INDIANAPOLIS- The 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend started tonight February 16th and runs through Sunday night. The star-studded three-day event tipped off with the Celebrity All-Star Game at 7 pm ET on ESPN. This game played at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. Is basketball being played in a football stadium? That’s fun. The Rising Stars game followed at 9 pm ET on TNT. Here we saw the NBA’s young stars compete against each other. On Saturday, The NBA HBCU Classic between Virginia Union and Winston-Salem St. starts the basketball coverage at 2 pm ET on NBA TV.
The State Farm All-Star Saturday Night begins at 8 pm ET and includes the Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest, Stephen Curry vs Sabrina Ionescu Three-Point Challenge, a new event this year, and AT&T Slam Dunk Contest. On Sunday, it’s the main event: the NBA All-Star game between the East and West on TNT. The old format returns this year! Tune into TNT to watch the action from NBA All-Star Weekend!
Celebrity All-Star Game
The Celebrity All-Star game gets overlooked a lot of times during All-Star Weekend, and for good reason- It’s not the best showing of basketball. It’s like watching a Detroit Pistons game but worse. It is kind of funny to watch a few minutes of it and see celebrities like Kevin Hart try to be athletic. But I can’t imagine it’s an event that most people watch a lot of.
Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe coached the two teams. It would have been funny for a player on Stephen A.’s team to mess up badly and then he berated them on First Take Monday morning. That’s a dangerous coach to have. WNBA two-time MVP A’ja Wilson and rapper Lil Wayne also stepped up to be coaches on Team Stephen A. Rapper 50 Cent was an additional coach on Team Shannon. The most notable celebrity players were Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons, and former Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace. Other notable celebrities included actress Jennifer Hudson, country music star Walker Hayes, IndyCar Series driver Conor Daly, and television Host Lilly Singh.
Cool NBA All-Star In-game Features
The NBA is set to feature this LED court during the All Star Weekend in Indianapolis with live replays, player tracking & immersive animations as well as colour changes & game stats.
This will be for the skills challenge, slam dunk and 3-point contests.pic.twitter.com/lLlSuk4gS6
— Usher Komugisha (@UsherKomugisha) February 15, 2024
Furthermore, on the court, there was an all-new LED court that could show a bunch of animations. There was also a dynamic three-point line, whatever that means, on-court graphics, and the Ruffles 4-point Ridgeline. At least the NBA and TNT made an attempt to keep this game interesting from a broadcast aesthetics standpoint.
What The Game Really Is
It’s essentially just another cash grab by the NBA to get more sponsors. The Celebrity All-Star Game is sponsored by Ruffles and while I was not able to find out how much they paid to sponsor this event, it is probably too much given how many people wanted to actually watch it.
Participants
Team Stephen A.
- Jennifer Hudson (actress)
- Metta World Peace (former NBA star)
- C.J. Stroud (Houston Texans quarterback)
- Jack Ryan (basketball entertainer)
- AJ McLean (singer)
- Tristan Jass (content creator)
- Gianmarco Tamberi (Olympic high-jump champion)
- Kwame Onwuachi (chef)
- Natasha Cloud (Phoenix Mercury guard)
- Adam Blackstone (musician)
Team Shannon
- Micah Parsons (Dallas Cowboys linebacker)
- Conor Daly (IndyCar Series driver)
- Walker Hayes (country music star)
- Lilly Singh (television host)
- Quincy Isaiah (actor)
- Jewell Loyd (Seattle Storm guard)
- Kai Cenat (streamer)
- Dylan Wang (actor)
- SiR (singer-songwriter)
- Anuel AA (Latin singer)
NBA All-Star Skills Challenge
Presenting the #StateFarmSaturday participants… starting with the 2024 #KiaSkills field!
Team Top Picks: @Pp_doesit, @theantedwards_ and @wemby
Team Pacers: @TyHaliburton22, @BennMathurin and @Original_Turner
Team All-Stars: @ScottBarnes561, @TyreseMaxey and @TheTraeYoung… pic.twitter.com/LCObd7VG9v
— NBA (@NBA) February 8, 2024
This event will start NBA All-Star Saturday Night. The Skills Challenge is a mix of passing, shooting, and ball handling. Although this is a team event, the challenges are largely individual. The teams will look to accumulate the most points over three rounds. The event starts with a five-player relay. Then there is a team shooting challenge and a team passing challenge. One of the challenges includes shooting from five different spots on the court, ranging from 10 to 30 feet away from the basket. But players have 30 seconds to make their five shots, and they can’t do the same shot consecutively.
The exciting, young team of Banchero, Edwards, and Wembanyama is a tempting pick for the Skills Challenge. However, I’m going with Team All-Stars to win the event. Trae Young and Scottie Barnes have competed in this contest before so they know what it’s like and will have a better feel for it right off the bat.
Indianapolis Pacers center Myles Turner of Team Pacers is not relying on experience or practice to help him during this event though.
“I think I might just watch film….there’s really no way to practice. All about instinct,” Turner said.
Young and Barnes being smaller than some of their competitors could help them maneuver better in the obstacle course. Tyrese Maxey has also been a star for the Philadelphia 76ers, filling the hole left by James Harden very well. Additionally, Maxey is averaging the 14th most points per game this season at 25.7 ppg. Coupled with a field goal percentage of 45, he has the potential to be knocking down shots at a high clip in the Skills Challenge. Team All-Stars is the most experienced team in this event and that is going to play a huge toward their victory.
NBA All-Star Three-Point Contest
The Three-Point Contest is always fun to watch. It’s fascinating to watch who can knock down several threes in a row. It’s almost equally interesting to watch how many seemingly good shooters just go cold under the bright lights of the contest and they just can’t find their rhythm.
Participants:
Malik Beasley (Bucks)
Jalen Brunson (Knicks)
Tyrese Haliburton (Pacers)
Damian Lillard (Bucks)*
Lauri Markkanen (Jazz)
Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)
Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves)
Trae Young (Hawks)
* defending champion
Thinking about this list, who do you think has the highest three-point percentage? Would you believe me if I told you it was Malik Beasley? Well, it is. Beasley has the 7th highest three-point percentage in the league and the 3rd highest among starters. When I first saw the list, off the top of my head I thought that Jalen Brunson (around 28 ppg, 41.1 3pt%), Tyrese Haliburton (around 22 ppg, 40.0 3pt%), or maybe Lauri Markkanen (around 23 ppg, 40.3 3pt%) would be my top picks. I know Damian Lillard is the defending champion but it is very difficult to repeat things like this. The last back-to-back champion was Jason Kapono of the Raptors in 2007-08.
I’m going with Karl Anthony Towns to win the Three-Point Contest. He won the contest in 2022 so he knows what it takes to win. But behind Beasley, Towns has the next-highest three-point percentage in this contest. Additionally, KAT is going to have a chip on his shoulder as one of two big men in this contest, the other one being Markkanen. The Timberwolves are in 1st place in the West in part due to KAT’s great play this season, averaging 22.5 points per game and a three-point percentage of 43.7. But the Three-Point contest is all about getting into a rhythm and I believe Karl Anthony Towns is going to get into it and take the trophy home to Minnesota!
NBA All-Star Dunk Contest
Can't forget Mac McClung's performance in last year's Slam Dunk contestpic.twitter.com/Evig4oEVQW
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) February 15, 2024
? @TristanJass crashed defending champion @McclungMac's dunk practice to toss a trick shot style assist!#ATTSlamDunk at #StateFarmSaturday: 2/17 at 8:00pm/et on TNT pic.twitter.com/I30wDjHDK1
— NBA (@NBA) February 14, 2024
Now, it’s time to talk about the flashiest event in NBA All-Star Saturday Night! The Dunk Contest has been lacking excitement and skills for the past few years. We were watching no-name players take 3 or 4 attempts just to convert a mediocre dunk. But last year 76ers rookie Mac McClung saved the contest by putting on a masterful performance. Now, the standards have been raised a little bit for this year. Mac McClung will likely be the favorite again in 2024.
Participants:
- Jaylen Brown (Celtics)
- Mac McClung (Osceola Magic-G League)
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Heat)
- Jacob Toppin (Knicks)
Jaylen Brown is an enticing addition to this contest. He is certainly the biggest star the Dunk Contest has had in quite some time. It seemed like no stars have wanted to come close to the Dunk Contest in several years but luckily JB has ended that streak. Additionally, I will say, that if Brown is as good at dunking as he is at dribbling with his left hand, he’s gonna be an early exit in this one. He should start close to the basket so he has a smaller chance of losing control of the ball. Don’t kill me Jaylen, I’m a Celtics fan, but you know what I said is true.
Even though I said that winning the NBA All-Star Three-Point Contest in consecutive years is difficult, I think with the Dunk Contest, it’s a different story. With the fact being that there are fewer players in this event coupled with McClung being the most experienced player in the Dunk Contest, I have to go with Mac McClung to win his second straight trophy!
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Cooper Sherman is an avid NFL fan and enjoys watching and covering it the most. The NFL is king! He previously wrote and was a podcaster for the online publications Pro Sports Fanatics and Jersey Column. He is also an NBA fan and watches it semi-regularly, more when the NFL season ends. Additionally, his teams are the Celtics and Patriots, as tough as it is to be a Patriots fan right now. He is optimistic that Jerod Mayo will turn this team in the right direction!
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