To me, All-Star Saturday has always been the highlight of the All-Star Weekend. There is guaranteed excitement and entertainment. The game itself is always a toss-up, but like a reliable friend you always know what you’re getting from Saturday night. Here are my predictions.
SHOOTING STARS
People tend to hate on this event because of the forced involvement of the WNBA. I don’t understand the logic, how can you not love watching . That’ll keep your eyes glued to the TV set. Much better than the 2002 and 2003 disaster known as the Hoop-It-Up. Same basic concept except the teams actually played 3-on-3. This was horrifying to watch. Imagine legends (I’m looking at you Magic, Moses and Dominique) made fools of themselves as did celebrities. You should be happy that Stern had all of the footage demolished.
To the event. It features 4 teams of 3, consisted of an NBA player, legend and a WNBA player. There are six spots sprinkled all over the court, each team trying to make them in order and in the least amount of time possible. The final spot is of course from half-court. There is a bit of strategy as obviously you don’t want to have a horrible shooter taking the three-pointer. Here are the teams.
Phoenix: Amare Stoudemire, Eddie Johnson, Cappie Pondexter
–Amare can’t shoot to save his life and unfortunately for Eddie, this isn’t 1997, he can’t hit game-winners and run around like a chicken with his head cut off. Although if somehow he hit the game-winning half court shot and re-enacted that moment I would crown this the best All-Star Weekend of this decade. Anywho I can’t with any sort of good faith endorse a team headlined by Amare Stoudemire in a shooting competition. Last place.
Detroit: Bill Laimbeer, Chauncey Billups, Swin Cash.
–Shockingly enough this is the team that won it last year. The bad news for them: no team in the illustrious 4 year history of this event has repeated. The good news: Swin Cash won’t have to do any highlights. Although I would still much rather listen to her than Tim Legler. I’m not sure I really want to see Laimbeer running around in a Detroit jersey either. Anyways, simply based on the fact that no team has ever repeated I’m going to have to say that this team doesn’t repeat
Chicago: Chris Duhon, BJ Armstrong, Candace Dupree
–This team should be the favorite if BJ is still lights out. This team will also make people scratch their heads and sprint to Google the most. I mean really, they couldn’t get Phoenix or New York in there? Lack of star power aside, all three can shoot. And this year they won’t be handicapped by Scottie Pippen and his trying to come back to the league. However, I just feel like they are too good on paper and will crumble under the lights. 2nd place
San Antonio: Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Becky Hammon
–Well duh. You should have known I was going to go with this team. Can Duncan or The Admiral make a three? No. But how do you not root for this team? You’ve got the Big Fundamental, The Admiral and Becky freakin Hammon. I don’t need to justify it, they’re my pick and I’m sticking to it. WINNER!
SKILLS COMPETITION
Now this is an underrated competition. Who doesn’t love a good obstacle course? Quick overview of the course: layup, dribble through the obstacles, chest pass, bounce pass, top of the key jumper, outlet pass, dribble back through obstacles into a layup. And I’m spent. The field features two-time defending champion Dwyane Wade, inagrural champion Jason Kidd, two-time loser Chris Paul and Deron Williams.
Deron Williams: I just don’t see him winning for some odd reason. I could be wrong and maybe he’ll take this event personnally (he seems to take everything to another level when he sees CP-3) but I feel like he would be the guy to struggle with the bounce pass or something like that. Just got an itch, go with it people.
Jason Kidd: Sure he won in 2003, but his winning time was 35.1 seconds. Wade has won it in 26 the past couple years. Couple the fact that Kidd isn’t getting any younger and the fact that he will more than likely struggle with that top of the key jumper and I don’t see him winning this one. Also he might see Devean George in the audience, throw a pass that hits him in the face and then walk off. You never know people, you never know.
Chris Paul: This will be his third year in the competition and the third time he’ll lose. I mean the past two years he hasn’t even gotten to the finals, regularly getting beated by LeBron (both 06 and 07) and Kobe. He was dead last in a field that had both Kobe and LeBron, so sorry hometown crowd your boy won’t be getting the W today.
Dwyane Wade: How can you go against the two-time champ? He’s shown that he pretty much owns this event. Sure he’s only won 9 games this year but that doesn’t mean this. After tonight they’ll have to name this event after him. It’s kind of like Bird with the 3-point contest. WINNER
THREE-POINT SHOOTOUT
You should know the drill. 6 players, 2 rounds (top 3 advance). A formula that will always deliver entertainment. Also, not be racist…but white people kill this contest. 13 of the 21 winners have been pale skinned. Not a good sign for you Boobie or Rip. Not going to go competitor by competitor becuase it would take forever and a year. Rip Hamilton is automatically scratched off because of his disappearing hairline and the fact that he’s a midrange shooter. I know you’re shooting 46% but let’s not fool ourselves. Next off the list is Boobie Gibson. I just feel like he’s used all of his Mojo for the weekend last night. He had to have gotten into some debauchary last night after that performance. Then I’m going to cross Dirk off the list. For one, he just got thrown in. Secondly he’s shooting a horrific percentage from behind the arc right now. He’s not the Dirk of old, so unless he can catch lightning in a bottle I don’t see it from the German.
Finals: Nash, Kapono, Peja. I’m going to cross Nash off because his shot takes the longest to get off. Then I’m going to scratch Peja off because he’s the hometown guy and we all know Peja doesn’t do that well with pressure.
Winner: Jason Kapono. That man can shoot the damn ball.
SLAM DUNK CONTEST
Kudos to the L for finding a way to build intrigue for this year’s dunk contest. Who would have thought people would be this excited for a dunk contest featuring a 27 year old rookie, a guy who never plays, a 2nd year player and a 6-11 guy. Thankfully no Nate Robinson this year.
Dwight Howard: As much as I’ll be rooting for him, I’m not sure Dwight can pull it off this year. Shawn Kemp was one of the greatest dunkers ever and could never capture the crown. He lost to Dee Brown, come on people. Bigs always have a harder time because Joe and Jane Doe at home go ‘Wait a second, he SHOULD be able to do that.’ But with the kiss-the-rim, sticker dunk and other craziness in his head he cannot be counted out. Also let’s not forget that the fans are gong to have a big say in this…and considering he was voted in to the ASG, if he can get to the Finals he could pull it out.
Gerald Green: I doubt he’ll pull a Josh Smith and lay a complete egg as the defending champ. Seeing as how he doesn’t play much and has little to no basketball IQ, you can never count Gerald Green out of a dunk contest. It’s probably all he practices. And yes I know I’m mean.
Rudy Gay: He’s
taking ideas off YouTube and can really fly. He’s got the athleticism and the creativity.
Jamario Moon: The wild card…he’s preview dunk looked nuts. Perhaps people could be putting too much pressure on him though.
Prediction: If Dwight makes it to the Finals he’s winning. However I feel like Rudy and Jamario make it to the Finals with Rudy taking the W. He can’t let me down twice can he?