All-Star Night in a Nutshell
*I had this idea after the opening festivities ended, so the times might be off a little (or a lot). Sue me.
7:40 - Magic Johnson’s Kobe Tribute and the Chicago Icons Commercial
Magic did a great job of hyping up the crowd and then paying a beautiful tribute to Kobe Bryant. I’ll talk about it more, but the whole night was a great tribute to Kobe. That commercial was sick, too. All those Chicago legends looking over the city which they grew up in and helped build up. I mean, they even got motha f*ckin Obama up in there. That’s some real sh*t right there.
8:00 - Common’s opening speech
Okay I had to split up Common’s opening speech into two different sections because one was great and one was meh. This part had me in tears. People can complain that he took too long, but the way he talked about the city and Dwyane was beautiful. Then when he started talking about Kobe, I lost it. It was just a great moment.
8:15 - Common’s player intros
Now this was a bit much for me. The rhymes were cool I guess, but some of them seemed like a little bit of a stretch. I don’t know, at this point I think people were just itching to get to the actual game.
8:35 - Shah Ka Khan Anthem starts
What the hell is this? Fergie 2.0?
8:39 - Shah Ka Khan Anthem ends
Okay nevermind… I would have rather had Fergie. That was atrocious.
8:40 - Warm-ups and On-court Interviews
Can we just play the game not please? Come on now.
8:45 - Game Finally Starts
Finally! That was ridiculous, but at least we have actual basketball to watch now. Not much defense in the first couple quarters. LeBron killed Giannis in the first. Giannis killed LeBron in the second. Oh sh*t Trae Young really just hit that shot?
10:15 - Chance at Halftime
I saw a ton of people on Twitter say how trash Chance is, but I thought it was pretty good. I watched the majority of the show as I was making some food. Bringing out Lil Wayne, Quavo, and DJ Khaled was okay, I guess, but I don’t know. He was just solid. Nothing spectacular, but I wasn’t disappointed by any means. I think people just dislike him, so they automatically discount his performance as trash before they even listen.
11:30 - Second Half Starts (The Best All-Star Game Ever)
This was the best All-Star game I’ve ever watched in my lifetime. The third quarter was okay, but the fourth quarter was where all the fun was. I mean, you could tell that everyone actually cared about winning that game. Kemba lowkey started to takeover, but he cooled off a little bit at the end. Pascal missing that free throw was pretty huge, but what’re you going to do? Lowry, as much as people sh*t on him for fouling too much, clutched up a lot. Without those offensive fouls he drew that game would have been over way sooner. Joel Embiid got LeBron big time with that post move. Chris Paul was a firecracker. And Team LeBron maybe cared a little TOO much as we saw them screaming at the refs near the end of the game. I mean, LeBron, Harden, and Paul on the same team must be a referee’s nightmare. Davis missed his first free throw, gave everyone a heart attack, then clutched up for his city.
11:50 - Kawhi Leonard Named Kobe Bryant MVP
This made a lot of sense. He was on fire, especially in the first half, and he came up with a clutch steal near the end of the game.
Just a great night of basketball. Keep this format moving forward. Hats off to Jennifer Hudson as well. Amazing job.
Rest in peace Kobe.
