Well, it’s that time of the year again. All-Star weekend begins Friday and fans across the world are making their picks for this year’s events.
In this post, I’ll be sharing my picks for each event, from the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, slated for 7 p.m. Friday, to the 68th NBA All-Star game at 8 p.m. Sunday.
Celebrity Game
Every year since 2003, the NBA has had an exhibition game with rosters made up of celebrities. At the end of the game, an MVP award is given to the player with the best performance.
At one point in time, actor and comedian Kevin Hart won four MVP awards back to back.
My pick for this year’s Celebrity All-Star Game MVP is the reigning MVP, rapper and recording artist Quavo. He took it last year with 19 points and will come back this year for another award.
MTN DEW ICE Rising Stars
This game is between 10 first- and second-year NBA players from the United States going up against 10 first- and second-year fellow league players from across the world. Just as in the Celebrity All-Star Game, there is an MVP at the end of the game.
I can’t see anyone beating the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum for the game’s MVP award. Don’t get me wrong, the Mavericks’ Luka Dončić is a great player, but Tatum has a knack for scoring and has the “Mamba Mentality.”
Taco Bell Skills Challenge
Kicking off All-Star Saturday Night is the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, a competition to test players’ ball handling, shooting and passing abilities.
Eight players are competing in this challenge, but there will only be one winner. In my opinion, it comes down to Tatum and the Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma. Both players are skilled, but I’m going to have to go with Kuzma simply because I think he’ll hit the three on his first or second attempt each time he goes up.
MTN DEW Three-Point Contest
Second in the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night is the Three-Point Contest. In this competition, a participant has one minute to make as many 3s as possible from five positions behind the arc.
This competition is always so hard to call, as a great shooter can have an off day and lose while an underdog could catch fire and hit shot after shot. The key to winning this competition is consistency and after seeing the roster, I’d have to go with the Warriors’ Steph Curry. As much as I’d like to say the Suns’ Devin Booker, who set the record score of 28/34 last year, I believe Curry will have himself a night and score 27/34 to win it, as he did in 2015.
AT&T Slam Dunk
Saturday night will end with the 2019 AT&T Slam Dunk that will feature four high-flying dunkers competing against each other to gain the best scores from a panel of judges.
In all honesty, I am not looking forward to this event as I don’t see any dunk contest living up to 2016’s NBA Slam Dunk. Yet, I will stop and watch this one as I root for the explosive Knicks guard Dennis Smith Jr. take the floor. I am always in shock when watching him take off and float in the air for what seems like an eternity. He is my pick for this year’s contest.
NBA All-Star Game
Here’s the main event of it all, the All-Star game where Team LeBron will face off against Team Giannis for all the bragging rights.
This game will come down to the wire but will be won by Team LeBron and his godlike starting five. More important, though, who will be this year’s All-Star MVP?
The answer is simple, the Beard. James Harden is unguardable and will take advantage of anyone on him, allowing him to become this year’s All-Star Game MVP.
One thing is more important than who wins and who becomes the MVP. The fans deserve to see one last Wade-to-LeBron alley-oop, and I think they’ll get it.
Those are my picks for each event in this year’s All-Star Weekend. I feel pretty confident that most of these are correct, but we’ll have just wait and see.
