2021 NBA All Star Weekend Recap

Taco Bell Skills Challenge

This year, the Taco Bell Skills Challenge featured Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers, Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, Julius Randle of the New York Knicks, and Chris Paul of the Phoenix Suns.

It's worth noting that when it was Luka Doncic's turn, it seemed like he either wasn't trying, or just didn't care to.

An upset did occur in the Skills Challenge. Nikola Vucevic was going up against Chris Paul, an NBA legend who many saw as the favorite to win the challenge. Paul seemed likely to win if he didn't miss the layup part of the skills challenge. That was the turning point that allowed Vucevic to flip the script and best him.

Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers ended up winning the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, beating out Nikola Vucevic.

3-Point Contest

The three point contest this year can best be summed up by a classic Larry Bird quote from the 1988 three point contest: "Who's coming in second?".

The players participating in the three point contest were Mike Conley of the Utah Jazz, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, Zach Lavine of the Chicago Bulls, and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, who many regard as the greatest shooter in NBA history.

The three point contest went exactly as one would expect. Stephen Curry absolutely washed the competition and he others were just shooting for second place. When Curry was shooting it seemed liked the ball didn't even touch the net, but it still went in.

Curry's first time up resulted in him putting up a score of 31. It wasn't until the final round where someone put up a score that would put pressure on him. Mike Conley had put up 27 points in the final round. Curry got off to a shaky start to begin his final round, but quickly got hot to beat Mike Conley by one point to get a final round score of 28 points. This win was Curry's second career 3-Point Contest Victory.

Slam Dunk Contest

This years dunk contest featured Obi Toppin of the New York Knicks, Anfernee Simons of the Portland Trail Blazers, and Cassius Stanley of the Indiana Pacers. Among the judges were hall of fame Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb, Jason Richardson, Dee Brown, and Josh Smith. All of which are former Slam Dunk Contest champions.

In this year's dunk contest, it can best be summed up by thee best dunk of the competition (Cassius Stanley's through the legs dunk on the first attempt) being rated a 44/50. Many felt that the dunk contest this year was a complete snooze fest and the topic of if the NBA should retire the dunk contest was brought up again.

The winner of the contest ended up being Anfernee Simons of the Portland Trail Blazers.

The 70th NBA All Star Game

The theme of this year's All Star Game was helping out HBCU's. Whichever team won a quarter of the game, a charitable contribute of $150,000 for each of the first three quaters won. The winning team will have $300,000 donated to their charity. Team LeBron represented the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and Team Durant represented the UNCF.

The matchup this year was Team LeBron vs Team Durant. The teams were picked through a draft with LeBron James and Kevin Durant as their respective team's captains. On Team LeBron was LeBron James, Giannis Antetkoumpo, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Jaylen Brown, Paul George, Rudy Gobert, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Domantas Sabonis, and Ben Simmons (Did Not Play). On Team Durant was Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Joel Embiid (Did Not Play), Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker (Did Not Play), Anthony Davis (Did Not Play), James Harden, Zach Lavine, Donovan Mitchell, Julius Randle, Nikola Vucevic, and Zion Williamson. Mike Conley eventually replaced Devin Booker for his first ever All-Star appearance.

This year, the NBA used the format of last year's All Star Game. The format being a target score will be set by adding 24 points to the leading team's total after the first three quarters. The first team to reach that total wins the game. The 24 number comes as a tribute to the late great Kobe Bryant.

Just hours before tip-off, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid (front runner for MVP) of the Philadelphia 76ers were scratched from the game due to being exposed to COVID-19. They have continued to test negative and are not expected to miss any games.

Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard put on an absolute laser show with deep threes throughout the whole game. Damian Lillard even hit a half court three to win the game for Team LeBron. This was the perfect ending to an All Star Weekend that seemed to be dominated by three point shooting in a league dominated by three point shooting.

Team LeBron won the game by a score of 170-150. Throughout its existence, Team LeBron is 4-0 in the All-Star Game. You gotta think that LeBron will be a team owner one day with success in building teams.

Giannis Antetokounmpo of Team LeBron was named the NBA All Star Game Kobe Bryant MVP. Antetokounmpo scored 35 points on 16-16 (100%) shooting.