NBA All-Star Game 2012: Predicting the Winners of the Weekend's Festivities

The NBA's annual All-Star Weekend is a great time for casual fans and basketball nerds alike.

The weekend features a multitude of meaningless events, but it's still fun to try and predict what will happen as the marquee weekend unfolds.

From a celebrity game on the Friday night to the big game on Sunday night, I have outlined who I think will win the seven biggest events of the weekend.

Sprint Celebrity Game

The Sprint Celebrity Game is one of the hardest games to predict, if for no other reason than the fact that it doesn't include any current NBA players.

Instead, the game will be played between a bunch of celebrities (surprise, surprise), a few retired stars (including Penny Hardaway and Mitch Richmond) and, finally, a WNBA player in Tamika Catchings.

The East and West rosters have not yet been decided, but what we do know is who will be coaching them—Dwight Howard will be taking the East, and Kevin Durant the West.

Without any rosters to compare, I'm going to have to make this prediction based on the coaches alone, and I like Dwight Howard here to open up his home All-Star Weekend with a W.

Winner: East 

BBVA Rising Stars Challenge

The Rookie-Sophomore game has had a major makeover this year, as instead of the traditional Rookies vs. Sophomores format, we will have a pool of both rookies and sophomores split into two teams by way of a draft.

The general managers of the two teams, as you all know by now, are TNT analysts/rivals Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal, whose rosters have both been finalized.

Chuck certainly looks to have the most well-rounded team in terms of filling every position, but that isn't necessarily the way to win in a game like this.

Shaq's point guard-heavy roster will get up and down the floor in no time and - despite coming up against John Wall and the fresh, new chip on his shoulder - I'm going to have to take his boys to win and continue the Orlando Magic trend to this weekend.

Besides, Team Shaq managed to get ahold of the NBA's newest star Jeremy Lin, and if your name isn't Deron Williams, you aren't going to stop him right now.

Winner: Team Shaq 

Haier Shooting Stars

The Shooting Stars event is one of the more abstract competitions of the All-Star Weekend, but that won't stop it from being any fun.

The teams will be, as ever, made up of four "cities", all of whom will include a current NBA player, a retired NBA player and a current WNBA player who have represented that city. A full list of the rosters can be found here.

The event is a test of the team's shooting from a number of difficult areas on the court, but let's take a look at what NBA.com has to say for a better explanation:

"

There are six numbered shooting locations of increasing difficulty, with each team attempting to make all shots in numeric order in the fastest time. Each team will select a specific player rotation to follow throughout the competition. Each shot must be made before the next player begins shooting in succession. Teams have up to two minutes to complete the entire shooting course and the team that completes all six shots in the least amount of time is declared the winner. In the case of a tie, a shoot-off will be used to determine the winner.

"

The teams all include some good shooters, but even seven years after retirement, I can't pick against sharpshooter Allan Houston, so look for an New York victory.

Winner: New York 

Taco Bell Skills Challenge

The Taco Bell Skills Challenge is essentially a point guard competition, with all six contestants this year playing at the one for their respective teams.

The event will feature Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, Tony Parker, John Wall, Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams, all of whom have a real shot at winning.

After a perfect effort in the 2008 finals, I'm going to take Deron Williams here, but there really is very little between these players.

Winner: Deron Williams 

Foot Locker 3-Point Contest

The 3-point contest is the first of the three major events of the weekend, and with a number of lights-out shooters in town for the contest, you can be sure that it's going to be a close affair.

Despite featuring Kevin Love, Mario Chalmers and Kevin Durant, the event's three best shooters are specialists Ryan Anderson, Anthony Morrow and last year's winner, James Jones.

It's tough to choose between these three, but for his superior 3-point percentage of 43.7 so far in the regular season, I'm going to have to go with Anderson, yet another Magic player who looks likely to win his event. 

Winner: Ryan Anderson

Sprite Slam Dunk

As the weekend's most popular supporting event, all eyes will be on the Dunk Contest as Saturday night comes to an end.

The new format of having the winner decided solely by the fan vote threatens to turn the competition into a popularity contest, but with New York's Iman Shumpert out with injury, this should hopefully not be a problem.

Relative unknowns (at least to the casual fan) Chase Budinger, Paul George, Jeremy Evans and Derrick Williams will compete in the three-dunk affair.

With popularity swept aside, the contest will simply be a case of letting the best dunker win, meaning that Jeremy Evans will be taking home the gold.

Evans' dunks are all over YouTube and there was even a bit of lobbying on Twitter with the #LetJeremyDunk hash-tag to get him into the event.

His insane athleticism will capture the hearts of the fans, and by the conclusion of his third dunk, it'll be all over.

Winner: Jeremy Evans 

NBA All-Star Game

The great thing about the NBA's annual All-Star game is that any one player on the court has the ability to take over the entire game.

Last year it was host Kobe Bryant who had his way and this year, Dwight Howard - already the most dominant player in the NBA - will reap the advantages of his home court.

It could be Dwight's last big performance in Orlando representing the Magic and, with the help of Derrick Rose and the duo from the other team in Florida, he could lead his team to a big win.

As always, we'll see a lot of scoring and a lot of highlight plays, as well as a combined defensive effort that even Kyle Korver wouldn't be proud of.

Still though, if there's any one player who'll bring it on defense, it's Dwight Howard - all the more reason his Eastern Conference will win.

Winner: East