On the evening of Sunday, February 19th, the city of New Orleans played host to the 66th NBA All-Star game. NBA fans globally had their eyes set on the Smoothie King Center in Louisiana as the annual game between the East and West Conference. Heading into the game there was some minor controversy as the game was initially planned to take place at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, home of the Charlotte Hornets. But for the first time in the United States since 1990, a significant sporting event had to be moved due to political reasons. The location had to be changed due to North Carolina’s HB2. But aside from this 2017, All Star was nothing short of an entertainment spectacle.
As has become the norm in the NBA All-Star games the rosters for the East and West conferences are decided based on a vote. Normally it’s NBA fans who get a 100% say in the voting system but for the first time ever this was changed slightly. For the 2017 All Star game the voting consisted of 50% from fans as usual but this time out NBA players themselves had votes in addition to media representatives had votes too. The two new sources of votes in player and media each made up 25% respectively.
The coaches were as usual chosen by taking the coaches from the team at the top of each respective conference. Therefore, this meant Steve Kerr was the coach of the Western Conference given the Golden State Warriors’ fantastic record. For the Eastern Conference their coach of choice would have been Tyronn Lue as the Cavs have the best record but he was ineligible due to appearing in last season’s All-Star game. This meant that the job of coaching the Eastern Conference came down to Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics.
The Game Starters Eastern Conference
Eastern Conference
G – Kyrie Irving – Cleveland Cavaliers
G – DeMar DeRozan – Toronto Raptors
F – LeBron James – Cleveland Cavaliers
F/G – Jimmy Butler – Chicago Bulls
F/G – Giannis Antetokounmpo – Milwaukee Bucks
Western Conference
G – Steph Curry – Golden State Warriors
G – James Harden – Houston Rockets
F – Kevin Durant – Golden State Warriors
F – Kawhi Leonard – San Antonio Spurs
F/C – Anthony Davis – New Orleans Pelicans
Overall the game was a relatively close yet very high scoring game. As with any All Star game it’s all about putting a show on for the fans. Realistically no player wants to play at 100% otherwise they’d be risking injury in what really should be considered a non competitive game but this certainly doesn’t mean that the game wasn’t enjoyable to watch. The talent on show is unbelievable and so it’s never going to be boring for spectators.
It was the West Conference side that came out on top with 192 points against the East’s 182. Anthony Davis of the West was the star of the show bagging himself 52 points from 39 shots, making 26. The game as well as Davis himself smashed a multitude of records for an All Star game. The game smashed the record for the number of total points with 384, most field goals with 261, most assists 103, most assists by one team – West with 60 and most points in one quarter – 101 in the first. This list goes on and on. Davis himself broke records too with the most shots taken and the most shots made. Anthony Davis eventually came out of the game with the MVP which is nice considering he was playing on home ground.
Although realistically the All-Star game doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things it was fantastic to see so many hugely talented players on the court all at once. A special event for everyone involved.
