Over the past Valentine’s Day weekend, love was not the only thing in the air as three point shots and high flying players dunking balls were coming from every angle. The NBA had their annual all-star weekend in Toronto this year. The festivities were going on all weekend with the celebrity game on Friday, competitions on Saturday, and the all-star game on Sunday. NBA fans were definitely not disappointed.

The action all started on Friday night with the celebrity all star game. This year the teams were Team Canada and Team USA. Team Canada was not made up of all Canadians but was coached by the Canadian rap icon, Drake, while Team USA was coached by comedian, Kevin Hart. About halfway through the game, Hart put on a uniform in an attempt to help his USA team come back in the game. In the end, Win Butler won MVP of the game leading Team Canada to the win.

Saturday night is arguably the most exciting part of all-star weekend with the skills challenge, three point shooting contest, and the dunk contest. This year the NBA incorporated “big men” into the skills challenge, which is normally dominated by guards. To most people’s surprise the 7 foot rookie, Carl Anthony-Towns, took home the trophy beating Isaiah Thomas in the championship round. Next was the three point competition where the leagues best shooters squared off. James Harden, J.J. Redick, Kris Middleton, C.J. McCollum, Kyle Lowry, Devin Booker, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were all of the contestants this year.

Curry and Thompson aka The Splash Bros made it into the final round along with the rookie, Booker. Booker had a tough championship round only scoring 16 points. It was then left for Curry and Thompson to compete for the trophy. Curry had a strong 21 points but Thompson kept Curry from winning back to back three point titles and scored 27 points in the final round.

The final event on Saturday night was the highly anticipated dunk contest. The dunk contest always excites fans and this year was nothing different. This year’s contests were defending champion, Zach LaVine, Andre Drummond, Will Barton, and Aaron Gordon. Very quickly into the contest it became clear that the winner would either be LaVine or Gordon. After trading back and forth perfect 50/50 scores LaVine finally prevailed and won the dunk contest. LaVine joins a short list of players that have won the dunk contest more than once.

Sunday night came very quickly and the players were ready to put on a show for viewers in the all-star game. Kobe Bryant was the biggest headline going into the game being that this was his last all-star weekend as a player. Traditionally, the Western Conference is known to be stronger than the East. The West proved this theory to be true as they won the game 196-173. Paul George scored 41 points, coming up just short of Wilt Chamberlains record of 42 points.

While George almost had a record setting performance, Westbrook stole the MVP, winning his 2nd straight. Scoring was spread out for the West as Westbrook had 31, Curry with 26, and Anthony Davis with 24. Bryant had 10 points in his final all-star game. George led the East in scoring with 41 and had John Wall behind him with 22 points.

This was the most memorable all-star weekend for me in my time as an NBA fan. I absolutely loved it. Kevin Hart was hilarious in the celebrity game, interacting with fans and making a comeback in the second half of the game. The competitions on Saturday were actually competitive for once. It seemed that the players all wanted to have fun but still were willing to push themselves to win.

In the past it seemed to me that they were all there just to mess around. This year was definitely special. Watching Kobe in his final all-star weekend was awesome. I loved seeing him have fun with all of the former teammates and players that he has competed against over his career. It was an awesome thing to see as a big NBA fan.

This year’s NBA all-star weekend was extremely exciting and fun to watch. From start to finish the entire thing was packed with energy, comedy, and sentimental moments. It will be very hard next year for the NBA to live up to this year’s performance.

Click here to read last week’s world of sports, World of Sports: Denver’s defense, Von Miller lead Broncos to Super Bowl win.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @Phillip11499 and via email: Phillip Christopher.