DON'T SLAM NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND

The NBA's All-Star weekend is one of my favorite times of the year and All-Star Saturday night is a national treasure that should be enshrined in the basketball Hall of Fame.

You have the Slam Dunk contest, the 3-point shootout and the recently added Skills Competition. Nothing compares to it. Many have tried to duplicate but failed replicate. This is the one All-Star weekend the fans can truly enjoy and most have great memories from it. Who can forget Jordan vs. Dominique in the 1988 Slam Dunk showdown in Chicago? Or, Larry Bird holding up his index finger even before his final shot went in to claim the 3-point shootout. How about Magic Johnson's triumphant return to the NBA in 1992, hitting three consecutive threes to finish the game? Truly magical.

Stars become superstars overnight. Kobe. Vince. T-Mac. All of them went from "fresh faces" to "faces of the league." Kobe was barely out of high school when he wowed the crowd in 1997. McGrady was still an unknown Raptor when he went head-to-head with cousin Vince in Oakland back in 2000. Ahhh, yes. Vince Carter. Vinsanity was born when he pulled out the reverse 360 dunk off the wrong foot on his first attempt. TNT's Kenny Smith proclaimed the contest over when Vince dropped the between-the-legs-off-one-bounce dunk in the final.

And then there are those who used the Slam Dunk contest as a platform for celebrity. Without it, names like Kenny Walker, Harold Miner, Cedric Ceballos, Dee Brown, Terence Stansbury and Spud Webb would never exist in the NBA vernacular? All these guys either barely played in the league or was an NBA journeyman. But for one night, they became legends.

The NFL has the Pro Bowl but nobody wants to play in it and the players' union is probably going to abolish it in a couple of years fearing their clients are at risk. Major League Baseball brought back Home Run Derby, which is cool...if you like dudes on HGH! And then there's the National Hockey League's version of All-Star weekend complete with worthy skills competitions. The NHL actually has some really cool events. However, no one in North America can identify 10 players on the ice. I can name three: Mike Modano, Sean Avery and Mike Comrie. And only because they all have famous significant others (Willa Ford, Elisha Cuthbert and Hilary Duff).

NBA All-Star weekend is nice. Don't slam it!