy the half court shot part, because I'm pretty good at those, and it's always fun to see one finally go down.
Agree with all you guys. Lavine was the only reason to watch the dunk contest. His two dunks were insane but yeah a little more variety would have been better. 3/4 of his dunks were between the legs. I actually think his behind the back dunk is harder than the between leg ones. Curry is just a crazy shooter. But, I wish they didnt change it by having a rack full of money balls. It throws off the scoring system when you compare it to old. They should just have 5 money balls and let the players place them where ever they want.
Man the East has to dig deep for "stars" don't they? No offense, these guys are good players, but Jeff Teague, Kyle Lowry, Al Horford, Paul Milsap? The West almost snubbed Lillard because there was no room, that's how good the West guards are.
Just turned the game on; I'm not enjoying seeing up Ariana Grande's skirt. Also, how and when did she get so famous??
Because she's a really good singer? I don't really like pop, but she can definitely sing IMO. Also, the skirt was short, but I certainly couldn't see up it. What is this anyway, the 50's, who cares if you could?
Yeah, she did kill some high notes there. I'm just wondering how she went from fairly unknown to NBA all-star game so quickly. I saw some straight up panties when she squatted down once or twice. Like, the apex of her legs was visible. I don't care about seeing her legs, but if it's short to the point of seeing up it, that's too far. I am totally in favor of nudism but we're not quite there yet...
I'm still not sure what we're talking about here or how that's too far, Madonna and others did way worse 20 years ago. This was basically a cheerleader outfit, it was clean as can be. Also, don't want to turn this into an Ariana grande thread, but she hasn't been an unknown for a couple years now. She had like the biggest hit song of the summer and is on the radio constantly. I hate MTV and their lame award shows, but she also went from playing the pre-show 2 years ago, to headlining the thing this year. I hate that I even know this stuff, but i guess that's can happen when you have a little sister.
with how the Hawks are playing, they're all deserving. It's the same as when the whole Pistons squad got in. I don't think it'd happen in the West but you have to reward winning.
Yeah, I get that. Just growing up I remember all star games were the top of the top names only for the most part. Then you look back at some years with guys like Jamal magloire and it looks weird, this looks like one of those years. Even Korver being an all star looks weird, but he deserves it for sure, having a fantastic season despite not averaging a ton of points.
