NEW ORLEANS – 2008 All-Star Saturday weekend, considered the best day for NBA fans throughout the entire year, started with the Shooting Stars competition first, along with All-Star Skills Challenge, Three Point Shoot-Out, and concluded with a show down for Dwight Howard in the Slam Dunk Contest. It was a very exciting Saturday night in New Orleans for a lot of fans.

    The Shooting Stars contest consisted of three groups (one NBA legend, one WNBA player, and one current NBA player). The final two teams that advanced to the finals were Chicago with Chris Duhon, Candice DuPree, and B.J. Armstrong, along with San Antonion made up of Tim Duncan, WNBA player Becky Hammon, and of course the veteran seven footer David Robinson, where he made a three point shot on his first attempt, as well as knocking the half-court shot on his second attempt. As the result of the contest Chicago had a much better start, than San Antonio, but could not make the half-court shot, it took them 15 tries to place them second, making San Antonio 2008 Shooting Stars competition winners.

Next, All-Star Skills Challenge only for point guards consisted of Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, and past two year winner Dwayne Wade. Event tasks were to dribble the ball through fake defenders, pass the ball through hoops, which is the most challenging, and make a jump shot and two lay-ups. Chis Paul, and Deron Williams made it to the finals, where Williams broke the all-time record, with a perfect round and time of 25.5 seconds to win the event.

Three Point Shootout as always consisted of five racks with five balls each at spots around the three point arc, where each rack had a multi-colored ball known as the “money ball”, worth 2 points. Players needed to make all 25 shots within one minute. This year three point shootout participants were Steve Nash, Daniel Gibson, Jason Kapono, last year’s winner, Richard Hamilton, Dirk Nowitzki replacing Kobe Bryant, and Peja Stojakovic. After a tough first round Kapono, Gibson, and Nowitzki advanced to the second round. In the final round Gibson scored 17 points, following Nowitzki with 14 points. Kapono was on fire, he had 14 points after three rows, and he won the challenge with 25 total points, where he tied the three point shootouts record.

Finally, the time has come for the main event, the Slam Dunk Competition. This challenge is self explanatory, each player need to show their best dunk within two minutes. This year’s competition was still without James, Kobe, or T-Mac, but it was exciting one! The participants were Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies, Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, Jamario Moon of the Toronto Raptors, and last year’s Champion Gerald Green of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Howard is next. Oh my Goodness!! He threw the ball into the rim. WOW!!! That’s another 50. Howard (100) and Green (91) advance. He just put on a Superman cape, received a pass from behind the backboard, and got so high he dunked the ball without touching the rim. Dwight Howard, 2008 Sprite Slam Dunk Competition winner, with no pressure.

As we all waited for, the 57th NBA All-Star Game between the defending West versus the dominating East in the past decade sparked the night with ….opening the Big Game on Sunday. At first Kobe, was trying to clearance from the league to skip Sunday's All-Star Game stating he has a torn ligament in his right pinkie. Below is the starting line-up for the 2008 All-Star Game.

With the trade of Shaquille O'Neal the ballots have been counted and Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal's record-tying streak of 14 straight All-Star selections has ended. “He will not play in the 2008 All-Star Game” O’Neal stated. On Sunday night in New Orleans, the beads were being thrown again at the King, Labron James named MVP after the East swept the West, after losing to West last year. Many people considered Sundays All-Start game one of the best All Star games they have seen in awhile.