On Feb. 17-19, the NBA got a break from its constant competitiveness and weary 82-game long season. Players got to stop and have fun in the game that has made them who they are today—the All Star Weekend, which was held in New Orleans.

It is a three-day event welcoming in chosen players for a rookie and 2nd year player game, a skills challenge, a dunk contest and a game featuring the league’s top-voted players.

The weekend allows all participating players to have fun and relax instead of the stress endured during the season.

Feb. 17 was the Rising Stars game. The teams were Team USA (players born in the United States) versus Team World (players born in foreign countries).

Jamal Murray, a Canadian native from the Denver Nuggets, sunk nine threes and scored 36 total points contributing to the Team World victory awarding him the MVP.

Feb. 18 featured the skills challenge, three point contest and dunk challenge. The winner of the skills challenge was Kristaps Porzingis of the New York Knicks.

Also that night was an interesting three-point contest. The reigning winner, Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors, had lost in the first round. It progressed to sudden death between Eric Gordon of the Houston Rockets and Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers.  

Gordon had won shooting over 60 three-pointers in just three minutes.

After the challenge was one of the most enjoyable events of the event—the dunk contest. Two-time reigning Champion Zach Lavine of the Minnesota Timberwolves would not be participating, so Aaron Gordon was the favored participant.

The dunk contest had a new first—they brought up a player from the D-league to participate in the game, Derrick Jones Jr. of the Northern Arizona Suns.

The contest came down to Jones Jr. and Glenn Robinson of the Indiana Pacers after Gordon failed on a drone dunk stunt.

Robinson did a reverse dunk over three people to win the contest.

Feb. 19 featured the main event of the entire weekend—the All-Star game featuring the league’s best voted players from each conference to play against each other.

The Western conference had topped the Eastern conference once again. Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans had won the MVP award in the city he was playing for. Davis broke an all star game record with 52 points.

Before the game, drama surrounded Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook being on the same team for the game after Durant’s rough leave last season. At the beginning of the game, Durant threw a lob to Westbrook who finished off with a dunk.

The whole stadium erupted as the longtime friends were eventually working towards making up and being friends again.

This year’s All-Star Weekend not only broke records, but healed broken hearts. For now.