The NBA Actually Put on a Pretty Great All Star Weekend

Even though I don't think they should have done it, and I bet Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons would agree with me, I watched the NBA All Star game, and the skills stuff they did, and I enjoyed it. Sure it wasn't as intense and close and nail biting as last season's, but hey, it was still a good time.

I started on Saturday night by tuning in to the 2 on 2 game featuring four rappers. I'll admit, I do not know who any of them are, but the game was fine. I believe Quavo's team won, and that dude is a solid basketball player. He stole the show. And yesterday, I kind of checked in on all of the festivities. I watched the skills competition, and that was fun. Damontas Sabonis won, but I bet Chris Paul would have if he didn't blow that layup. Also, Luka Doncic looked totally out of sorts doing the skills. I'm sure he was going about 25 percent, but still, he was missing that pass far too much. Sabonis also got lucky that he faced Nikola Vucevic in the finals. Those two were bricking three after three. But still, I found myself enjoying it. Then we had the three point contest. I will tell you right now, this was the best event of the evening, and I am including the game itself. Steph Curry proved, again, that when he wants to be engaged, he is the best shooter in the league. Other guys had solid rounds. Donovan Mitchell and Zach Lavine put up some big numbers. Mike Conley, who was a late addition, gave Curry all he could in the final. But Curry just proved that he is elite. He proved that he is the best of the best. Reggie Miller even pushed him, asking if he told everyone in the contest that they would be coming in second. Curry did not answer, but I bet he said those exact words. And the way he won it, on the last shot, the moneyball, that is how these events should go. I also liked that he dedicated the trophy to Klay Thompson, and said that he was one of the only people who could truly beat him in a three point shooting contest. Steph Curry is a great dude.

The three point contest led into the game, and this was a blowout from the jump. Everyone knew that LeBron picked a better team right after the "draft" was done. He had Steph, himself, Dame, Giannis, Jaylen Brown. Chris Paul, Rudy Gobert, Luka and Nikola Jokic. He had shooting, defense, ball handling, passing and athleticism. Team Durant was great, but not on Team LeBron's level. Durant had Harden and Beal, Kyrie, Kawhi, Jayson Tatum, Zach Lavine, Donovan Mitchell, Julius Randle and Zion. They had a whole lot of shooting, and that is about it. They didn't really have size, due to Embiid being ruled out. Zion barely played, but man did he have some nice dunks. Kawhi seemed to be going about 50 percent. And Tatum, while being probably the second best defender on the team, only tried when he was guarding Jaylen Brown. Everyone expected that Team LeBron would win, and they did, in convincing fashion. As I said, Zion had some nice dunks, but that was about all the highlights Team Durant had. Team LeBron featured Giannis shooting 16 of 16 from the field. Dame and Steph were popping off threes from nearly half court and burying them. LeBron had one of his usual high flying breakaway dunks. CP3 was making great moves and setting up guys for easy looks. Rudy Gobert was throwing down lobs. Jaylen Brown was awesome everywhere. They just had the better squad. And even with the Elam ending, where teams did pick up the play a bit, Team LeBron had it in the bag. It was pretty rad to see Dame end it on a shot that was, maybe, a few steps in from half court. It was a fun game.

There was also the dunk contest at halftime, which I thought was a neat little wrinkle. Obi Toppin, Cassius Stanley and Anfernee Simons didn't light up the place, but it was still fun to watch these dudes do amazing dunks that we know consider average. That Toppin reverse between the legs was dope. The first Cassius Stanley dunk was rad. The stuff Simons did, considering he is "only" 6'3, it was amazing. It wasn't the best dunk contest, but it certainly was not the worst.

In the end, Giannis got the much deserved MVP, he shot 100 percent from the field, and they were able to pull this off and it was still fun. I may not agree with them in playing an All Star game this year, but hey, it was fun and it held my attention. The NBA is the best.

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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