[Memphis MadnessParticipant]

The Basketball Report: A Recap of All-Star Weekend

Hopefully this year’s All Star Weekend won’t be known for its really bad fans. The people in the crowds made no noise. I am not sure why they never got into it but it took away from the atmosphere. If I had to great the crowds I would give them an F minus.

I wasn’t really following the first event which included Penny Hardaway. But, hey, Penny Hardaway (a local hero) played during all-star weekend so I will give that event a B.

The Rookie Sophomore game was the best event of Friday night and one that I was eagerly anticipating. A lot of you here said that it is now your favorite event and it is mine too. I also like how they combined rookies with sophomores on the teams, making the teams more even. Both teams had a lot of great young talent. Kyrie Irving looks like the real deal and took over the game. His 4 straight 3’s towards the end of the first half was awesome. He also displayed good ball handling, vision and tempo. Rubio threw some great passes. I particularly liked his pass where he went behind the back and then between the legs for the bounce pass. Irving and Rubio are gonna both be all-stars soon. Blake threw down some nice dunks. I missed the second half of the game but the replay of Rubio to Blake who then threw it off the glass for the self-alley oop was an incredible play. I thought the pass was very good too. Rubio’s underhanded full court flings are something to watch. I have seen a you tube clip of Pete Maravich doing that sort of pass. … John Wall had a very nice dunk where he went behind the back for the tomahawk. Great dunk, should have been in the contest. Jeremy Lin didn’t play much but he threw a nice alley oop to Blake Griffin. Wow, Irving, Rubio, Wall, Lin, and even Kemba Walker. The point guard position is in great hands going forward.

Evan Turner, Gordon Hayward, and Paul George can play. All three are very fun to watch. ET can do everything on the court and his game shows well in all-star games. He reminds me a little of a less athletic, less explosive Penny Hardaway. He can handle the ball, pass, score, and rebound. Hayward is very promising but might need to go to a more up-tempo team since he is more of an all-around game and a general scorer than a pure spot-up shooter. PG can dunk, run and score. He should turn into a better Rudy Gay. All three look like potential all-stars. They seem like good character guys too. … I didn’t really notice Derrick Williams to much in the first half. He has talent and might just be trying to find himself right now.

Up front DeMarcus Cousins is a total beast and started the game on fire. He is a real load inside and should be an all-star one day. Greg Monroe is another good young big man who can do some of everything. I just keep thinking how much Anthony Davis would be perfect next to either one of these guys. Tristan Thompson had 20 points and looked pretty good around the basket. TT might not be a perennial all-star in the making but he will be a good key player for the Cavs core.

The Rookie-Sophomore game was awesome to watch. A bunch of really talented players put on a show including some very special point guards and some rising stars up front. It was the best even of the first two days of All-Star Weekend and I give it an A+. Side note: Is it just more or was anyone else thinking how good Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, MKG, Harrison Barnes, Rivers, Lamb, Sullinger, Perry Jones, and others would look in next year’s game?

I missed the skills competition as I was watching Syracuse beat down UConn. Grade: Incomplete.

I liked the 3 point shoot out since it had a past winner in James Jones, a couple of other young guys in Ryan Anderson and Mario Chalmers along with two legitimate superstars in Kevin Durant and Kevin Love. The first round scores weren’t that high but the sudden death between Chalmers and Love was pretty neat. Love shot more than anyone so that him winning the title really means something. I thought that the 3 point title was wide open and indeed it was. You can’t beat a Durant vs. Love final (maybe not Jordan vs. Bird, but still). It came down to the final rack with Durant coming up a little bit short. Kevin Love put on a good show. With his 3 point shot now Kevin Love is the first guy since Larry Bird to be that good at scoring, dominating the boards, and hitting 3’s. Now, hopefully Ricky Rubio will help Love add some nifty passes and ball handling moves to add to his arsenal that includes a mean outlet pass. The 3 point shootout was a good event that may have lacked really high scores (I think James Jones had 22 in one round) but made up for it with Love beating Chalmers in a tie-breaker and then possibly the best final match up in terms of talent with Durant and Love with Love pulling it out. I gave this even an A.

The dunk contest lacked big name stars. But we knew that coming in. At least the contestants were young. At least they weren’t a bunch of old farts. lol They changed the format to one round of 3 dunks each. I didn’t like the format at all and Kenny Smith was tur-bull with his over hyping of the event and his boring commentary. I don’t care what they do, they cannot turn this year’s contest into Jordan vs. Nique. I think they just should have understated the hype and then let the dunks speak for themselves. The presentation was horrible, the format was bad, and the contestants were basically no-names. The dunks weren’t atrocious though. There were some real good ones, and a couple of bad ones, but most of the dunks were average, well, at least by NBA dunk contest standards. All the missed dunks hurt too. I liked Chase’s dunk over P Diddy. Nice hops, kid. Seeing Cedric Ceballos there was kinda weird. CC being famous for pulling off the greatest fraud of a dunk in contest history and also in being a flake for the LA Lakers. But, he was also an all-star in LA and a great role player on Barkley’s Suns teams. I think he might have scored 50 once too. So Budinger does a cheap knockoff of the biggest fraud in dunk contest history –which says something about this year’s dunk contest. Heck, if Cedric Ceballos had pulled off his old dunk (putting on a see-through blind fold, do a normal dunk, then act surprised) I would have given him the 2012 dunk title.

I was actually going into the event thinking that it would be four guys doing a bunch of Rudy Gay imitating Dominique Wilkins type dunks (I posted about it). Well, it basically was with guys throwing down wind mills over motorcycles and not over motorcycles. Someone must have read Zen and the Art of Dunking Over Motorcycles.

Derrick Williams did have a great dunk. Rubio threw the ball of the side of the back board and D-Dubya (is this the best nickname I can come up with? can we do better?) caught it, did a 360 then slammed it home. That was a very nice dunk. A very hard dunk to pull off. Now, if LeBron does it then wow, that is an all-time dunk. But, it was D-Dubya so it wasn’t as big. Williams totally whiffed on his last dunk which really ended the contest on a down note. I guess he was going for a between the legs dunk at the front of the rim which he couldn’t do. Well, I saw DJ Stephens do that dunk at Memphis Madness a few months ago. He also did a dunk where he took a running start picked up the ball on one bounce a few steps inside the free throw line and flushed it. No fanfare, no hype, no props. Just two really good dunks. On the first try.

Paul George had two very good dunks. First, he dunked over Roy Hibbert who is a tall dude. PG can get up and dunk with flair. He had the most outside-the-box dunk with his TRON-inspired jam, possibly the most inventive dunk in contest history. He also did a repeat of Vinsanity’s opening assault on the 2000 Slam Dunk Competition. Ironically, we couldn’t really see it too well. Great dunk with a high level of creativity, unfortunately it didn’t turn out as well as it should have. PG’s Larry Bird sticker dunk took a few attempts but it had a high degree of difficulty. PG had a very good dunk contest and a good weekend for himself. He was the most consistent dunker and might have gotten robbed of the title.

Jeremy Evans’ first dunk was bad. Bad idea with a bad dunk with bad execution. For his last dunk he did a tribute to the Mailman Karl Malone. His second dunk was the best contest of the night. He jumped over a seated Gordon Hayward and dunked two basketballs. It was a very good, fun dunk with great execution of a very neat idea. It was the dunk of the night with D-Dubya’s 360 coming in second, with PG’s TRON and Hibbert Leap coming in 3rd and 4th. Evans was the underdog and had the dunk of the night so he won the contest. Not a huge argument there. Fans picked the winner. But, in a bad dunk contest like this it is like how the worst team in the league gets the first pick in a bad draft. I give this contest an F for format, Kenny Smith, Twitter/texting, hype, and overdone commentary but about a C or C + for actual dunks. Overall, C-. I think that 3 dunks for each guy is ok, but I think that a one-dunk dunk off between the top two guys to determine the winner (with fans voting) would be a better execution of the concept.

The All-Star game featured two loaded rosters with an awesome East starting unit battling a deeper, more balanced Western squad. The two teams really went at it early with the West playing for keeps. Kobe came out smoking and appeared that he wanted to go for 100. Dwight Howard took a bunch of 3’s which made no sense. He didn’t really dominate or anything, plus he got his hook shot blocked by Andrew Bynum. Bynum played a few minutes then sat out. A healthy Bynum vs. Howard would have been a nice matchup but the West was loaded with front court players and Griffin and Love did more than enough in an uptempo game. Melo was ok, but nothing flashy (as usual).

For the West, I thought that Chris Paul, over-dribbled, dominated the ball too much, and made some selfish plays. Steve Nash didn’t play much but had an awesome bounce pass off the break to Westbrook for a reverse lay in. Tony Parker played well in his allotted minutes. I keep thinking that Ricky Rubio would have been PERFECT for this game, and deserved an all-star selection arguably as much as TP and Dirk. Marc Gasol played a little bit and looked very big. He is a half court guy and his game is not really suited for the all-star game. Still, he had 4 points and furthered the Gasol Family All-Star Tradition. Dirk didn’t do too much, but he hit at least one jumper. I would have liked to see the West go to him more.

Wow, Kobe, KD, and Dirk on the same team? With Blake, Love, Westbrook, and Chris Paul and Steve Nash in supporting roles? Is that legal? Westbrook played out of his mind with his usual attacking, above-the-rim game. He is a true gamer and a good guard all-around. The Dwyane Wade of the West also threw down some explosive dunks. Kobe was on fire from the get go and finished well too, breaking MJ’s all-star scoring record.

Kevin Durant was awesome. He can shoot from anywhere, score on anyone, and dunk on everybody. 36 points for KD. The Thunder had 2 of the 3 best Western Conference All-Stars. I don’t think that that has happened since Shaq and Kobe. Kevin Love hit some 3’s, rebounded and scored. The guy is a gamer and will make the squad for the next decade. Hopefully he will bring Ricky Rubio along with him next time. Blake Griffin is a great dunker and a good rebounder. He was INVENTED for this all-star game.

For the Eastern squad, LeBron played brilliantly as did Wade. Wade had a triple double while LeBron had some great dunks and brought the East team back (before falling short). They are clearly the best 1-2 punch in the game and the best wing combo since Jordan and Pippen. Rose didn’t play much but he did ok for himself. Deron Williams got hot and had a very good game for himself (except for his air ball). Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo showed up to play but I got the feeling that at least one too many Celtics made the team. I mean, seriously, how could you leave Josh Smith off a team like this? He has the PERFECT game for All-Star Sunday. Dunking, jumping, running, blocking shots. Relying on instinct, not thinking.

Iggy got his lifetime achievement award and had the dunk of the night. A funky wind up switcheroo wind mill dunk that he flawlessly executed.

The All-Star game was awesome with the Western squad putting on a mind-bending first half performance with 88 (!) points. The game then got competitive and chippy (Wade busted up Kobe pretty good) and then had a final flurry in the 4th quarter with the West eventually prevailing in a classic All Star Game. Durant took home the MVP trophy and Kobe got his record (plus a broken nose). LeBron had a vintage all-star game performance (to go along with his vintage regular season performance) –well, except for his Brett Favre interception in the closing moments.

As far as the players go, LeBron, Wade, and Deron Williams get A’s for the East squad. Dwight Howard gets a C. Even though he got 9 and 10 he took way too many 3’s, got blocked by Andrew Bynum and didn’t really impact the game. Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose get B+ grades. Rose didn’t play much but got his points. Melo had great numbers within the flow of the game.

Iggy gets an A- for his great dunk. Ok, looking at the stat line he was 6-7 from the field for 12 points so he deserves that high grade. Bosh had 7 points on 3-9 shooting in a typical Bosh game. Bosh gets a B-. Paul Pierce looked old. His stat line reads 1-8. He gets a Gentleman’s C for showing up and being the elder statesman. Two more positives: his one shot was a 3 pointer and he didn’t really force anything. Roy Hibbert gets an incomplete for still being hungover after being the tallest prop in dunk contest history.

Other than Dwight Howard who had a rather pedestrian 9 points the other 3 centers combined for a whopping 7 points — with 3 coming from Mr. Hibbert. Rondo played but wasn’t too memorable, except for being the 3rd best point guard in the East and the worst point guard in the game. Luol Deng: 0-2, 0 points. Thanks for playing Mr. Deng, hope you had a great weekend in Orlando. Deng deserved to be there and is one of the best all-around utility guys in the league (along with Harden and Iggy) but he isn’t a dunker or a ball hog so this isn’t really the type of game to showcase his talents.

For the West, Kobe, Durant, Westbrook, Blake Griffin, and Kevin Love get A’s. Kobe set the tempo for the West with his intensity and white-hot shooting. KD took over the game at times and had some jaw-dropping dunks. His runner in the paint effectively put the game away. Westbrook played like a man possessed and finishes as well as anyone. He is awesome off the ball. The Thunder might need to go after a low-key pass first point guard who can shoot some so they can trot out a small lineup of PG-Westbrook-Harden-Durant-Ibaka at times next year. That would pretty much be unstoppable.

Blake Griffin is a total beast. Shawn Kemp without the demons. He had 22 points and 8 rebounds and was clearly the best low post player in the game (sorry, Dwight). Kevin Love was Griffin’s partner in crime and 17 points, a couple of three’s, and several rebounds in limited minutes.

Chris Paul gets a C for dominating the ball and slowing down the pace. He also forced some bad shots. I think he should have run more and passed more, although he did have 12 assists. Nash didn’t play much but had a great pass which gives him a B+ for the game (making the best pass of the night helps). Bynum gets an incomplete for not playing much but he did block Dwight Howard which sent the East team (and Howard) a message. LaMarcus Aldridge had 4 points in limited minutes. He did not force the action.

All in all, I give the All-Star game an A+ rating. The stars were there and they showed up to put on a show. The game featured some all-time greats putting up great games (LeBron, Kobe, Durant, Wade) with two rising star point guards doing well (Westbrook, Rose) with Rose being on the HOF career path. Carmelo Anthony, a perennial all-star and Olympic all-time great, had a good night for himself. Dwight Howard was solid at times and looks like he could end up in the Hall of Fame too. The supporting cast featured solid performances from veteran greats such as Dirk, Nash, Tony Parker, with Paul Pierce also chipping in. Blake Griffin and Kevin Love both had great games, putting on a show and signifying that they are both rising superstars.

For all-star weekend, the event featuring Penny Hardaway gets a B. The rookie/soph game gets an A with the 3 point shoot out also getting an A. The dunk contest gets a C- for largely mediocre dunks with a few really good ones sprinkled in, but mostly for atrocious set-up, format, and gimmicky voting. The All-Star game ended the weekend on a positive not with an A+. Overall, the weekend gets a B+. The low lights being the below average dunk contest (no name guys doing vintage dunks) and the bad crowds. The highlights being the fun rookie/soph game, the interesting 3 point contest with the Love vs. Durant finale, and the riveting All Star Game.

[FastAndFuriousParticipant]

 Lol was that an article or did you write that?

Please tell me that was an article lol

[FLYNTFLOSSYBABY]

it better be an article lol  

[Memphis MadnessParticipant]

I wrote that.  Damn, I should have put it on ESPN Insider an charged for it.  lol

[all-star snubParticipant]

 lol gordon hayward a better rudy gay 

[Mr. 19134Participant]

 Great read man.  You left out this was the year Bosh Spice officially became the Prince of the NBA.

[Ghost01Participant]

 You know who else is really good in all star games? Michael Beasley. Where is he?

[Author]

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