2012 NBA All Star Weekend in Orlando

This past weekend, Orlando invited the NBA to their city as they were the host for the 2012 All Star Festivities. Here is a quick summary of all the main events:

Celebrity Game:
Athletes, Actors, and Comedians from all over the country gathered to play in the annual Celebrity game to kick off the weekend. The comedian Kevin Hart, who is no taller than 5'6 won the MVP award after his entertaining and skillful performance.

Rising Stars Challenge:
Rookies and Sophomores of the NBA were drafted onto two teams. Team Shaq and Team Charles Barkley. Shaq's team seemed loaded after he drafted Blake Griffin, Jeremy Lin, Ricky Rubio and others but Barkley's number one pick Kyrie Irving went off scoring 34 points and making all eight of his threes leading Team Chuck to a victory. The play of the night had to go to Ricky Rubio when he bounced the ball through Demarcus Cousins legs, got the ball back and threw an alley oop to Blake Griffin.

Skills Challenge:
Participating was John Wall, Kyrie Irving, Tony Parker, Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo and Russel Westbrook. Tony Parker was able to win his second skills challenge after he fended off Rondo and Williams in the finals.

Slam Dunk Contest:
This is typically my favorite event but with Paul George, Jeremy Evans, Chase Budinger, and Derrick Williams competing, I didn't know what to expect. Each player had a good dunk but most of the dunks were not to flashy. Evans ended up winning thanks to his two ball dunk and his dunk over Kevin Hart. Hopefully next year we see names like Lebron James, Dwight Howard, and Blake Griffin competing in this event.

Three Point Contest:
Competing in this event was Mario Chalmers, James Jones, Anthony Morrow, Kevin Love, Kevin Durant, and the hometown favorite, Ryan Anderson. After the first round, Love, Durant, and defending champion James Jones were able to advance. After Love and Durant only put up 16, Jones just needed to beat that to win but he choked with only 11 sending Love and Durant to a tiebreaker. Kevin Love eventually won the tiebreaker giving the big man his first three point title.


NBA All Star Game:
The premiere event aired on Sunday night in front of a sellout crowd. The west got out to a fast lead thanks to Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant getting hot from outside. It was not until the fourth quarter when the east turned it on with the support of Lebron James and teammate Dwayne Wade. The east somehow  managed to narrow down a double digit lead to two points with a few second left. With the ball in Lebron James' hand and only a few seconds left instead of  shooting, he turned the ball over when he tried to pass it. Looks like James not only chokes in the playoffs but in all star games as well. Durant ended up winning the MVP award after a 36 point effort. It is probably the first of many for the rising star.

Thunder guard Russel Westbrook had some beast dunks on Sunday and this one was quite amazing as he soared between Dwight Howard and Lebron James.

Mid Season NBA Stats

We are approaching the mid point of a jam packed NBA season. Here is a review of all the amazing stats players have posted this season.

Points                                      
Kobe Bryant  29.0
Lebron James 27.9
Kevin Durant 27.6
Kevin Love 25.6
Russel Westbrook 23.2

Assists
Steve Nash 11.0
Rajon Rondo 9.5
Jose Calderon 8.8
Chris Paul 8.7
Ricky Rubio 8.5

Rebounds
Dwight Howard 15.3
Kevin Love 14.2
Andrew Bynum 12.5
Anderson Verejao 11.5
Blake Griffin 11.4

Blocks
Serge Ibaka 3.29
Javale Mcgee 2.74
Deandre Jordan 2.62
Dwight Howard 2.16
Marc Gasol 2.13

Steals
Mike Conley 2.47
Ricky Rubio 2.34
Chris Paul 2.33
Iman Shumpert 2.00
Kyle Lowry 1.97

 Magic's center Dwight Howard has been a beast this season putting up 20.1 pts, 15.3 rbs, and 2.2 blks a game. With trade talks overshadowing his fantastic season, it will be interesting to see where he ends up by the end of the year.

Lin Sanity

All I do is LIN LIN LIN. This chant is something the New York Knicks fans have cheering this entire week as their Knicks have won six straight game behind not Carmelo, not Amare but Jeremy Lin. Just a few weeks ago, Lin was staying at his brothers house sleeping on a couch. He had been released by the Golden State Warriors and his NBA career had appeared to be over. Then he got the phone call by the Knicks to come play with them and the rest is history. In a span of six games, Lin has averaged over 24 points and 7 assists leading the Knicks to six straight wins with out their two stars (Melo and Amare). His phenomenal play has drawn attention to the Knicks as all fans from across the world want to watch this young man play. The astonishing thing is he is the first American born Taiwanese/Chinese player and only the fourth Harvard player to ever play in the NBA

For those of you that do not know the history of Jeremy Lin, he played four years at Harvard and was a star. In a game at 7th ranked Connecticut, he put up 33 points in a losing effort. He went undrafted but was signed by the Golden State Warriors last year and became an instant fan favorite. He rarely got playing time but remained on the team throughout the season. This summer he got cut and the Knicks must have seen something because they picked him off the streets just a few weeks ago. With both stars out, the Knicks gave Jeremy Lin his chance at the point guard position, a position the Knicks have been looking for a player to play in all season. He thrived scoring 27 against the Nets and 28 against the Jazz in his first two games. Then came the showdown versus Kobe and the Lakers. In that game, Lin put up 38 points and 7 assists out scoring Kobe Bryant by 2 and leading the Knicks to a victory on ABC.

All this hype for a player seems ridiculous but it appears to be legit. This cannot be compared to Tim Tebow because Lin is winning just like Tebow but is actually putting up fantastic numbers and can run the pick and roll. I believe he will get even better when Amare and Melo come back because it will give him more space to operate due to teams having to focus more on the other two. Either way, the NBA was so desperately needing a great story and Lin is just that. I am hoping he can keep it up and Knicks fans are praying he can become the franchise point guard for their team.

Comeback Kid

Just last week at the Farmers Insurance Open here in La Jolla, professional golfer Kyle Stanley blew a seven stroke lead on the last day of the tournament. He went into the final hole up three but he triple bogeyed the hole sending the tournament to a playoff. Stanley ended up missing a six foot par putt on the second hole of the playoff, giving Brendt Snedeker an improbable victory. In tears after the round, Stanley said it would take a while to recover, but he would try his best to overcome this embarrassing moment in his golf career.

Stanley came into this weekend in Arizona, hoping he could redeem himself. After being six strokes back during the final round, he stayed positive and consistent finishing with a bogey-less 18 holes shooting 65. Luckily, the leader Steve Levin choked just like Stanley had did last week. He shot two over in the final round giving Stanley his first PGA victory just days after he embarrassed himself in front of the nation. This time as Stanley was interviewed, he cried again but the tears were tears of happiness and not sadness.

This has been quite a roller coaster two weekends for the 24 year old and I bet something he never expected to happen. All he can do is laugh it off and hope that he can continue his high level of play throughout the season.