Joe Paige | Sports Writer
This year’s NBA All-Star weekend, hosted at Chase Center in San Francisco, followed the continued trend of switching up the format for the weekends festivities. Last weekend the selected All-Stars would be divided into three teams chosen by the iconic panelists from Inside The NBA on TNT in Charles Barkley, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, and Shaquille O’neal.
After holding a draft a week before the events, the teams would be created and all would be constructed with their own unique trends. Barkley’s team would be comprised of majority international players such as Denver’s Nikola Jokić, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama, and more. Kenny “The Jet” Smith decided to shoot towards youth when constructing his team, consisting of players such as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, New York’s Jalen Brunson, Miami’s Tyler Herro, etc. Shaq decided to select the veterans, his team would consist of players Like Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Los Angeles’ LeBron James, and others. A few players spoke out before the All-Star Weekend sharing their own opinions on the new format, there were many mixed opinions, Durant is one of the more popular examples of one of players not exactly getting behind the new format.
These teams would come together on Sunday night to play in a tournament style series to a target score of 40. The fourth team added would be the winner of the rising stars tournament held that Friday Night, that team would end up being Team C coached by Chris Mullin. Shaq’s OG’s would eventually come out on top defeating Barkley’s Global Stars 41-25. Stephen Curry would be awarded his second All-Star MVP Trophy in his home arena.
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