Ah the Friday before a long weekend. Productivity is at a minimum at most offices as half of the employees take vacation days to go skiing (*cough* Matty D *cough*) leaving hard-working individuals like myself to produce material. As we enter the long weekend of February, President’s Day Weekend, take a look at what’s going on this weekend:
NBA All-Star Weekend
The NBA no-defense game All Star Game heads north of the boarder for the first time as it will be played in the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, ON. For those unfamiliar with the weekend, Friday night is the Celebrity Game, Saturday night has the Skills, 3-Point, and Dunk contests, while Sunday is the actual game itself. We’ll break it down night-by-night:
Friday: Celebrity Game – Team USA vs. Team Canada (roster) & Rising Stars Challenge (roster)
Canadians may have invented basketball, but Americans clearly dominate the sport. The same will be reflected here as Team USA has two NBA legends (Chauncey Billups and Muggsy Bogues) to Canada’s one (albeit it’s Tracy McGrady). Elena Delle Donne is a dominant current WNBA superstar to Canada’s Tammy Sutton-Brown. And while the Property Brothers may show the power of brotherly love for Canada, Team USA will use the power of the father/son dynamic as former Celeb Game MVP Ice Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson, Jr. of Straight Outta Compton, will take the floor. Kevin Hart’s Team USA takes down Drake’s Team Canada.
The Rising Stars game has changed its format throughout the years. The most recent and current setup is USA vs. the World still only allowing Rookies and Sophomores to compete. Team World won the inaugural game last year under this format and I’m thinking they pull it out again this year. The idea of Porzingis and Andrew Wiggins on the court together is too good to pass up.
Saturday: Individual Competitions
The Skills Challenge is always sneakily good and the tournament format further pushes the fan’s romance with brackets. The reigning champion Patrick Beverley will not defend his title due to an ankle injury. I’m personally extremely excited to see CJ compete (ALUMNI WATCH at its finest). The Three-Point Contest has probably become the marquee event with the decline of the Dunk Contest and the advent of the Splash Brothers. Seeing Zach Levine defend his Dunk Contest title will be exciting however.
Sunday: The All Star Game – (roster)
The game itself is on Sunday night in primetime at 8:30pm Eastern Time. The rosters themselves are pretty evenly matched aside from Kobe on the starting lineup for the West. It’s hard not to pick against the juggernaut of a roster that is the West. Even with Kobe starting, I have a feeling he may have one last ASG show to put on for us. West over East, Kevin Durant MVP.
Sidenote: If you love social media, Twitter and the NBA have made hashtag emojis for all of the All Stars (and Charles Barkley):
Personally, I’m a big fan of #KobeBryant and #CharlesBarkley. Try them for yourself
NOTE: While these emojis don’t appear on the post, click on each link and check out each emoji
Other Things to Watch this Weekend:
Both Zoolander No 2 and Deadpool were released today. Both movies are for more of a niche crowd but I’m excited for both. Stiller and Wilson have always been hilarious together and Ryan Reynolds clearly wants to make up for The Green Lantern. If you’re staying in and need more basketball, there is a plethora of great college games tomorrow (Saturday). I’m personally excited for the back-to-back showings of Purdue/Michigan and UVA/Duke in the afternoon while plenty of people are here in Philadelphia are ramping up for St John’s/Villanova tomorrow.
I think I’m starting to get a handle of the new series. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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