The NBA All-Star break is finally living up to its name. After giving players a maximum of four days off in previous seasons, the league lengthened its mid-season siesta to a full week in 2015. And now, a schedule of the major events in New York has been released.
Instead of being held in a single arena this season, the All-Star festivities will be split between Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Each venue will be featured on a single day of All-Star weekend while also hosting another event, too.
The All-Star Celebrity Game will take place at 7:00PM on Friday, February 13 at MSG. Carmelo Anthony, Spike Lee, and – for reasons we don’t understand – ESPN’s Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic will serve as coaches. The Rising Stars Challenge will be held across the river at Barclays at 9:00PM.
Practices for the All-Star game are back at the Garden for 10:30AM Saturday morning, and are open to the public and will be broadcast on NBATV. Our attention shifts to Barclays again for the All-Star Saturday nightcap at 7:30PM, which includes the Slam Dunk Contest.
The D-League events – All-Star game, slam dunk and three-point contests – will be in the borough on Sunday afternoon. Finally, the weekend’s marquee show – the 64th NBA All-Star Game – is booked at Madison Square for 8:00PM.
What follows next is unprecedented, and something to which we don’t know how to react – a three-day absence of NBA action. Games will begin again on Thursday, February 19, affording every team in the league a full calendar week of “rest.”
Mark your calendar. That Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will either be the most boring or gratifying of your 2014-2015 NBA fandom. The regular season grind affects the league’s followers, too.
What do you think?
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