NBA royalty in Toronto for all-star weekend
It’s cold, but it’s ‘basketball Christmas’ and it’s here for Toronto to enjoy.
Chris Bosh set foot in Toronto on Thursday and before he could put his hand to his phone, a probably unwelcome but familiar feeling hit him and stung any exposed skin, tensing his entire six-foot-11 frame.
“It. Is. COLD,” the former Raptor, now an 11-time NBA all-star and six-year member of the Miami Heat tweeted.
He’s certainly not wrong. The temperature is expected to dip to minus-23 C on Friday and Saturday night.
If nothing else, the cold lines up perfectly with the arrival of basketball Christmas in Toronto. The NBA and all its best players, personalities and the parties that come with them are here for all-star weekend.
The festive feeling that started to percolate in downtown Toronto on Thursday will bubble and brew Friday and roar into a basketball-themed beast of its own for the weekend, culminating in the 65th edition of the all-star game Sunday.
LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are here. So is Stephen Curry and his Splash Brother, Klay Thompson. Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. The insanely talented list goes on and on. Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.
NBA All-Star Weekend 2016 schedule
Friday 7:00 PM All-star celebrity game Ricoh Coliseum
Friday 8:00 PM All-star party Muzik nightclub
Friday 9:00 PM Rising stars challenge Air Canada Centre
Saturday 1:30 PM D-League all-star game Ricoh Coliseum
Saturday 8:00 PM All-star skills contests Air Canada Centre
Sunday 8:30 PM All-star game Air Canada Centre
Given the magnitude of the talent assembled for Sunday’s game, the weekend starts off almost inconspicuously Friday with the NBA celebrity game and its 7 p.m. tipoff at Ricoh Coliseum.
There’s a distinctly Canadian flavour to the game, with Drake coaching a Canadian team alongside two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash against comedian Kevin Hart’s U.S. team.
Drake and Nash will oversee a team that features Jose Bautista, Milos Raonic and former players Tracy McGrady, Rick Fox and Tammy Sutton-Brown. Actor Nick Cannon and former Raptors Chauncey Billups and Muggsy Bogues are on Hart’s team.
The first NBA-related piece of the weekend comes next, with the Rising Stars Challenge at Air Canada Centre. The league modifying the rookies vs. sophomores game to a U.S. against the World Team setup last year works perfectly for the first all-star weekend outside America.
As long as the game is played in the States, Friday will mark the only time that Team World is the fan favourite.
“That’s really cool,” said Dallas Maverick and Toronto native Dwight Powell, a second-year forward who’ll be on Team World.
“I think it speaks to the globalization of the game, how many people it’s touching across the world and the NBA specifically.”
Powell won’t be the only Canadian on the floor. He’ll join Andrew Wiggins and Trey Lyles as they take on a U.S. team headlined by the 2015 first-overall pick, and Wiggins’s Minnesota Timberwolves teammate, Karl-Anthony Towns.
It’s the only all-star event that Wiggins, the 2014 No. 1 pick from Thornhill and the reigning rookie of the year, will be taking part in.
“We both talked about being excited to come home to Toronto,” Powell said of a conversation he had with Wiggins earlier this season.
“We didn’t really know whether we’d be playing or not — I guess he knew — but we both talked about how cool it was to have the all-star game here and we knew the city would come together to support it and how excited everyone was.
“It’s cool to see now how everyone is really participating.”
Wiggins was named the game’s MVP last year in New York, thanks to a 22-point effort to lead Team World to a 121-112 win. Powell, who’s averaging 6.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game with the Mavericks, is making his debut in the game this year.
The chance for fans to cheer on Wiggins, Powell and Lyles in their home country is the perfect way to get the weekend going for the host city. It’s cold, but it’s basketball Christmas and it’s here for Toronto to enjoy.
~Wakenya Canada
