Some may consider the actual all star game the pinnacle of the weekend. I personally think it was the 5th best event of the weekend.
1. Dunk contest
2. 3 point shooting contest
3. Rising stars game
4. Skills competition
5. All-Star game
Check the highlights if you didn't see the events live and let me know what you think! I'm going to keep the videos top four. First up: Skills highlights.
Next: Rising Stars
On Friday night there was the Rising stars game. So 20 of the NBA's young guns showed off there skills in a sort of junior all star game. There were a total of 14 teams represented in the game with only 2 teams having more then 2 players in the game - Utah & Minnesota. But while being in the game is a special sign of recognition it's just the beginning because it comes down to performance. Of the 311 points scored 77 were scored by Timberwolves. That's a little under 25% of the points put down by the pups. Going a little bit further, Zach Lavine was named the MVP of the game. A second year player, who barely played during his one year at UCLA, to be named the Most Valuable Player in a good full of good young players, including 2 of his teams mates is not insignificant. He's still developing but a year ago he was just considered to be a dunker, which is fun but is not a game making skill to have. Now's he's becoming a player and it showed.
Going back to Saturday night, was the Golden State show. Reigning Association MVP Steph Curry went toe to toe with his team Klay Thompson. It went down so fast that I didn't even see the competition live but the highlights and chatter make it seem like another gem of an event.
To wrap up All Star Saturday night was the Dunk Contest. The competition was a four man bracket featuring Center Andre Drummond from the Pistons, Denver Guard/Forward Will Barton, Orlando Forward Aaron Gordon and Guard Zach Lavine From Minnesota. Barton and Drummond got dispatched in pretty quick fashion leaving Lavine and Gordon to battle it out. Battle it out they did! If you've missed all the video and chatter then look it up because the full highlight video is must see! I remember seeing Aaron Gordon at Arizona and he was a good dunker those days. I didn't think he had this kind of athleticism but he destroyed the dunk contest. The performance he put on could be on Broadway, just crazy! Problem is, he was going up against a guy who has springs in his legs so every big, theatrical dunk that Gordon got done was matched by a high, long, impressive dunk by Zach. The final round went into a dunk off because they kept tying with perfect scores. To be fair to the man, a few of Gordon's dunks deserved higher then 50's but the rules are the rules and he kept getting matched by Lavine. Until Gordon got a 47 and Lavine got a 50. He deserved another 50 on to real but the score was given and Zach out did it. The way they were going, they could still be dunking in spectacular fashion but the fact is that Zach Lavine got the higher score to close it out. It's worth noting that there are only 6 players to ever win it more then once: Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan are amongst that group. That's really good company for the young Lavine to be apart of already!
So close it out, what were the closing accolades for the pups?
- 3 players in the young guns game.
- Scored 25% of the points in the game
- MVP of the Rising Stars game (Zach Lavine)
- Winner of the Skills Challenge (Karl - Anthony Towns)
- Winner of the Dunk contest (Zach Lavine)
For now, it was absolutely a tWIN cities weekend and I wouldn't have it any other way!
No comments:
Post a Comment