In fact, this year's All-Star Game was not originally scheduled for New Orleans, after all, New Orleans hosted an All-Star Game in the year Hurricane Katrina hit. According to the original regulations, the Charlotte Hornets will host the 2017 All-Star Weekend, but in March this year, Charlotte's state of North Carolina passed an exclusionary law that allows the exclusion of gay people in business, and the controversial HB2 bill refuses to protect the rights of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people) by forcing transgender people to use "sex-appropriate" toilets.

After the introduction of the HB2 bill, it immediately caused a huge public opinion effect, and the NBA has been urging the North Carolina government to change the bill, and issued a warning that if it cannot be amended, it will consider revoking Charlotte's qualification to host the 2017 All-Star. As the owner of the Hornets, Michael Jordan has also been opposed to this bill, hoping to retain the team's All-Star hosting rights.

However, the league's urging had little effect, and North Carolina still insisted on its own bill without changing the provisions, which also allowed the NBA to make a final penalty decision. According to Yahoo Sports, the NBA will cancel the Hornets' all-star hosting rights, and instead choose a new venue in New Orleans, Chicago, New York/Brooklyn, and finally decided to hold this all-star event in New Orleans.

Of course, in addition to this problem, the league has also introduced a new policy for the All-Star Game, a one-week break policy. In 2014, the league took the advice of LeBron James and others to extend the All-Star break. After the All-Star Weekend in the past, many big-name stars didn't get time off and immediately had to devote themselves to the second half of the game. To give players time to rest in the middle of the season, the league extended the All-Star break to one week. This way, even players with All-Star Game assignments will be given 3-4 days off after playing.

Judging from the schedule, there are no games scheduled for a total of 6 days, but there are only 2 games in total the day before entering the All-Star break, and the participating Celtics, Bulls, Pacers, and Wizards only have games on the second day after the All-Star break, so this year, each team has at least 7 days of rest during the All-Star break, and the Warriors and Cavaliers can rest for 7 days, and those who are lucky like the Hawks, they have the last game before the All-Star break one day earlier, so they have 8 days off.

Last season, the All-Star break was crucial, as most players were given more time to relax and recuperate, and teams had more time to train and solve problems in the first half of the season. Many teams improved after the All-Star break, with teams like the Cavaliers, Rockets, Hornets, and Hawks performing significantly better after the All-Star break last season than in the first half.

The All-Star Game will be held at the Smoothie Kings Center, the Pelicans' home arena, and the All-Star Training and BA Development League All-Star Game will be held at the Mercedes-Benz Center. The specific schedule is as follows: the Rookie Challenge on February 18, 2017, the individual events will be held on February 19, 2017, including the Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Slam Dunk Contest, and the All-Star Game will be held on February 20, 2017.

Regarding the All-Star Game being scheduled in New Orleans again, NBA Chairman Adam Shaw had this to say: "New Orleans is a world-class sports and entertainment hub, and congratulations to the city for winning the All-Star rights again. Here's a tribute to Pelican owners Tom Benson and Gali Benson, Pelicans management, and the Mayor of New Orleans for once again inviting us to hold the All-Star Game in New Orleans and committing to making this All-Star event exciting and memorable once again. ”

"We are grateful that the NBA has once again chosen New Orleans as the venue for the 2017 All-Star Game, and we have effectively upgraded the Smoothie Center to become a premier venue for All-Star Weekend events. New Orleans has hosted two All-Star games in the past nine years, making it the perfect place for NBA fans. Pelicans owner Tom Benson said.

"It's no secret that the NBA will benefit thousands of New Orleans kids and charities during All-Star Weekend. The mayor of New Orleans and many other organizations have worked so hard to win the right to host the 2017 All-Star Game, and I would like to thank you on behalf of my wife and Pelicans management. Benson continued. To help the thousands of people affected by the floods in Louisiana, the NBA, the Players Guild and the Pelicans will donate money and materials.

Soon the time came on February 18th, and the All-Star Weekend officially kicked off, and the 18th day will be held on the Rookie Challenge. This year's All-Star Rookie Challenge continues the format of previous U.S. vs. international teams. The U.S. team is made up of 10 first- and second-year Americans, and the international team is made up of 10 first- and second-year international players. This year's Rookie Team will be led by Timberwolves star Towns, who helped the U.S. team beat the International 157-154 in last year's Rookie Challenge. This season, Towns is also one of only two players in the NBA to average at least 22 points and 11 rebounds per game.

Embiid and Moodier are sidelined with injuries and replaced by Abrinez and Hernangomez. At the beginning of the game, the two sides played extremely relaxed, focusing on performances, dunks, three-pointers, and passing skills, and the World United team led the United States by 11 points with consecutive points before halftime. The second half of the game was still exciting, the two sides launched an attack, the world team led all the way, Booker scored consecutive points, Kaminsky hit a 3-pointer, the United States team overtook the score, the world team chased closely, and at the last moment Murray hit a 3-pointer to help it overtake the score. In the end, the World United team defeated the United States 150-141. Murray was also the undisputed MVP of the game.

As for statistics, in the World United, Jamal Murray had 36 points, 3 rebounds and 11 assists; Kristaps Porzingis 24 points and 10 rebounds; Dario Saric 17 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists; Buddy Hield 28 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals; Dario Saric 11 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists; Nikola Jokic had 12 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals.

On the U.S. side, Karl Anthony Towns had 22 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals; Myles Turner 11 points and 4 rebounds, D'Angelo Russell 10 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists; Devin Booker had 14 points and six assists, Jaliel Okafor had 10 points and two rebounds, Frank Kaminski had 27 points, three rebounds and two assists, and Jonathan Simmons had 19 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Jamal Murray's outstanding performance also proved to everyone that he is indeed an excellent player, from the beginning of 16 shooting 0, to the later 28 seconds and 12 minutes, and now to the rookie game MVP, Murray with a step-by-step improvement slowly towards the direction everyone expects.

The game on the eighteenth is nothing special for Ye Xuan and Wade and others, after all, their focus is no longer on this rookie game of who dunks beautifully and who can shoot three-point accurately, they are now more concerned about relaxing themselves and the playoffs after that. The time soon came to the nineteenth, and today's game was still quite eye-catching, after all, these three major events are very interesting.

The All-Star Skills Competition has become less and less competitive since the reform in 2013, especially after 2015, when the confrontation between big men and small men has become the main theme, and the competition skills and star components are decreasing, and the skills competition has become the chicken rib of the three major events. There are only two highlights of the skills competition: the popularity effect of the stars and the live performance. Before the reform, the skills game was a project in which the backcourt players participated. In those years, although it has not yet fully entered the era of small ball, the most popular defender is still the guard, whether it is Kidd Nash in the early stage, Wade Paul in the middle stage, and Roscurry in the future, they are all backcourt players with a large number of fans. Therefore, their appearance will give people the urge to lie in front of the TV to watch the whole game, and now, watching everyone laugh casually, the biggest feeling about this project has become "take a look, there is nothing to do anyway, as a relaxation session before the three-point competition".

On the one hand, it stems from the setting of the game. The early trick games were more demanding passes, including a chest pass and a ground-hitting pass, and included a mid-range and a three-point shot in the shooting session, with the same difference being for obstacle crossings. In the passing process, because there were five chances, the players at that time were more likely to finish as quickly as possible, rather than wasting three chances for the next part as they do now. In addition, the time constraints and the rules of record also make the early skills competition more compact. On the other hand, it comes from the level of dedication to the game and a little bit of entertainment. In the years when Wade Paul was in those years, you would obviously feel that they really wanted to win a skills championship, they could purse their lips and snicker off the court, but once they were on the court, they were like a string, making small movements, making interference when shooting, making a look when making a layup, or pretending to be angry and annoyed during the interview. The realism of these pictures is as if you are sitting in front of the stage watching a play, and you can feel the chic and free movements, the blood flow, and even a touch of cunning when speaking and spitting words.

Now, the Skills Challenge has become a fun competition, and while there are a few gimmicks to the big guys and backcourt players, the competition is not as competitive. So there was also the first battle in the Skills Challenge, Wall looked listless, and obviously didn't use all his strength to participate in this competition, so in the end Wall lost the Skills Challenge, and the more serious Hayward advanced to the next round.

I have to talk about Ye Xuan here, Ye Xuan missed the All-Star Game last season because of an injury, but those who know Ye Xuan's heroic deeds in the All-Star Game last season also understand how powerful Ye Xuan's crow's beak attribute is. And Devin Booker, a young man who only joined the NBA last year, obviously didn't know how powerful Ye Xuan was, so in the skills challenge, he actually chatted with Ye Xuan on the sidelines, Wade on the side looked at Devin Booker with a strange face, and then when he was about to play and needed to go on the court to prepare, Ye Xuan also politely said 'GOOD LUCK', and then the strange look of Wade next to him instantly turned into the feeling of poor Booker, and Booker himself was still blinded.

So when Booker went up to play, he was tragic, Thomas Jr. and Booker were divided into a group in the group stage, but Booker's luck was really affected by the mysterious force from the East, and there were two mistakes in the passing stage, and finally when Thomas Jr. shot the three-point shot with a serious face, Booker had not yet come to the three-point line.

The battle between the backcourt players has come to an end for the time being, followed by the battle between the big players, the first to appear are Cousins and Porzingis, to talk about play, Cousins must be more powerful in the data contest between these two people, but Bosh's floating style of play on the outside seems to be more suitable for this skill challenge. However, when everyone saw Cousins's shocked expression when he staggered into the net bag for the first time, I believe everyone was on Cousins's side, and in the end, although Kaoshen's humorous performance gave him a lot of points, Boshen still easily defeated Kaoshen and advanced to the next round.

And then it was the contest between Jokic and Anthony Davis, I have to say that Jokic dribbled and ran three steps to the three-point line, and it was still very joyful to greet Davis after hitting the shot, but the subsequent game process was a little lackluster, except for Polkingis's final performance in one go, on the whole, it was even more laughing than the year of the Beverley Skills Championship. In fact, the original intention of introducing big men in the skills competition is very good, and the interaction and estrangement between players, the division of positions, and the restrictions of geographical countries have been reduced a lot. More importantly, more interactive links between players and fans have been added during the game, which at least plays a positive role in cultivating the interest of youth basketball. It's just that for fans in the past, it was just that the performance show that was supposed to be star-studded became the least eye-catching game of the three major events, and it was a little bit of a lack of interest. Like the slam dunk contest in '12-14 and the three-point contest in '07-11, the skills contest has now entered a bottleneck period, and perhaps the next reform will not be far away.

But then, it's time for the dinner time of this year's All-Star Game, starting from the three-point contest, the next projects are full of highlights, and these are also the three events that Ye Xuan participated in this All-Star Game.