Top 100 moments of the 2018-19 NBA season, Part 2

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27. The highlights of 2019 NBA All-Star Weekend

NBA All-Star Saturday (and Friday) can be hit-or-miss with each and every event, so let’s just briefly go over the main bullet points:

Hamidou Diallo‘s dunk over Shaquille O’Neal ultimately won him the Slam Dunk Contest, and was one of the few memorable dunks of the weekend.
Dennis Smith Jr.’s dunk over rapper J. Cole was also impressive, though mostly a novelty dunk
Joe Harris winning the 3-Point Contest was a terrific story, even if it was anticlimactic to see Stephen Curry fall short in the final round in his hometown of Charlotte
Jayson Tatum won the Skills Challenge, while Kyle Kuzma dropped 35 points in the Rising Stars Challenge to earn MVP honors

As for the actual All-Star Game, the 2018 change in format allowing the captains to pick their teams once again proved to be a smart tweak, resulting in the second straight All-Star Game that was competitive (until the score opened up near the end).

Kevin Durant earned MVP honors for Team LeBron with 31 points, while Giannis Antetokounmpo put up 38 points and 11 rebounds for Team Curry. Though he didn’t get the win, Giannis’ freakish dunk off Steph Curry’s bounce pass alley-oop was THE play of the weekend that had the whole world buzzing.

https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1097319069588443136

Thanks to the creation of two legacy spots, both Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki got to participate, which was a welcome addition for everyone involved without having to take up the spot of someone more deserving.

Dirk sank two quick triples to rile up the crowd, while Wade was able to recreate his iconic, off-the-backboard alley-oop to LeBron from their days together in Miami.

Curry threw down a reverse dunk off the bounce to himself, Paul George jammed home a 360, Karl-Anthony Towns desecrated the rim as only he knows how and overall, it was a relatively entertaining exhibition game.