Scottie Barnes Steals Hearts in First All-Star Game Appearance

Scottie was himself all weekend long, showing his lovable personality off to the NBA — and honestly, I’m here for it.

Well, NBA All-Star weekend has come and gone for another year, with all the excitement, drama, and highlights finally coming to an end on Sunday night — players now hope to get a few days of rest before the season continues.

It’s hard not to see this year’s all-star as an overall success, with some additions and changes that genuinely improved the weekend over last year, at least enough to overshadow any shortcomings. The most obvious innovation was the LED court, used on Friday and Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium that added intrigue to the events held on those nights.

While there isn’t as much interest in the Celebrity game compared to the rest of the weekend, the court made it far more watchable. Changing colours, tracking players, and a moving 4-point line were all rather interesting gimmicks that showcased the floor and helped pique peoples’ interest if for no other reason than to try and figure out what was going on.

It was definitely noisy, and maybe even at times distracting, but it was worth a look and got more people tuned in. It will be interesting to see if that has any carry over in future years.

The second event of the night found the league’s up-and-comers putting on a show. Unfortunately, the Raptors didn’t have any players representing the team during the Rising Stars competition this year, but it was still fun to watch the future of the league.

The result was fairly predictable with Team Jalen coming away with the win. Bennedict Mathurin, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams highlighted the team, with Mathurin earning game MVP, a well-deserved accolade after an 18-point performance in the first round.

The court made another appearance the following night, with more eye-catching displays. The first event of the night, the Skills Challenge, saw full-court displayed player intros, and each stage included even more from the floor.

Toronto Raptor Scottie Barnes was joined by Tyrese Maxey and Trae Young on Team All-Stars, matching up against Team Pacers (Bennedict Mathurin, Tyrese Haliburton, and Myles Turner) and Team 1st Picks (Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Edwards, and Paolo Banchero).

The first round was a relay event, requiring an outlet pass, dribbling through a series of barriers, a short-range basket, a 3-point shot over a spinning barrier, and finally a layup on the other end. The floor highlighted the different regions of the race, showing a track to follow through the dribbling portion, as well as identifying the location to shoot from.

Trae Young led the event, followed up by our main man Scottie Barnes. Scottie’s run in the relay started off a little bit shaky, dribbling the ball off of his leg and into the crowd. He hit his 3-pointer right after though, so even if it wasn’t perfect it was still better than last year..

Despite the floor’s best effort to direct players, Maxey and Banchero got lost dribbling, adding to their timing, which seemed significant until Anthony Edwards decided to shoot left handed for the 3-point portion, bricking consecutive shots until the clock ran out, leaving the door open for the Pacers team that didn’t make the same mistakes.

The second event was better for Scottie and the other All-Stars, which required them to make a number of passes. Now, three different passes through different sized targets were tallied until time ran out. The All-Stars managed a total of 74 points, with Scottie making very strong passes through the two-point target and well-placed bounce passes. This ended in a tie with the Pacers team that came away victorious in the tie-breaker, leaving everything up to the final event: A shooting contest.

Despite being paired with two guys known for their scoring, Scottie actually led the team in this event. Starting from the 3-point location, he cashed in the first two, followed by a 4-point shot. He made another 3, totalling 13 points for him, and 33 for the team in total, enough to take them to a tie-breaker with the Pacers requiring a half court shot.

Unfortunately Scottie wasn’t able to make one, but not for lack of trying. After taking a few, he decided to try and heave it over his head backwards leading to mixed reviews, but if it had gone it would have been a highlight of the weekend. It was fairly fun, and the tone of the weekend usually is more fun than serious, so hopefully critics can take a bit of a backseat on his wild shot effort. It took Tyrese Haliburton only half as long as Tyrese Maxey who made it, so Team All-Stars and Scottie left the event without any hardware.

The 3-point contest followed, with the floor showcasing all kinds of fun effects, lighting up regions around the court with made shots, and live tracking score, a timer, and player rankings. Unsurprisingly, Damian Lillard emerged as the winner, despite strong competition from KAT and Trae Young.

Another kind of 3-point contest followed with Steph vs. Sabrina — a highlight of the weekend. Steph narrowly won bragging rights (for now) as he scored 29 points to Ionescu’s 26 points. Sabrina still holds the all-time 3pt contest record for both the NBA and WNBA at 37 of a possible 40 points — a record she set at the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game.

For me, this was probably one of the most fun events of the night, since it was a good-natured competition that ultimately benefited everyone. I’ve been a fan of Ionescu’s New York Liberty for a little while, and it was really cool to see Sabrina bring some attention to the league while benefiting both her and Steph’s charities. I can’t imagine anyone wouldn’t enjoy a rematch, maybe where the two of them can take on Damian Lillard and (hopefully) Caitlin Clark.

The Dunk Contest did what it usually does, igniting a storm of arguments on social media about what scores should have been, who should advance, and the general fading interest in this competition. Mac McClung didn’t disappoint with several fancy dunks, letting go and catching the ball during one, and leaping over Shaq for the final one that ultimately won him the contest. Other than that, it was sort of disappointing.

On Sunday, finally it was time for the All-Star game, a ringing answer to the question: what would happen in an NBA game if no one played defence?

Answer: almost 400 combined points.

Most people, including the betting platforms, had the West coming away with this one, but despite the odds, the East won in rather dominant fashion, thanks to the contributions from Haliburton, Lilliard, Brown, and Tatum. In the West, Shai, KAT, and KD all managed solid offensive contributions, but not enough to overcome their opponent.

Of course, beyond purely scoring, there was plenty of contribution to the highlight reel from everyone on the floor. Wild no-look and behind the back passes, 3-point shots that just kept getting further away (looking at you Lilliard) and rim-rocking dunks abounded in true All-Star fashion. Of course, so did missed dunks, air-balls, and wild passes into the stands. It keeps it all balanced to see plays that are equally impressive followed up with plays that make it obvious these guys are still human.

Scottie started slow, not touching the floor until the second quarter. Once he did he seemed a bit timid, deferring possessions to the other star-power and more veteran players on the floor. After missing his first shot, it looked a little tough for him until he made a massive dunk in transition.

In the most Scottie-esque move ever, he remained quiet until the fading minutes of the third quarter and fourth, when he was the highest energy player on the court, with multiple 3-point makes, big rebounds, and an end-to-end dunk. He proceeded to rack up 16-8-3-1 in his minutes in the game, a strong showing for his first All-Star appearance.

Over the course of the weekend Scottie represented the Raptors well, showing his passing and shooting prowess in the skills competition and the energy and effort he has in the All-Star game.

He also showed his personality to the larger NBA fanbase, stealing hearts and proving why Toronto fans are so adoring (and protective) of our franchise player. His goofy antics and endearing persona proves why he’s one of the most beloved young guys in the league by his peers. He probably gained more than a few new fans over the weekend.

Yes, he was a little silly at times, but all-in-all I think it just added to the fun. Hopefully this is his first All-Star appearance of many, as it was obviously well-deserved given the season he’s had this year. Now, we get a few more days of rest before the heading into the remainder of the busy NBA season.