On Feb. 16, the NBA did its annual All Star Game in the Golden State Warriors Stadium, San Francisco. In this All Star Game, Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, tried out a new format that deviated from the traditional all star format with only one game and two teams from the Western and Eastern conferences. This time, there were four teams that would compete in a tournament. These teams were drafted from a pool of players by TNT analysts Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Candace Parker.

Shaq’s team, called “Shaq’s OGs”, drafted Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, James Harden, Damian Lillard and more. This team was modeled around older star players, besides Jayson Tatum. Charles Barkeley’s team, called “Chuck’s Global Stars”, however, was based around players that are currently dominating the NBA this season. He drafted Pascal Siakam, Nikola Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Donovan Mitchell and others. Kenny Smith’s team was called “Kenny’s Young Stars.” This team included Jaren Jackson Jr., Evan Mobley, Jalen Williams, Jalen Brunson and Tyler Herro. Finally, Candace Parker’s team was called “Candace’s Rising Stars.” This team was composed of only rookies who were drafted this season and are in their first year. Their starters were Stephon Castle, Zach Edey, Keyonte George, Dalton Knecht and Jaylen Wells.

The first round for the bracket was Shaq’s OGs vs. Candace’s Rising Stars and Chuck’s Global Stars vs. Kenny’s Young Stars. Shaq’s OGs won 42-35 and Chuck’s Global Stars won 41-32. This left the final game to Shaq’s OGs and Chuck’s Global Stars and Shaq’s OGs won 41-25. Steph Curry won the All Star MVP finishing the tournament with 20 total points from hitting six three-pointers and grabbing ten rebounds. 

Next, we had the Skills Challenge. This contest tests players’ basketball skills such as dribbling, passing and shooting through a course. There were four teams in this. Team Cavs with Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, Team Rooks with rookies Zacharie Risacher and Alex Sarr, Team Spurs with Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul, and team Warriors with Draymond Green and Moses Moody. The Spurs were disqualified from this contest for cheating and team Cavs won with the best scores.

After the Skills Challenge was the Three-Point Contest. This challenge tested how many three-point shots a player could make in one minute. In the final round, the only contestants were Buddy Hield, who made 31 in the first round, Tyler Herro and Darius Garland. During this round Darius Garland scored 19, Buddy Hield scored 23 and Tyler Herro scored 24 winning the competition.

Finally, the Slam Dunk Contest. This contest was based on who could make the flashiest dunks and it was scored by judges. There were four contestants in the first round, Mac McClung who scored a perfect 100 in this round, Stephon Castle who scored a 95, Andre Jackson Jr. who scored an 88.8, and Matas Buzelis who scored an 87.4. In the final round, it was only Mac McClung and Stephon Castle. This round was very close with Stephon Castle scoring a 99.6 and Mac McClung winning another perfect 100 from doing a reverse dunk over a car. This made Mac McClung win his third Slam Dunk Contest in a row for the first three-peat in contest history.