Eagle's Voice

Every year, millions of fans look forward to the NBA All Star festivities. All of their favorite players showcasing their talent, stunning fans, and making memorable moments for people all across the world. Since the birth of the All Star games, much has changed, and today, I’ll be going over every event and my thoughts on them. 

The Rising Stars Game:

This event had rising stars from both the 2024 draft class and the 2025 draft class (called Rookies and Sophomores based on how many years they played) split up into 3 teams, where the winners of the first two games went on to face each other in the final game for the championship. There were 3 teams drafted by former NBA players like Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, and Carmelo Anthony, but the 4th team was made up of star G-League players looking for a chance to shine against the young stars, named Team Austin due to former player Austin Rivers coaching the team. The first game had Team Melo beating Team Austin 40-34, with great performances by Donovan Clingan with 9 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 blocks, and Ace Bailey with a respectable 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists. The second game was closer, with Team Vince beating Team T-Mac 41-36, which had great performances from VJ Edgecombe with 17 points in the win, and Jaylon Tyson on Team T-Mac stuffing the stat sheet with 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists in a close loss. In the championship game, Team Vince won 25-24 against Team Melo in a low scoring game. VJ Edgecombe won MVP for Team Vince, with the team having a great all around game. I watched the championship game and I thought it was pretty fun. Even though we didn’t see a high scoring game or much happening, it was nice to see these young players look confident and go for anything in these games. In my opinion, I kind of like the format, and I like how the NBA is giving an opportunity for these G-League players to compete and showcase their talent. 

AT&T Slam Dunk Contest:

Without Mac McClung, the Dunk Contest felt so boring. I don’t blame the players, as it’s hard to come up with creative dunks when almost every dunk has been tried already, but I would’ve hoped for something more exciting. The participants, Spurs forward Carter Bryant, Heat forward Keshad Johnson, Lakers center Jaxson Hayes, and Magic guard Jase Richardson, all had bad dunks at worst, and mediocre at best. It felt like they weren’t trying, and Carter Bryant’s 50 point dunk (which is the highest score you can get) felt more like a cool in-game dunk than a best of the best Dunk Contest dunk. Keshad Johnson took home the trophy, and it’s sad to say, but there was almost nothing to write home about for this one except for the dunk that Jase Richardson failed and fell to the ground hard. It was a cool idea I thought, but it was rough watching him fall to the ground off a bad pass and hitting the sides of the backboard. 

Three Point Contest:

The Three Point contest this year was a bit unexpected. You had contestants such as Devin Booker, Jamal Murray, Norman Powell, Kon Kneuppel, Tyrese Maxey, and Donovan Mitchell, but you also had odd picks like Bobby Portis from the Bucks and Damian Lillard who hasn’t played a game all season due to an Achilles tear that he hasn’t recovered fully from yet. The crazy part was that Damian Lillard won the entire contest with 29 points. He beat Booker’s 27 with insane accuracy and reportedly said, “I was praying on his downfall”, referring to Booker and his score. This came out of complete left field and like all the other events had weird picks that sort of paid off. It was fun nonetheless but should’ve had “real shooters”, like the one’s Lillard was quoted saying in a message to Steph Curry. 

The Actual All-Star Game: 

Players were nominated for the All-star game based on how a board of NBA Executives and more. There were three teams: two for the United States named Team Stars and Team Stripes, and then Team World. Team Stars, consisting of players like Scottie Barnes, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, and Cade Cunningham, won the tournament with a 2-1 record, beating out Team Stripes in the final. Team Stripes consisted of great players like Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Jalen Brunson and also had a 2-1 record. Team World lost both games due to a huge lack of effort from stars like Norman Powell and Jamal Murray, who looked like they were actively trying to lose games. Victor Wembanyama led the squad, with great performances all around, but as I watched the games, I felt that the rest of the team just didn’t want to be there. Other than Knicks star Karl Anthony-Towns, the rest of the team like Rockets star Alperen Şengün didn’t do much. One of the greatest things in this entire All-Star weekend were these games that had a ton of rivalry, and a ton of competitive drive, especially from Wembanyama, and the game winners too were wild, like the one from Scottie Barnes where he hit the game winning shot and didn’t even know until everyone started celebrating. I felt that this format was confusing, but it did also allow more all stars to be added than normal (due to injuries and Adam Silver just adding people in and switching them around). I would like an East vs. West game again, or even the draft style All-Star events, but this is cool too, way better than last year. 

My final thoughts are that while these events were fun, they had no hype up, bad selections, confusing rules, and should have some stuff changed. My favorite events were the actual All-Star games between the best players in the world, and seeing competition again was really fun. I wish they would have actual great dunkers in the dunk contest rather than random young players, and I also do wish that there was more competition in the three point contest, but it was all still enjoyable to me as a NBA fan. Overall, this wasn’t the best way to have these festivities, but still gave memorable moments that fans will remember for years to come. I’d say this was a 7/10.