By Alex Kurtz, Sports Editor
The NBA all-star weekend is one of my favorite times of the year. Normally, other all-star games and competitions are just fluff besides the MLB all-star game. However, the NBA knows how to do things the right way because of celebrity presence, skills competitions, and the overall atmosphere.
Let’s start off with the most exciting of events: the dunk contest. Even with the lack of star-power in this year’s contest, there is no other event where you can Blake Griffin throw down a tomahawk slam over a Kia Optima.
The closest thing to it would be the home run derby in the MLB, but the atmosphere during these events are so different. Baseball is laid back and there is a clear separation between the players and fans during the home run derby other than the one person the slugger chooses to pitch to him.
At the NBA dunk contest though, fans and celebrities are right next to each other, intermingling. A common move is to see a player do some ridiculous dunks over fans. Just this year, Kevin Hart and his son got dunked over by Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell.
The NBA also offers a celebrity game. Celebrity games are the only place I see Quavo block a Rachel DeMita layup into the bleachers, or see Justin Bieber go nuclear from the 3-point line.
Now let’s be honest here, this is not the game you watch for good basketball. Every now and then you see someone pull off some nice stuff like Quavo’s beautiful euro-step layup he hit in this year’s game, but that is rare. This is the game where you want to see famous people attempt to play basketball and laugh alongside them.
Finally, after a few other events such as the 3-point contest and skills competition, the weekend wraps up with good basketball in the actual NBA all-star game. Many people say that its boring because it is all scoring and no defense, but let us be honest here. Nobody likes low-scoring games, especially in the game of basketball.
In football, you want a shootout that goes down to the wire like during this year’s Super Bowl. In basketball it is no different.
The best basketball players on the planet are all playing so I want to see amazing plays.
The NBA all-star game brings an excitement level that is only rivaled by baseball. However, even baseball cannot compete with the celebrity presence and the entertainment value that the NBA can offer.
As a Knicks fan, it is the most exciting display of professional basketball I am going to see all year excluding the NBA Finals that I know my team will not be in.
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