NBA ALL-STAR GAME IMPRESSIONS

Also pictured is Clutch the Bear, the host of the 2013 NBA All-Star Game
(photo courtesy of Ed Mancia)

Johnny J

Johnny looks back and recounts a few of his favorite NBA All-Star moments. And offers his 2-cents on this year's event.

• Nate Robinson winning the dunk contest in 2006 and 2009, 2010. The 5'9" combo guard has mad hops and he always came up big in this event and gave 100% effort and always brought a big bag of tricks. Dunking over Dwight Howard as "KryptoNate" is probably my favorite moment.

• James White of the New York Knick will win this year's Dunk Contest. Although he doesn't get a lot of playing time in New York, this guy has unbelievable hops. He is constantly praised by his teammates who watch him in practice and he has already won the contest in the D-League in 2009. Las Vegas has already favored him to win it. There's a reason why they call him, James "Flight" White.

• Jason Kapono winning the three point contest in 2008. He had tied the record for most made 3-pointers in one round with 25; he still owns the record for most made shots in the final round of the 3-Point Contest.  This guy was an unbelievable shooter for the Toronto Raptors. Unfortunately, he never did progress outside of being a 3-point specialist. He now plays in Greece
• This year I believe Steve Novak, of the New York  Knicks, will win the 3-point contest. I think he's going to beat Golden State's Stephen Curry in the Finals. Novak is an unbelievable shooter. Thats all he does in practice is shoot three-pointers. He is a pure shooter. He led the league in 2012 shooting 47.2% percent behind the arc. He is nicknamed "Novakaine" (Is it because he's unconscious from beyond the arc?--Ed).      
• The Western Conference has beaten the Eastern Conference the last 4 out of 6 times. Despite this fact, I still think the East has better players; then again I felt that was the case in last year's game as well. The East should have just dominated, with the guys they had:
• Derrick Rose 
• LeBron Jame
• Dwyane Wade
• Carmelo Anthony

Basically the same team from the East, sans Derrick Rose.
(photo courtesy of Ed Mancia)

I don't know what the best lineup is of all time, but that lineup should be up there with the all time greats, in my most humbled opinion.  But the West won last year, so I'll give them their respect. Kevin Durant won the game's MVP Award.  Nevertheless, I'm going to predict that Carmelo Anthony wins the award this year.  I strongly believe that its his turn to expand his resume.  I'll be rooting hard for him.

The All-Star game is mostly about, individual plays instead of actually running plays. I don't blame them because its all for show. Everybody wants to go home with the MVP or make the highlight reel for that night. It doesn't get serious until the fourth quarter.  However, even though it can be fun to watch, I would like to see the NBA reward the winning Conference, home-court advantage in the NBA Finals: like they do in baseball.  I'm pretty confident that the players will not wait until the 4th quarter to start taking the game seriously.

But the All-Star game is a fun watch, full of good memories, and full of basketball heroics from both superstar and role players.  This year should be no different and look forward to watching it again and see which star will shine the brightest.

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Check out Johnny's review on this year's Pro Bowl.