The 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend started on Friday night with the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Prominent participants in the game included Actor Kevin Hart and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. While Duncan broke the record for most points scored in an All-Star Celebrity Game with 20, not to mention snatching 11 rebounds, and six assists, Hart ended the game with the MVP trophy after posting seven points and four assists. Hart won the fan’s vote for MVP, which would have made it his third consecutive victory, but humbly passed the award to Duncan, who truly deserved it.
Shortly after the Celebrity Game was the Rising Stars Challenge, which pits the league’s top rookies and sophomores against each other. Team Hill came out victorious, beating Team Webber 142-136. Andre Drummond was awarded MVP after scoring 30 points and a record-high 25 rebounds. Other memorable players during this game included Team Webber’s Tim Hardaway Jr. of the New York Knicks and Team Hill’s Dion Waiters of the Cleveland Cavaliers, both of whom proved worthy of snatching up the award themselves, especially after their 3-minute, back and forth shootout in the last nine minutes of the second half. Both players went on runs of over 10 consecutive points and took turns putting their teams in the lead. Hardaway and Waiters scored totals of 36 and 31 points, respectively.
Kicking off the All-Star Saturday night was the Shooting Stars contest. Team Curry, which was comprised of Stephen and Dell Curry, teamed with Becky Hammond, was expected to dominate the challenge. However, they were knocked out in the first round. The final shootout put Team Bosh, consisting of Chris Bosh, Swin Cash and Dominique Wilkins, against Team Durant, which included Kevin Durant, Skylar Diggins and Karl Malone. After Bosh’s final half-court shot that landed his team at 31.4 seconds, he and his teammates celebrated their second consecutive win.
The second event on All-star Saturday Night was the Skills Challenge. The format of this competition was changed just slightly this year, with the East and West each contributing two teams of two players to compete in the form of a relay. The West’s All-Star point guard from Portland, Damian Lillard and Trey Burke, the rookie point guard from Utah, won the challenge, coming out only 0.1 seconds ahead of Philadelphia rookie point guard Michael Carter-Williams and Orlando shooting guard Victor Oladipo from the East.
Following the Skills challenge was the Foot Locker 3-Point Contest, in which the Spurs’ Marco Belinelli and Wizards’ Bradley Beal went head to head in the final shootout. After tying with 19 3-pointers in the final round, the two players were forced into an extra minute of shooting where Belinelli beat out Beal 24 to 18.
The final event before the big game on Sunday was the Slam Dunk contest. Once again, the format was altered from previous years. Instead of players competing individually, an East and a West team was formed, consisting of three athletes each. The challenge was split into two rounds: the first, a 90-second “Freestyle Round,” where each team was able to show off as many creative dunks as they could back-to-back, within that time frame. Next came the “Battle Round,” which showcased a player from the East going to head-to-head against one from the West, with judges voting on a winning side. The first to win three Battle Rounds would be the winner of the contest. after the East snatched the first three Battle Rounds in a row, Washington Wizards guard John Wall of the East team was crowned “Dunker of the Night” after his memorable final shot in which he jumped clear over the Wizards’ mascot’s head, grabbed the ball from his hands, and then completed a reverse dunk.
Concluding this largely Eastern-dominated weekend, the 2014 All-Star Game proved to be one of the more competitive ones to date as it was the highest scoring All-Star game in history. Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving took the honor of MVP, scoring 31 points and contributing 14 assists for the East, as well as becoming the youngest player to ever receive the award.
The game could be characterized by both team’s overwhelming offensive prowess. Numerous records were shattered during Sunday’s game. Carmelo Anthony broke the record for most 3-pointers, sinking eight of his attempted 13. Blake Griffin made a record-setting 19 field goals, 10 of which were dunks. On the other hand, there was not a single blocked shot from either team’s defenses during the game. The game ended with an East victory, their first in four years, as they triumphed over the West 163-155.
Tess Sheets can be reached at tess.sheets@spartans.ut.edu.