HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

The All-Star weekend events kicked off Friday with player interviews, the announcement of this year’s Basketball Hall of Fame Finalists, the BBVA All-Star Celebrity Game, and the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and Youth Jam.  While these events would normally be the highlights, Friday quickly became the Melo-drama as rumors of imminent deals sending the Nuggets All-Star Carmelo Anthony to the Nets, or possibly the Knicks, became the topic of conservation at nearly every break in the action.

"I am ready for something to just happen," said Anthony to the assembled media during the All-Star player interviews on Friday.  

"As far as any agreement, I am sure that the Nuggets are talking with New Jersey, they are talking with the Knicks, a couple of days ago they were talking with the Lakers, last week it was Dallas.  I really don’t know where any of that is at.  I haven’t got any phone calls as of right now, nothing is imminent.

"I haven’t been presented with any deals by any teams."

Nothing Anthony said, or didn’t say, could slow down the interest in the most anticipated trade of this season.  He was the top story on Friday.

The other planned events did occur however and the NBA would have gotten the All-Star weekend off to a great start without Anthony’s help.

Basketball Hall of Fame Finalists

Before a panel of prestigious basketball representatives, the NBA’s Rick Kamla announced the 12 finalists to be considered for induction into the Hall and Chairman Jerry Colangelo described four new committees to give those previously overlooked a second chance at induction.

This year’s finalists included players, coaches and contributors from college and the professional ranks.

Teresa Edwards, a four-time Olympic Gold medal winner and four-time USA basketball female athlete of the year.

Coach Tara Vanderveer, the current head coach of Stanford has 793 wins, two NCAA national titles, Olympic Gold medal, and is a three-time national coach of the year.

Maurice Cheeks, the four-time All-Star and 1983 NBA champion.

Coach Herb Magee has 907 wins at Philadelphia University, 25 NCAA division II tournament appearances, and won a national title in 1970.

Coach Dick Motta has 1055 career wins at the high school, college, and NBA levels and was the NBA coach of the year in 1970 and won the NBA Championship with Washington in 1978.

Chris Mullin, a five-time NBA All-Star and two-time Olympic Gold medalist.

Referee Hank Nichols, long-time college referee and the NCAA National Coordinator of Men’s Basketball Officiating from 1986 to 2007.

Dennis Rodman, a five-time NBA champion and two-time NBA defensive player of the year.

Ralph Sampson, the great collegiate player and three-time NBA All-Star.

Jamaal Wilkes, a two-time NCAA champion, NBA rookie of the year, three-time NBA All-Star and four-time NBA champion.

Coach Tex Winter, a nine-time NBA champion with the Bulls and Lakers.

The finalists will be considered for acceptance into the Hall by a 24-member committee who will make their selections for induction later this year.

Four additional selections to the Hall will be made by new committees from African-American pioneers before the mid-50s, veterans, international, and the defunct American Basketball League.

BBVA All-Star Celebrity Game

This event may be all about letting some celebrities hang with some ex-NBA players and Hall-of-Famers but it quickly became the Justin Bieber show.  The pint-sized 16-year-old heart-throb made a couple of killer cross-over moves early in the contest and dished off for some wide-open shots and even an alley-oop while nailing a pair of three-balls with an awkward looking shot.  The kid with the great hair won the fan-voted MVP award in a landslide.

The game featured the basketball talents of Jalen Rose and Scottie Pippen who took care of most of the scoring and the freshly-announced Hall-of-Fame finalist Chris Mullin showed that he still knows how to knock down an open jumper.

Coaches Bill Walton and Magic Johnson added color and commentary to the event and were picked on together with other celebrities for the quarterly "green-screen" skits that were made up to be almost as big as the game itself.

East beat West 54-49 and no one seemed to care that the West’s Bieber kept commenting on his team’s victory as he accepted his MVP trophy.  Bieber was after all the big winner in this event.

Rookie-Sophomore Game

Before last year, the Rookies had faced an eight-year drought against the more experienced Sophomore teams, but with Friday’s 148-140 Rookie victory, the sophomores now find themselves losers of two in a row.

{AUTHOR_BOX}The Wizards’ John Wall found himself on team of guys who could finish from everywhere on the court as he set a Rookie Challenge record with 22 assists.  Wall added 12 points for the double-double and was honored with the game’s most valuable player award.

In a game with little inside resistance, the Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins and the Spurs’ DeJuan Blair dominated the boards and the scoring with huge double-doubles, Cousins with 33 points and 14 rebounds for the rookies and Blair with 28 points and 15 rebounds for the second-year players.  Blair crushed the most imposing dunk on the night on a pass to himself off of the back-board.  Either player could have been awarded the MVP with little compliant.

The jumper shooters also faced little opposition as the teams combined to chuck up 208 shots in just 40 minutes with 123 of them finding the bottom of the net.

Last year’s MVP in this game Tyreke Evans was injured and his replacement from the Thunder James Harden had the hot-hand from outside as he scored 30 points on 11 of 19 shots for the sophomores.  Kevin Durant could be seen encouraging Harden to keep scoring from his courtside seat.

The Wolves’ Wesley Johnson had 25 points and the Spurs’ Gary Neal pumped in 20 for the rookies.

Blake Griffin only played for about 13 minutes as he was accidently hit on the nose in the first half but the incident and the injury appeared to be minor.

Like in previous years, the Rookie Challenge is all about show-time offense and having fun on the court.  This game treated the fans to a never ending stream of uncontested dunks and wide-open three-pointers.  While some of these young players have yet to find their full offensive arsenal in a regular NBA game, the fans got a chance to see what these players can do when they are not guarded and some of what we might expect to see from them as they develop.

All-Star Friday is just the start of the events and the best is yet to come on Saturday and Sunday so stay tuned to HOOPSWORLD all weekend.