Takeaways from NBA All Star Contests

Kyrie Irving is special.

Kyrie Irving won the 3-point contest, edging out Spurs Matt Bonner 23-20 in the finals.

Just how good is Kyrie? As soon as Kyrie stepped to contest the first round the commentators were speculating whether he could put up a decent score as they claimed “he’s more off the dribble shooter” and not a “spot up shooter”. But Kyrie let his game do the talking scoring 18 points in the first round defeating Steve Novak and then posting 23 (which was just 2 shot of all time record) in the finals.

On Friday, Irving scored 32 points in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge, and on Sunday he’ll make his All-Star debut. That’s Kyrie Irving living the moment.

Dunk Contest fails to live up to expectations again!

I’m pretty sure I’m not the first guy to tell you this and I’m also pretty sure you’ll agree when I say that the Dunk Contest isn’t the same anymore.

It came to a point when Kobe Bryant thought putting a photo of his shoes on twitter was more interesting than the dunk contest.

There was like a team when people waited for years for the contest and now they were cursing Gerald Green for cutting the net and wasting time putting it back.

There were Vince Carter – Jason Richardson duel, Jordan – Wilkins duel, Nate & Howard duel. Now we’re left with Jeremy Evans and Terrence Ross to right it out?

That’s the epitome of the Dunk Contest.

Anyways, there were some pretty good dunks especially in the final round.

Damian Lillard is here to stay.

The skills competition involves players navigating a dribbling circuit, taking a 3-point shot, hitting targets with passes and driving for a layup.

Dame Lillard won the taco bells skills challenge with a 29.8 second round in the finals versus Jrue Holiday (35.6 seconds), Dame also had the best time 28.8 in the team rounds as he remained composed. Tony Parker last years champion and a MVP candidate this season seemed nervous and couldn’t hit the 3 pointer taking 48 seconds to complete the course whereas Lillard, a rookie, was just so patient and cool that he came out with 2 of 3 top times.

The future looks good for Lillard.

Chris Bosh is a boss.

Every time Chris Bosh does something, he has to own it.

He proved it today by beating Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook, Maya Moore of the WNBA and former Houston Rocket Robert Horry. The teams had two minutes to make shots from six locations on the floor, including one from half court.

Chris Bosh had WNBA star Swin Cash and Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins as his teammates but that didn’t matter much in the end. Chris freaking Bosh, had to win.