To everyone’s surprise, Shaq took Damian Lillard with the first overall pick. Not that Lillard is undeserving, but Kyrie Irving is an All-Star. Regardless, Kenny Smith would take advantage of his luck and pick up the second-year phenomenon. Right? Wrong. With the second pick, Kenny Smith took the first overall pick in last year’s draft, Anthony Davis. Davis is an extraordinary talent as well, but over Kyrie Irving? The slip then finally ended, as Shaq drafted Irving to round out his dynamic back court duo.

The rest of Team Shaq consists of Detroit’s Andre Drummond, Golden State’s Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes, Houston’s Chandler Parsons, Cleveland’s Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller, and Charlotte’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Kemba Walker.

After taking Anthony Davis with his first pick, Kenny Smith built a team that consists of Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio, Denver’s Kenneth Faried, San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard, Washington’s Bradley Beal, Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson, Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic, Detroit’s Brandon Knight, Sacramento’s Isaiah Thomas, and Minnesota’s Alexey Shved.

My pick for MVP is Kyrie Irving. The second-year man out of Duke is averaging 23.9 points, 5.5 assists, and 3.7 assists per game this season. He’s shooting an outstanding 42.7% on three-point attempts, and is also racking up an impressive number of steals, 1.7 per game to be exact. Irving will be the best player on the court when the Rising Stars take the court, and I fully expect for him personally to put on a show.

Former-Sixer Nikola Vucevic will also try to establish himself as a future-star. Vucevic has flown somewhat under the radar due to Orlando’s struggles this season. However, the second-year center out of  USC has averaged a double-double this season. The seven-footer has improved in every area of the game since being dealt to the Magic in the Dwight Howard/Andrew Bynum blockbuster trade this offseason.

TNT will have the coverage on Friday at 9:00 P.M.

Welp, the first one was in 1989. The MVP was Karl Malone. The Sixers were represented by Charles Barkley. Moses Malone also made the team but with the Hawks. Some key things actually happened surrounding this game. Here are the bullet points (taken from NBA.com and Wikipedia):

• The 1988-89 season for Utah’s Karl Malone was a watershed one, marking his first of 11 straight All-NBA First Team nominations and first of five straight seasons as the NBA’s No. 2 scorer.
• This was the final All-Star game for Hall of Famers Moses Malone and Alex English, but marked the first All-Star appearance for Chris Mullin.
• This all-star game was known for setting at that time, an NBA All-Star attendance record

The “host” player,  Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets, had 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks. MVP Malone had 28 points on 12-for-17 shooting, nine rebounds and two steals.

The second one was in 2006. If you’ve followed the Sixers and watched the events that weekend, you may have a bitter taste in your mouth. It was Sixers weekend as Andre Iguodala took home the MVP award for the Rookies-Sophomore game. The next night, and I stand by this, he was robbed of winning the Slam Dunk Competition in what was the first contest to to be decided by a tie-breaker.

Anyway, Allen Iverson represented the Sixers in the ASG. The host players were Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. Again, here’s some bullet points:

• Gilbert Arenas was David Stern’s best friend as Arenas was an injury replacement for the ASG and the 3 point shoot-out.
• The Pistons had 4 players represent them: Richard Hamilton, Chaucey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace

The West won the first game while the East won game two.