All Star Weekend Recap/Knicks and Stoudemire Reach Buyout

NBA All Start weekend has come and gone, and as usual, the Saturday night events outdid the actual game.  Well, to be fair, I only watched about 5 minutes worth of the game, but they were a very boring 5 minutes.

Last week I posted my predictions for the entire weekend's worth of events, and as usual, it didn't turn out so well.  Let's take a look.

Celebrity Game

My pick - East (Mike Greenberg)

Winner - West (Mike Golic)

0-1

Rising Stars Challenge

My pick - Team USA

Winner - The World

0-2

Shooting Stars

My pick - Team Curry

Winner - Team Bosh

0-3

Skills Challenge 

My pick - Brandon Knight

Winner - Patrick Beverley

0-4

3 Point Contest

My pick - Kyle Korver

Winner - Steph Curry

0-5

Dunk Contest

My pick - Giannis Antetkounmpo

Winner - Zach LaVine

0-6

All Star Game

My pick - West

Winner - West

1-7

The 1 and only thing I got right, was the 1 and only event I had no interest in.  Isn't that always the way?  (sigh)

I didn't watch any of the Friday night games, and only a few minutes of the game on Sunday, but I did watch all of the Saturday night stuff.  (Thank you DVR)

The Shooting Stars and Skills Challenge aren't mind blowing, but they're entertaining enough.  Team Curry let me down big time, more specifically Dell Curry.  Couldn't hit the straight-away three.  Shame.  However, I must say that Chris Bosh is a much better shooter than I thought.  And in the Skills Challenge, Brandon Knight was thiiiis close to winning, but couldn't hit the jump shot at the end of the event.  Beverley came down and hit it on the first try.  Son of a.....

The 3 point shootout was again the best event of the night.  There are a lot of good shooters in the league now, and some of them were on display that night.  As mentioned above, I chose Kyle Korver.  He pretty much didn't show up.  Didn't even make it to the finals.  Not only did I get that wrong, but in my predictions post, I made a point of saying that Steph Curry wouldn't win and even explained why.  What a waste of time.  He was awesome.  Flat out awesome.  At one point he hit 13 shots in a row.  Very impressive.

To me, the night could have ended there, but as always, it ends with...

The dunk contest.  As is usually the case, there were no "superstars" in the field.  However, there were young, athletic guys who sort of gave some hope.  Turns out it was a 1 man show.  Except for Victor Oladipo in the first round, Zach LaVine had no competition on his way to taking the trophy.  While some say he resurrected the dunk contest, I absolutely won't go that far.  I thought he was really good, and certainly breathed some life into what has become a stale event (that's me being nice).  But unless some other high flyers start competing on a regular basis, the event will continue to lack.

My pick was Antetkounmpo, and apparently he and Kyle Korver were drinking from the same water bottle, because he was terrible.  Unless he just froze or panicked, it looked like he put zero creativity or effort into his performance.  The guy has a 27 foot wingspan, show me something crazy!  Sheesh.  Total let down.  I hope LaVine defends his crown next year and brings along some stiff competition.

On to the game itself on Sunday....what do you want me to say?  I already told you I only watched 5 minutes worth.

Before I go, I just wanted to make mention that Amare Stoudemire and the Knicks have agreed to a buyout.  From what I've read, he'll clear waivers by Wednesday night and be eligible to sign with any team he wants.  I say good for him.

While his salary hamstrung the Knicks for the last few years, I still think he deserves credit.  He was the only superstar of the huge 2010 free agent class to sign with New York.  He accepted and embraced the role of "savior" for the Knicks franchise, and was pretty much that the first year.  Madison Square Garden chanted "MVP" almost every night for him, he was that good.  Carmelo Anthony came over about half way through that season, but due to a lack of chemistry and injuries (Stoudemire's), they never were able to be the "dynamic duo" New York desperately wanted.

The Knicks took a huge risk by signing Stoudemire considering his injury history.  And while it will probably go down as one of the worst contracts in Knicks history, I still tip my cap to him for not being afraid of the bright lights of New York.  So, I hope he can latch on to a good team and get himself a ring this year.  He deserves that after the years of mediocrity and down right lousiness he's suffered with the Knicks.