Summary of the Major NBA Events in 2018 So Far

​By G. de Cardenas

One of the biggest ongoing events of the NBA at the start of this year was the NBA trades. It was very surprising for many and very depressing for others, as they had to see players being sent off from their favourite teams. This is the summary for the major trades done this year:

Isaiah Thomas from Cavs to Lakers

• The Clippers made their big move by shipping Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons and many were surprised as DeAndre Jordan and Avery Bradley — two players were involved in a rumour that said they were involved in deals — stayed put.
• The Washington Wizards dealt guard Sheldon Mac to the Atlanta Hawks ahead of the NBA trade deadline. The deal was made in order to open a roster spot for a future trade.
• A three-way trade lead to the Knicks getting Emmanuel Mudiay, the Nuggets getting Devin Harris and the Mavericks getting Doug McDermott. 
• One of the biggest surprises were the Cleveland Cavaliers dealing Isaiah Thomas to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Cavs pulled off a massive three-team trade with the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings that saw Cleveland land George Hill and Rodney Hood, giving them another much-needed boost of athleticism and shooting on the perimeter.

The deal was complicated which lead to Cleveland sending Iman Shumpert and Derrick Rose to the Kings and Jae Crowder to the Jazz.

The other major event at the beginning of this year was the All-star weekend with the All-Star game, the celebrity game and the three point contest happening between Friday (16th of February) and Sunday (18th of February).


All Star Game  

The All-Star game this year was a bit of a revolution as there was a big change in the format of the event. On October 3, 2017, the NBA announced that the format would change from the traditional Eastern Conference versus Western Conference format and would instead switch to a draft-style format. The team captains were determined by the most votes received in their respective conference. These were selected to be LeBron James and Stephen Curry.
Each team had to pick a charity to play for, and the winning team had money donated to their charity. The event proved to be a rousing success

Team LeBron won against Team Stephen 148-145. The MVP of the game was LeBron James, scoring 29 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, winning his third NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP) as he almost achieved a triple-double on the game.  


Three-point contest

The three-point contest was also extremely exciting with a record-breaking win. Phoenix Suns’ guard Devin Booker took home the JBL Three-Point Contest title scoring 28 points in his final round against 2016 champion, Klay Thompson. He scored a stunning 20 of his 25 shots in that monster final round.

Celebrity Game
Justin Bieber and Quavo (MVP)
This event happened Friday the 16th of February, in Los Angeles. Since the All-Star Weekend was held in Los Angeles, the competition would be represented by the two NBA teams in the city with the Los Angeles Lakers (Team Lakers) and the Los Angeles Clippers (Team Clippers) instead of the typical West Vs. East affair like in previous years.

Team Clippers won with a victory of 75 points against Team Lakers that scored 66.
These were the representatives of each team: