Weekend Backtrack: All-Stars & Wires

Well the weekend is over, and I'm not sure what to think of it. Friday I stayed in and ended up doing work for my midterms coming up. Saturday I did the same thing, but that was more of a staying in because All-Star Saturday was that day, and man, was that something else. And Sunday was the All-Star game as well as the next installment of The Wire. Let's break it down.

ALL-STAR SATURDAY
We can skip the team shootout and skills competition (although it is worth nothing that Deron Williams now holds the record in a flawless final round against hometown hero Chris Paul) and jump straight into the Three-Point Competition and Dunk Contest. The only thing really worth noting for the 3-Point Competition is that Jason Kapono is the best pure shooter in the league. Last year I attended All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas and during the competition the section I was in was assigned to Jason Kapono, meaning if he won the contest then we would win a "special prize." So I cheered for Kapono and he won and I won a free shirt, was pretty cool. Naturally this year I am going for Kapono again because he didn't let me down last year, and he didn't this year. He made the final round with a first round 20 and then in the finals tied the record of 25. He's tied with Larry Bird. Now that is pretty freakin' sweet. Then that was done, bring on the dunks.

Finally, creative thought is back. No more doing what the older dunkers did in "new ways." Creative, original thought, has returned in the form of Gerald Green and Dwight Howard. Moon and Gay are high flyers, but they're creative image was not as bold as Green's or Howards. Gerald Green and the Birthday Cake. He placed a cupcake at the top of the rim before the dunk and lit a candle. Then threw the ball up to himself, caught the ball, blew out the candle, and then dunked the ball. Showing this from the point of view from the backboard was actually pretty amazing. Check it out.

That should've had a higher score, but his dunk didn't top Howard's dunks.

With three dunks that I can say are three of the best dunks I've ever seen, Howard proved that big men can fly through the air. I can't even describe the dunks, just check out the video.



ALL-STAR GAME
The All-Star game was pretty sweet. I didn't watch the last quarter of it because I had prior obligations, but I watched the highlights and what a game it was. The West crawled back into it and almost took the cake led by Chris Paul's 16 points and 14 assists. But Ray Allen's 14 fourth quarter points, including three straight 3's, and LeBron's power dunk, were just too much to overcome. Sidenote: After the first quarter I said the score would be 131-129; the actual score ended up being 134-128, not too shabby. LeBron was named MVP for the second time in three years. Fun, fun game.

THE WIRE
Episode 7, titled "Took," aired last night. However I had already watched that last week so I was looking forward to episode 8 that would come on HBO On Demand Monday morning at 12am. "Clarifcations" was, to say the least, surprising. I really can't ruin anything for you, because well, something monumental happens that I did not see coming until literally the second before it happened. I am extremely distraught over this and I can't in my right mind post the spoiler here because it would be doing you fans an injustice. I'll talk about what transpired next week after it officially airs on HBO at 9.