All-Star weekend
On a lighter note in the midst of the tense finish to the regular season, the NBA All-Star weekend provides the chance to celebrate the top players across the league in a fun weekend of entertainment.
From February 14th-16th, the game’s best players will converge on Chicago for a series of events that showcase the sheer talent of the NBA’s best performers. With captains and starters set to be announced for the All-Star game today, fans will get to see which of their favorite players have been deemed the best players in the league.
On Friday the 14th, the All-Star weekend kicks off with two feature games in the evening. The first is the All-Star celebrity game which pits big names from other industries against each other, in a stupidly entertaining clash of personalities and surprising talents. The other game is the NBA Rising Stars game, an exhibition of the most talented first- and second-year players across the league in a USA vs. Rest of the World style matchup.
On the Saturday night, the attention turns to the skills competition as the best ballers go toe-to-toe in a series of challenges. The first event is the Skills Challenge, which aims to test ball-handling, passing and shooting ability of players in a time-based obstacle course. The second event is a 3-point contest; 10 competitors shooting from five different locations to simply score as many points as possible.
The third event on Saturday night is the NBA Dunk Contest and is possibly the most fun of all events. A host of NBA high-flyers go toe-to-toe and pretty much try to pull off the most insane dunks possible.
The final big event of the All-Star weekend is, of course, the All-Star game on Sunday evening. With Giannis Antetokounmpo set to captain the East and LeBron currently leading the voting for the West, the best of the best players will go head-to-head in a usually offensive dominant showcasing.
All these events are just a little bit of fun for fans, a nice break from a grueling season for players and a chance for teams to recover before the final stretch of the season. Although the events do not truly count towards anything, it is still some light entertainment to see the best players go head to head in a jam-packed weekend.