All star weekend is over which means the second half of the season is about to begin, here's a recap of the 2020 All Star Weekend.
The weekend started off with the rising stars challenge, in which the top freshman or sophomore stars from the US play the ones from the World Team. USA took home the win and Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets walked away with the MVP trophy. The next event came on Saturday with the skills challenge with Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat taking home the trophy followed by Buddy Hield bringing the 3 point contest trophy back to Sacramento. The last event on Saturday was the dunk contest which came down to a dunk-off between previous runner up Aaron Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr. The contest ended in a victory for Jones Jr. who promptly signed a Puma Endorsement after the victory, although the judges giving the victory to Jones over Gordon is being heavily criticized since Gordon had all 50's leading up to his final dunk. His final dunk also happened to be jumping over fan favorite Tacko Fall, so the judges score did not please fans. Gordon said afterward that it would be his last dunk contest, saying he had been robbed twice.
Adam Silver (or more accurately Chris Paul) came up with a new format for the All Star Game. Under the new rules, each team could earn $100,000 for its charity, each time the team won a quarter. The fourth quarter was untimed and was won by reaching the target score: the higher cumulative score through three quarters plus 24, in honor of Kobe Bryant, along with more money for the winner’s charity. After being blowouts for each team in the first and second, the game tightened intensely in the third quarter, which ended in a 41-41 tie. The fourth quarter got surprisingly physical with a total of 21 fouls in the quarter and it felt like watching a playoff game, including what may be the first drawn charge in All-Star game history. The fans certainly got an enjoyable all star game and the players seemed to enjoy it too: Anthony Davis said that Joel Embiid during the game told him it was his favorite all star game yet, Davis also said "The new format was amazing. The game was fun. Bringing defense back to the game. Bringing excitement back to the game. We all loved it." It was also a special reward for the All Star Game MVP, Kawhi Leonard who became the first to earn the Kobe Bryant All Star Game MVP trophy. NBA fans should look forward to the same format in next years all star game, with maybe some tweaks to the judge scoring in the dunk contest.