NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND REVIEW

Coming into NBA All-Star Weekend we had great storylines. Headlining these storylines was Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. Everyone wanted to see how the interaction between these two would play out since Durant as joined the Warriors. Let's not even get into that just yet though, I want to start off with Saturday night.

Kristaps Porzingis

The Taco Bell Skills Challenge didn't disappoint. I picked Isaiah Thomas to win the event, but it was Kristaps Porzingis who took home 1st place. This is the second year in a row that a big man has won the competition. Karl-Anthony Towns was winner last year in Toronto.

Eric Gordon

Next, we had the JBL Three-Point Contest. My pick to win it was 2013 winner Kyrie Irving. Defending champion Klay Thompson surprised a lot of people by not making it out of the first round. The final round came down to Irving, Eric Gordon, and Kemba Walker. Irving and Gordon tied with 20 points forcing a shootout in which Gordon won with a final score of 21. So far this All-Star Saturday night is off to a pretty good start.

$500,000 raised for Sager Strong Foundation

Soon after there was a tribute to Craig Sager, which in my eyes was the highlight of the Saturday night festivities. NBA players came onto the court along with other celebrities to help raise $500,000 for the Sager Strong Foundation. It ended with one of Sager's younger sons making a layup with the help from Shaq to push the total to half a million.

Glen Robinson III

Now it's the moment that everyone looks forward to. The Verizon Slam Dunk Contest. I think majority of people at home like me chose Aaron Gordon to win it and put on a show similar to last year. It started promising with Gordon using a drone to help assist on his first dunk attempt. Gordon missed on his first couple attempts and that took all of the excitement out the building. On his last try he completed the dunk, and that's the last dunk he would make. His next dunk he missed on each attempt and failed to reach the next round. The final round would be between Glen Robinson III and Derrick Jones Jr. This was about as boring as it could get. Robinson would practically win due to default because Jones was unable to make a dunk on his first attempt. Three of Robinson's dunks were just about the same. It wasn't that they weren't good dunks, but I wasn't impressed. But then again, I haven't dunked since my days on the Jordan Jammer so...

Anthony Davis

Usually when Saturday night doesn't seem as exciting there's at least redemption in the game on Sunday. I picked the Western Conference to be victorious with Westbrook taking home MVP honors. The West would get the victory 192-182. Anthony Davis would take home MVP scoring an All-Star game record 52 points. One highlight I enjoyed was seeing Durant connect with Westbrook on an alley-oop. That was about all the interaction we saw between the two. I'm all for putting on a show for the fans with the highlight dunks, crafty ball-handling, and crazy assists but for the love of competitiveness can we get some defense??? We could've been treated to a great ending with the game being close halfway through the fourth quarter. West coach Steve Kerr puts back in the starters while East coach Brad Stevens leaves most of his starters on the bench. I don't know who's to blame but if the game is close majority of starters need to be back on the floor to finish the game. Until some type of defense is played these games will continue to get worse each and every year.

All-Star Weekend was a let down this year. The most exciting part of the weekend happened after the game when DeMarcus Cousins was traded to the Pelicans. The dunk contest needs to be revamped. Either get more high profiled NBA players to participate or let these YouTube sensations compete and put on a show for the world to see. I miss the days when athletes loved to compete in the All-Star game. At the rate this game is headed I wouldn't be surprised next year if a team puts up 200 points. Get it together NBA!