2008 All-Star Thread

[HMFFL]

Last year, with Joe Johnson making his first trip to the NBA All-Star game, the Hawks BasketBlog took a road trip to Las Vegas to chronicle the weekend's festivities. It was a ton of fun, and we knew if any of the Hawks made the guest list this year we'd have to head to New Orleans.

The Hawks obliged, placing JJ in the main event for the second straight year and adding Al Horford, who will participate in Friday night's Rookie-Sophomore Challenge.

So, just like last year, Hawks.com will be on site all weekend in the Big Easy to report on all the fun and fanfare. It should be quite a time - if any city can throw as good a party as Las Vegas, it's most definitely New Orleans.

I'll be doing lots of finger exercises this week to prepare my hands for the amount of typing I've got ahead of me, as we'll have live blog coverage of Friday night's Rookie game, Saturday's Skills competitions, and of course Sunday's All-Star Game.

BasketBlog Field Trip!


Friday:

Rookies vs. Sophomores - Al Horford

Celebs Game

Saturday:

Dunk Contest

Skills Challenge

Three Point Contest

Shooting Stars

D-League All-Star Game

Sunday:

East vs. West All-Star Game - Joe Johnson

[HMFFL]

Man, im watching the rookie challege game and Al is making alot of noise. I mean he's all over the place, you can hear Charles Barkley drooling over this kid..lol! I hope he sticks around a long time! Go Hawks

Keep all the All-Star talk inside the All-Star sticky. Thanks

[HMFFL]

Horford gets back in spotlight for a weekend

After getting used to the intense glare of the national spotlight during his championship and All-America career at Florida, Horford has spent much of his first NBA season toiling in relative obscurity with the Hawks, who make the airwaves nationally only on highlight shows.

"This is the atmosphere that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up," said Horford, soaking up every moment of his first NBA All-Star weekend. "I knew it was going to be a process to get the Hawks back into the spotlight, and that's what we've been working toward."

The Hawks might not have mass appeal in Atlanta or beyond, but Horford remains a household name and face at home and abroad. More than three dozen members of the international media surrounded him after Friday morning's practice, peppering him with questions in Spanish, English and some in Chinese.

Horford held his own with 19 points in Friday's game, won 136-109 by the Sophomores on the strength of a record 11 3-pointers by Cleveland guard Daniel Gibson. Horford was second in scoring on the Rookies behind Seattle's Kevin Durant, who scored 23.

Link

[evildallas]

During the game they were discussing which one player they would take to build around. Brandon Roy was the consensus. Charles was torn and said that if you gave him Brandon Roy and Al Horford that he'd have his cornerstones for 10 years and be set. Al was getting a lot of praise from the TNT crew not just Charles.

[High 5]

Great showing for Al. I was wondering how his offense would go in this game but he didn't disappoint. Definitely the best rookie on the floor.

[HoopsGuru25]

Gerald Green has freakish hops...did you see how high he was on that 1st dunk? Moon's free throw line dunk disappointed because not only was it not 2 steps behind the free throw line like he said....he caught an alley oop which is easier to do.

[BMF Jet Jaguar]

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[evildallas]

I feel good for Dwight because he got robbed last year on that sticker dunk. Dwight got the victory he deserved, but Gerald Green should have at least gotten the 50 for his birthday cake dunk. The slow-mo on that was sweet.

[HoopsGuru25]

Dwight did well...this was a good dunk contest there were no bums this year. Moon's 1st dunk was pretty sick..to catch a ball with 1 hand and do a 360 dunk is pretty damn hard to do especially off a bad pass by Kapono. I don't know how he didn't get a 50 for that. His free throw line dunk was not hard to do and he hyped it up as if was going to do it way behind the free throw line(like Josh)except he didn't even do it with the ball in his hand. Dwight's dunk's were by far the most creative and it's amazing that a guy that big can get up that high. Green just has ups for days...I've never seen some 1 get up as high as him..Jordan,Vince,Nique,etc. He may not have the creativity or power but his vert is insane. That guy is 6'8 and looks down on the rim on some of his dunks. He reminds me of a rookie Josh Smith except he's 22 and not 19...he has to improve his BBIQ,get stronger,and work hard on his game(like Smith) because he's wasting a ton of athleticism.

[HMFFL]

[evildallas]

^^^^ That confuses me. Harry isn't a high flier. He's a dance and comedy guy. Did we send Skyhawk in disguise?