Golden State Warriors lone representative Stephen Curry (30) celebrates scoring a basket at the NBA All Star Game at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Sun Feb 16, 2025 (AP News photo)
By Barbara Mason
This weekend the city of San Francisco was bulging at the seams with not only tourists but locals attending a number of beloved events held every year. The Chinese New Year festivities were one of the cities annual events celebrating the Year of the Snake with their annual parade.
On this President’s holiday weekend sports fans also flocked to Chase Center to attend the 74th NBA All-Star weekend. These two major events brought in a lot of fun , excitement and revenue to the city. In fact 350 million dollars was a projected number for San Francisco.
This year’s All-Star introduced a new “mini tournament” that featured four teams. The All-Star player pool was drafted into three teams; Kenny’s Young Guns, Chuck’s Global Stars, and Shak’s OGs (average age 33 years old) with a fourth team joined – the Rising Stars-Team Candace.
These teams will face each other in the semi-finals with the winner of those two games advancing to the championship game. Fans will get to enjoy three games with the win going to the team that reaches or surpasses 40 points in each game.
The first game of the evening pitted Team Kenny against Team Chuck and it was a race to forty. Starters for Team Kenny were Jaron Jackson Jr., Evan Mobley, Jalen Williams, Jalen Brunson, and three point. winner Tyler Herro.
The bench that took the court were Anthony Edwards, Darius Garland and Cade Cunnington. For Team Chuck the starters were Pascal Siakam, Nikola Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Donovan Mitchell.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Alperen Sengun, Trae Young and Victor Wembanyama were available off the bench. Mid-way through the game the score was knotted at 23. Team Chuck took a 30-27 lead and with the finish in sight, the expected pace really picked up.
It did indeed pick up in favor of Team Chuck leading 39-29 and the Team Chuck one point away from the win. Team Chuck would advance to the final going on a 11-5 run winning the game 41-32. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had the high for both teams and the only player in double figure with 12 points.
One of the highlights of the evening was a three-point challenge between Damian Lillard and a lucky fan chosen from the crowd on hand. If he could hit one three before Lillard hit three he would win 100,000 dollars.
The young man by the name of Jaren Barajas was asked what he would do with 100,000 thousand dollars. “Help my family and for college” he said. Well Jaren will be going to college hitting a three at the buzzer which brought the crowd to their feet. What an unforgettable moment for this young guy who had come to watch the All-Star games and will now leave with 100,000 dollars. The second semi-final game then got underway to determine the final.
The next semi-final game featured Team Candace and Team Shaq. The Starters for Team Candace were Jaylen Wells, Zach Edey, Keyonte George, Stephen Castle and Dalton Knecht with Trayce Jackson-Davis, Amen Thompson and Ryan Dunn on the bench.
Team Shaq featured the Warriors own Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Jason Tatum, Damian Lillard and James Harden. The bench for Team Shaq was Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown and LeBron James.
The youngsters were giving the veterans a run for their money with the game tied at 28. Team Shaq was on the edge of a win leading 39-35 and one possession away from the finals. The rising stars fought hard but fell to Team Shaq 42-35 in a hotly contested game. Team Shaq and Team Chuck would play in the championship game.
The championship game got underway with Stephen Curry hitting a three to start the finals 3-0. Team Shaq would go on an 11-0 run. Team Shaq didn’t let up; they led 39-21 and they were a point away from winning the tournament.
Jayson Tatum hit the winning shot and Team Shaq took home the 2025 championship 41-25. Tatum had the game high with 15 points and was three of fpur from beyond the arc followed by Stephen Curry with 13 going four of eight from downtown. Team Shaq finished the game with nine shots from beyond the arc.
It was a memorable All-Star with everything you would expect from this highly anticipated event. Everything was top-notch – the lighting, the music, the contests, the players and the new format that was competitive, and fun and not a glorified dunk contest.
It is without doubt one of the best All-Star Events that has seen in a long time and the fact that it was played here at Chase Center made it the perfect ending to a perfect weekend.
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