My legs hurt, my body is crying for sleep, I don’t have any more clean clothes to wear but my heart is hurting – the NBA All-Star Weekend is over. Three days of non-stop action, and innumerable activities across the town of Charlotte, ended with the big All-Star Game on Sunday, 17 February, night.
On each one of those three days top players in the current NBA, rookies, young talent, celebrities, including actors, singers, comedians, NBA legends, and fans from across the world just got together to celebrate the sport they love – basketball.
And in case you couldn’t keep track of everything that went down during the weekend in the home city of the Charlotte Hornets, here’s a lowdown of the highlights.
10. Two Indians Participate in Basketball With Borders
Two young basketball players from the NBA Academy in India, Harshwardhan Tomar and Grishma Niranjan, participated in the fifth annual Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Global Camp.
Seventeen-year-old Niranjan from Bengaluru was part of the winning girls team on the final day of the camp.
9. Charlotte Hosts Weekend After NBA’s 2017 LGBTQ Stand
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver started his press conference at the 2019 All-Star by thanking the media, and then the city of Charlotte that hosted the Weekend after 28 years. The city in North Carolina was originally scheduled to host the All-Star Game back in 2017. However, due to a law passed in the state that the league believed was discriminating against the LGBTQ community, the All-Star Weekend was shifted out of Charlotte.
With efforts led by Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan, the law was repealed, and the All-Star finally brought back to his home state. The city wore a festive feel all three days, as the roads around the main venue – Spectrum Center – remained blocked, but full of basketball lovers donning NBA jerseys and All-Star merchandise.
8. Hasan Minhaj’s Team Goes Down
Comedian Hasan Minhaj scored 6 points as his team went down 80-82 against the home team of North Carolina in the Celebrity Game – the event that kicked the weekend off in Charlotte.
The most famous celebrity of the night however, was well Famous Loss, who took home the MVP trophy after scoring 22 points and having three assists to his name.
7. Rising Stars Game
In the second event on the first day, Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma was named the Most Valuable Player of the Rising Stars after leading the US Team of first ad second year NBA players to a 161-144 victory over the World Team.
“You know, there's a lot of great players out there, all stars, and we're all young rising stars in this league. Obviously, it's an exhibition, like you said, but it's always better to have bragging rights any time you can,” said the 23-year-old, when asked if it was important to him to look better than his peers even in an exhibition match.
6. Incredible Diallo’s Incredible Dunk
He put a basketball rack under the net, but then walked away from it looking disappointed. ‘Not good enough. We needed the biggest man in the room,’ said Oklahoma City's Hamidou Dialloon the mic. Former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal was then called onto the court, and made to stand under the net, while Diallo walked away and tore his All-Star jersey to reveal a Superman costume underneath.
Going over O'Neal in the first round, and getting a boost from rapper Quavo in the finale, Diallo soared to the crown by topping New York's Dennis Smith Jr.
5. Tatum Takes Home Skills Challenge Trophy
Boston's Jayson Tatum hit a 3-pointer from just beyond midcourt to beat Atlanta's Trae Young in the final round of the skills competition at All-Star Saturday night.
Tatum defeated Memphis' Mike Conley in the first round, then topped Denver's Nikola Jokic in the semis.
Tatum was slightly behind Young going into the 3-pointer, the final shot of the event, and decided he needed to try the long shot to get one in before Young could shoot for the title.
4. Curry Loses 3-Point Contest
Brooklyn's Joe Harris trumped Golden State's Stephen Curry to win the 3-point contest at the All-Star Saturday night.
Harris made 12 consecutive shots at one point in the final round on his way to a score of 26 points. Curry was second with 24 in the finals, and Sacramento's Buddy Hield was third with 19 points.
The Warriors' star made his first nine shots of the final round, then missed three of five shots from the top of the key.
Stephen Curry won the first round with 27 points out of a possible of 34. Hield was second with 26 points, and Harris finished with 25 to grab the last spot in the finals.
3. J Cole’s Mid-Game Show
During the half-time show, rapper and North Carolina local J Cole performed a few of his songs including “ATM,” “Love Yourz,” and “No Role Modelz”.
2. Dwayne Wade, Dirk Nowitzki’s Last All-Star
Honouring their career’s body of work, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki were given All-Star farewells.
Nowitzki entered the game late in the first quarter and made his first three shots – all of them 3-pointers – before heading back to the bench. Wade checked in not long after Nowitzki took the floor, then started the second half and achieved his primary missions for his last All-Star Game as a player.
Wade finished with seven points in 10 minutes, and Nowitzki never returned after his nine-point, four-minute opening stint. When the third quarter ended, every player gathered behind them as Wade and Nowitzki were honoured with commemorative jerseys at midcourt.
1. Team LeBron Win, MVP is Durant
Team LeBron came from behind to defeat Team Giannis 178-164 in the All-Star Game in Charlotee on Sunday night. While Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 38 points and 10 rebounds, Kevin Durant won the NBA All-Star Game MVP award, which has never been won by a non-American.
(With inputs from AP)
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