NBA All-Star Weekend is here!

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

HELLO, TORONTO: NBA All-Star Weekend is here! Here’s your full schedule of events. Saturday night remains my favorite portion, despite the ongoing problems with the Dunk Contest. The big vs. small Skills Challenge and the Three-Point Shootout should be phenomenal.

DWIGHTMARE III: The Rockets are shopping Dwight Howard, per Woj. Howard is in the interesting problem of both not being the problem or the solution in Houston. (Similar to the state of Rudy Gay in Sacramento.) It does seem pretty likely that a Howard deal can happen, though: Houston will be a motivated seller.

THERE WERE GAMES LAST NIGHT? Sure there were ...

WAS 92, MIL 99
NOP 95, OKC 121

ON REST: Massive, important Tom Haberstroh piece on the wide and painful ramifications of the NBA’s packed, travel-heavy schedule. Read it.

THESE DUDES: Bruce Arthur on the glorious homecoming of Toronto’s own The Starters.

EMOJI PARTY: The NBA and Twitter teamed for some new All-Star emoji. You hashtag your favorite All-Star’s name on Twitter this weekend and a fun emoji attaches. #CharlesBarkley and #Shaq work, too. Of course some of us had fun coming up with more NBA emoji ideas, too ...

NASCAR HERE WE COME: Brian Windhorst and another person at ESPN reports that the NBA Board of Governors will discuss adding corporate sponsor logos to jerseys this weekend. A decision wouldn’t be made until April.

GODLIKE: Eric Koreen’s oral history of Drake’s infamous airball during Big Blue Madness. So good.

WOW: There are rumors that Derek Fisher got involved with Tim Hardaway, Jr.‘s girlfriend. THJ has shot them down, but ... wow.

COACH LUKE: Tim Kawakami on why Luke Walton is going to be patient about leaving Golden State to become a full-time head coach.

DEAR LORD: Kawhi Leonard a) leads the league in three-point percentage and b) has hands the same size as those of Shaq.

SOLE WATCH: The Sports Fan Journal comes with the top 16 All-Star shoes of all-time.

ALRIGHT: There’s a nice Lakers tanking anthem dedicated to Ben Simmons.

FROM OBSESSION TO PROFESSION: The life of a professional dunker. Via REDEF.

THE RUBE GOLDBERG TRADE MACHINE: Six trades that would have no effect on the NBA whatsoever.

PODCAST TIME: Mike and Ben are back with a Limited Upside podcast on the Knicks.

SURE: Kanye West had some wild album release event for The Life of Pablo and Nick Young was spotted in the crowd.

OH NO! Byron Scott, who I have increasing sympathy for, started down a dangerous path: he compared D’Angelo Russell to his previous rookie point guards Kyrie Irving and Chris Paul. It’s pretty clear Scott didn’t mean anything malicious in noting what is obvious (Russell’s development is behind that of those other two) but comparing your basketball sons is just dangerous. I both wish we’d collectively cut Scott a bit more slack and that Scott would stop talking.

Alright, happy All-Star Weekend. We’ll be back on Sunday morning with some links and whatnot. See you next time.

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