All you need to know about the NBA All-Star Weekend 2013

Every February, basketball fans mark the third weekend on their calendars for the All-Star weekend. It’s that time of the year when the best basketball players in the NBA come together in one city to raise the roof with a variety of events.

It will run over Saturday, Sunday and Monday in India. Saturday will see the rookies and sophomores face-off and the celebrities battle it out. Sunday will have four competitions to decide the best conference in the NBA. And Monday will feature the All-Star game. The events will be aired on Sony SIX.

Rising Stars Challenge – Saturday, 16th February 2012, 07:30 AM IST

BBVA Rising Stars Challenge

In this, the rookies and sophomores battle it out for supremacy. Here are more details on this one.

Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

A bunch of celebrities including Usain Bolt will participate in the celebrity game. Here are the details on that.

All-Star Saturday – Sunday, 17th February 2012, 06:30 AM IST

All-Star Saturday Night will feature:

Sears Shooting StarsTaco Bell Skills ChallengeFoot Locker Three-Point ContestSprite Slam Dunk contest

The All-Star Saturday night has a comprehensive competitive aspect to it, which goes beyond who wins in a particular contest. Every single competition has the field equally divided between the East and West and the two conferences will compete for two charities. With $350,000 going to the winning conference’s charities and $150,000 to the runner-up’s charities. Here are the details on the participants in this one.

The rules are as follows

> Eleven NBA players from each conference- (Shooting Stars=2; Skills Challenge=3; Three-Point=3, Slam Dunk=3). A WNBA player and a legend.

• TEAM ROUND — All competitors within each conference will have their scores added together to get a total time/score.• Points will be awarded to the conference that wins the Team Round (best total time/score).• The highest scoring competitor from each conference will advance to the Championship Round.• CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND — A head-to-head competition between the highest scoring West and highest scoring East competitor from the Team Round, to decide each competition champion.• Points will be awarded to the conference whose competitor wins the Championship Round.• The conference with the most points at the end of the night will be crowned State Farm All-Star Saturday Night Champions.

• Sears Shooting Stars> TEAM Round — 20 POINTS awarded to the conference with the fastest TOTAL time.> CHAMPIONSHIP Round — 10 POINTS awarded to the conference of the champion.

• Taco Bell Skills Challenge> TEAM Round — 30 POINTS awarded to the conference with the fastest TOTAL time.> CHAMPIONSHIP Round — 10 POINTS awarded to the conference of the champion.

• Foot Locker Three-Point Contest> TEAM Round — 40 POINTS awarded to the conference with the highest TOTAL score.> CHAMPIONSHIP Round — 10 POINTS awarded to the conference of the champion.

• Sprite Slam Dunk> TEAM Round — 50 POINTS awarded to the conference with the highest TOTAL score.> CHAMPIONSHIP Round — 55 POINTS awarded to the conference of the champion.> In addition, each time a player scores a perfect 50 for a dunk during the TEAM Round, his conference will have 10 BONUS POINTS added to its overall All-Star Saturday Night score.

All-Star Game – Monday, 18th February 2012, 06:30 AM IST

The cream of the crop, the ultimate showdown, East vs West. Kobe Bryant will be gunning in this one for sure, as he chases the fifth All-Star MVP award, which would make him the only player in the NBA to have won one. Here are the details on the game.