Valentines Day has come and gone, now it’s time for the most important holiday in February: The 66th annual NBA All-Star Weekend!
Last year’s event was in Toronto, Canada and was recorded to be the highest scoring game in history with the Western Conference beating the Eastern 196-173. This NBA All Star Weekend is held in New Orleans, which was originally scheduled for Charlotte, North Carolinabut because of the House Bill 2 aka HB2 things didn’t go quite as planned.
HB2 was passed and it limits anti-discrimination protection for the LGBT community. The league made this statement regaurding the move of it’s event “We have been guided in these discussions by the long-standing core values of our league. These include not only diversity, inclusion, fairness and respect for others but also the willingness to listen and consider opposing points of view.”
In the celebrity game scheduled this coming Friday, players in the West will consist of Candace Parker of the LA Sparks, Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner, Romeo Miller, and Master P. On the East, look out for Nick Cannon, Peter Rosenberg of Hot 97, Jason Williams, and Lindsey Whalen.
But let’s face it, Saturday night is probably the most entertaining with the skills challenge. Slam dunk contestants are non other than Aron Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, Glenn Robinson III and Derrick Jones Jr. Some of the players in the 3-Point Contest include Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, and Nick Young.
For the skills competition, we will witness Kristaps Porzingis, DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis and John Wall. The starting line up for the big game on Sunday for the Eastern team is Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jimmy Butler. On the Western team that starting five includes Stefan Curry, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Davis.
There was a lot of conterversy with Carmelo Anthony not initially being included on the roster for the game, but he was recently added on Wednesday night and replaced injured Kevin Love and now has the opportunity to show everyone why he is an all star. So put those chocolates away and grab some popcorn, it’s about to be an interesting weekend.
