All-Star Activities Predictions

All-star weekend this year is packed with a lot of fun and exciting events. Some will be interesting, some will be blowouts. Here's the schedule and my predictions for the winners of the events.

Celebrity Game: 2 teams of famous people trying to play basketball. It's Dr. Oz, Chris Tucker, Anthony Anderson, Pitbull, Joel Moore, Anthony Kim and 4 Harlem Globetrotters vs. Mark Cuban, Robert Horry, Rick Fox, Chris Mullin, Common, and Nancy Lieberman. The former NBA players are too old to matchup against the young Globetrotters, but they do have a significant height advantage over the 1st team. Basketball is a game of height, but the globetrotters can jump & are younger. Team 1 wins by 6

Dunk-off: I believe this will be at halftime of the Rookie Challenge, but Eric Gordon and Demar Derozan will have a mini dunk contest to see who is the 4th dunker in the dunk contest the next day. Gordon may be the better player, but he just doesn't seem like a high-flyer, & the fact that he's in the rookie game doesn't help much. Derozan will win here to try his luck in the big show.

T-Mobile Rookie Challenge: The Sophmores usually win this game, & this year will be no different. The only 2 sophmores who I do not think will be among the best players in the NBA in the future are Anthony Morrow and Danilo Gallinari, but both can shoot the 3 very well. Although the rookies have an advantage in the backcourt, the rookie bigs do not have the talent to contend with the likes of Brook Lopez, Kevin Love, Marc Gasol and Michael Beasley. Sophmores by 15

H.O.R.S.E: Kevin Durant defends his title at last years inaugural competition against Omri Casspi and Rajon Rondo. Durant started off slowly against OJ Mayo and Joe Johnson last year, and still won. Both of those players have better abilities to create shots than Rondo or Casspi. Durant will win again, Rondo will finish 2nd and Casspi 3rd

Haier Shooting Stars Competition: To kick off All Star Saturday night, NBA players and Legends and WNBA players will team up to try and shoot some tough shots. Texas has Dirk Nowitzki, Becky Hammon and Kenny Smith, Los Angeles has Pau Gasol, Marie-Ferdinand Harris and Brent Barry, Sacramento has Tyreke Evans, Chris Webber and Nicole Powell, and Atlanta has Joe Johnson, Angel McCoughtry and Steve Smith. Texas takes it for the hometown crowd by 3 seconds, with the best-shooting combination among the younger stars

Taco Bell Skills Challenge: Derrick Rose defends his title against some of the best Point Guards in the game today, Steve Nash, Deron Williams and Brandon Jennings. Williams and Nash are both former champs, with Williams setting a course record in 2008. Will anyone beat that record? No, but Nash will beat everyone here, with Rose finishing 2nd.

3-Point Contest: Daequan Cook will have a tough time defending his title in this star-studded field with Paul Pierce, Chauncey Billups, Stephen Curry, Channing Frye, and Danilo Gallinari. Although Cook ran away with the title last year, he has not been close to as hot as the other competitors. In Chauncey Billups will win by 2, but the other great shooters here will make it an interesting competition to watch

Dunk Contest: As usual, all-star Saturday will end off with an exciting dunk contest. With my prediction of Demar Derozan beating Eric Gordon in the dunk-off, Derozan will help Gerald Wallace, runner-up to Jason Richardson in a close 2002 contest and Shannon Brown try to stop Nate Robinson from his 2nd-straight, 3rd ever, dunk contest victory. In a deep field, Shannon Brown will use his 44.5 inch vertical to rise above the competition and be the 7th player to win the dunk contest in his rookie year

Note: There will be a follow-up article about the all-star game