Lucas Rapeepat | Head Editor
February 27, 2022
Last weekend marked the exciting annual NBA All-Star event, where players get to take a break from a grueling NBA season to enjoy some friendly competition that teams up stars from around the league.
On Friday, the Rising Stars—four teams of rookie and sophomore players—competed in a tournament to determine a winner. Team Barry won the event, coached by Hall-of-Famer Rick Barry. The format was new, with the teams competing in the semifinals to a hard cap of 50 points and the winners fighting for the title to 25. The Rising Stars MVP was the number one overall pick in the 2021 draft, Cade Cunningham, who racked up 18 points, seven rebounds, nine assists, two steals, and two blocks in both combined contests.
Saturday night kicked off with the Skills Challenge, where team Cavs emerged victorious on the back of rookie Evan Mobley’s first attempt half-court shot. The competition was more of a team-based event this year, adding drama as Mobley and his partners, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen, defeated Team Rookies and Team Antetokounmpo.
The most underwhelming event of the evening followed in the Dunk Contest, which has fallen from grace in the past few years. “It hasn’t been great since the 2016 duel between Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine,” senior Kevin Pena said. “They don’t choose people that really truly care about winning.” The night was a travesty, with Jalen Green, Cole Anthony, Juan Toscano Anderson, and Obi Toppin putting up a stinker that disappointed virtually everyone, including those in attendance like Shaq. “The amount of failed attempts was atrocious,” Pena added.
Toppin eventually came out on top, but the event was certainly not very entertaining.
Karl Anthony Towns made history when became the first center to ever win the three-point contest, with a whopping 29 points in his final round to defeat Luke Kennard. He also possessed the longest odds, according to Caesars sportsbooks, at 13-1. In December, Towns claimed that he was the “best big man shooter of all time,” and his performance did nothing to detract from that.
The main event of the weekend occurred on Sunday night with the All-Star showdown between Team LeBron and Team Durant, with the latter sitting out due to an injury. Each quarter-winner won $100,000 for a charity of the team’s choice, and the All-Star MVP received a custom Kobe Bryant trophy that was painstakingly designed to include as much significance to the Mamba as possible.
Stephen Curry absolutely showed out with a 50-point performance that only trailed Anthony Davis’ 52 back in 2017. 48 of these points came from a flashy group of 16 threes. “Those no-look threes were so sick,” senior Nathan Langer said. “The Cleveland crowd booed him before it started because he caused them so much trouble in the finals all those years, and by the end of the game, they were all on their feet clapping for the legend.” Curry took home a much-deserved MVP trophy from the game.
Captain LeBron hit the game-winning fadeaway jumper to give his team the victory in a 163-160 bout, but there were plenty of impact performers such as Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
When all was said and done, Team LeBron raised $450,000 dollars for the Kent State I Promise Scholars program, while Team Durant won $300,000 for the Cleveland Food Bank.
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