Observations
- The NBA leaned in hard on the Hollywood bit with stars being brought into the arena among a throng of adoring paparazzi throughout the evening.
- The NBA ad where the singer spits out players names with the instrumentals for Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ is catchy. Maybe someone will do a song about this year’s Spurs roster.
- The Dunk Contest is on its deathbed.
State Farm 3-Point Shooting Contest
In a league that continues to display the 3-point shot more, it was really nice to hear Reggie Miller provide the player-by-player analysis of how their respective forms could portend to success in this contest. The 4-point logo spot was a dead spot for nearly all of the participants tonight.
First Round
Donovan Mitchell had a blazing hot start on his first two racks, but faded late for 24 points. Jamal Murray could not find any momentum from rack-to-rack
and languised with 17 points. Norman Powell looked like Rashard Lewis out there with a high release and finished with 23 points. Bobby Portis, like Murray, had a scattershot performance and ended up with a paltry 15. Tyrese Maxey has the makings of a Lillard-like easy-shooting form, but scored 17.
Kon Kneuppel (27 points) started the competition well, and the two last elder participants – Devin Booker (channeling his inner Klay Thompson with 30 points) and Damian Lillard (showing no visible wear from his myriad leg injuries with 27 points) finished in the top three for Round 1.
Final Round
Kneuppel faded in the bright lights of Intuit Dome and shot quite a good amount of back rim bricks and ended in third with 17 points.
Booker and Lillard staged a shootout for the ages. Lillard was consistently great on each rack and put tons of pressure on Booker with his 29 point performance.
I had a hard time believing Lillard in his congratulatory interview when he said that he knew it would be these three competitors in the finals, but he was a deserving winner tonight. Booker hit on 9 of his first 10 and had several opportunities to overtake Lillard on the final rack, but missed his final three – falling just two short of 3-time winner Lillard.
CHAMPION: Damian Lillard (Portland TrailBlazers)
Kia Shooting Stars
The Shooting Stars event was brought back from the dead, with the team leads assigned to be designated passers for each round – it turned out that the leads / passers truly mattered to the final outcome.
Team Harper, led by 2 Chainz, had our favorite father-son(s) combination – Ron and Ron, Jr. along with Spur rookie Dylan.
Team All-Star, led by Druski, had Scottie Barnes, Chet Holmgren, and former Piston Rip Hamilton.
Team Cameron (as in Indoor Stadium), led by actor Anthony Anderson, had former Dukies Kon Knueppel, Hawk Jalen Johnson, and former Clipper Corey Maggette.
Team Knicks fielded Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Allan Houston and was led by Jalen’s dad, Rick Brunson.
First Round
Team All-Star: Druski as the designated passer, resembled the skit of the guy that couldn’t make any shots in an empty gym with some horrific passing displays. The team finished with only 16 points.
Team Cameron: Anderson took his duties more seriously and Kneuppel’s corner three surpassed Druski’s total with many seconda to spare. Cameron finished with 24.
Team Harper: Ron, Sr. missed an open lay-up! And the sons could not make up for dad’s lack of shooting touch. However, the Harpers finished with 18. Did you all know T-Chainz played Division I basketball?
Team Knicks: Allan Houston’s baseline three put the Knicks into the finals with a staggering 31 points.
Final Round
Team Cameron: Maggette played to the adoring home Clipper crowd and converted several key buckets on the way to a 38-point showing.
Team Knicks: The team rode a wave of momentum with the halfcourt shot to an emphatic 47 point victory. But we know that, just like with their Emirates Cup title, there’ll be a post-All Star swoon coming. So we Pounders are good.
CHAMPION: Team Knicks
Between Competition Entertainment
Ludacris – in a Dominique Wilkins jersey – went through a quick set while the stage was getting set for the dunk contest.
First song was ‘Get out the Way” – a good euphemism for what the Spurs are doing to the other Western Conference teams so far.
Next song: “When I Move You Move” – a great analogy for the in-game movement of the Spurs’ cadre of excellent guards
CHAMPION: People between 35-50 years old who grew up on hiphop.
AT&T Slam Dunk
The judges were: former Spur Brent Barry – resplendent in the Clipper warm-up jacket he wore when he won the 1996 contest in San Antonio, Corey Maggette, Dwight Howard, Dominique Wilkins, and ‘Doctor J’ Julius Erving. I really liked that the NBC telecast hyped up the players with walk-in videos. They staged the dunk set on the Wall side of the arena to create a solid background effect. Miami Heat president Pat Riley came to support his young player – resembling British actor Jonathan Pryce.
First Round
Carter Bryant – deemed ‘Carter the Kid’ – his first attempt was reminiscent of Vince Carter’s (2000) twist-in-the- wrong-direction for a one-handed jam. That netted him a score of 45.6. Bryant, with a chance to get into the top two, tossed a nice ball to himself and punched in a windmill slam that resulted in a 49.2.
Keshad Johnson – given the name ‘Flight 305’ (Dade County) – he sauntered in with Bay Area rap royalty E-40 and then followed it by doinking his first attempt. The second one involved leaping over E-40 for a one-handed jam with a hand to the side of the head for measure. His 47.4 score placed him first of the quartet. After two botched tosses, he converted a reverse two-handed dunk and, after dancing better than dunking, the judges gave him a 45.4.
Jase Richardson (son of Jason) – was not surprisingly coined ‘J-Rich Reignited’ – a milquetoast toss-it-to-himself and catch it mid-air for a two-hand reverse dunk. This type of dunk has been done too many times in the last decade-plus. He earned a score of 45.4 for this. After missing his next four – including one where he wiped out and fell on his backside – he threw down a 270 power dunk and received a 43.4.
Jaxson Hayes – the third best dunking big on the Lakers was assigned the moniker ‘Action Jaxson’ – then proceeded to fizzle out on a one-handed floating dunk from well within the free throw stripe. He deservedly got the 44.6 score he received (skewed higher by Howard’s 47). After a between-the-legs try (think Isaiah Rider) that bounced high off the rim, his next attempt went through mostly cleanly and got him 47.2.
Final Round
‘Carter the Kid’ (1st Round – 94.8)
Attempt #1: He one-upped Johnson’s try with a high toss to himself and a between-the-legs throwdown that impressed Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady and generated 50s across the board.
Attempt #2: After missing a Jamal Crawford backboard toss and Vince Carter combo multiple times, he was forced to do a 360 slam to beat the dunk-clock. This got him a 43.0 (and likely bringin back bad memories of missed dunks in San Antonio’s earlier games) and ceded the contest to Johnson.
‘Flight 305’ (2nd Round – 92.8)
Attempt #1: He converted the one that he unsuccessfully tried in the previous one – a baseline between-the-legs reverse that netted him a 49.6.
Attempt #2: Johnson started from deep in the backcourt and tossed home a one-hander that was outshined by so many of Zach LaVine’s prior ones from 2016-2017. His 47.8 score necessitated a 47.5 for Bryant on his final attempt.
CHAMPION: Keshad Johnson (Miami Heat)
Now we can all look forward to Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox’s appearances in the All-Star Game tomorrow night.
