NBA All-Star Weekend 2012 Schedule: Power Ranking Must-See Major Events

The NBA All-Star weekend officially starts tonight, and it promises to be a good one down in Orlando.

Let’s take a look at five major events and which ones you need to catch in order from must-see to skip it.

1. Rising Stars Challenge

This event got a facelift for 2012 and it’s going to pay off.

Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley drafted their teams last week and are getting ready to coach them this week.

This is also the only event that will involve Jeremy Lin and the Linsanity that follows in his wake.

2. All-Star Game

This is a great All-Star Game and nearly* everyone who deserves a spot got one *(cough, Carmelo Anthony starting, cough).

With so much talent on one court and spread between just two teams, there is no way this event will not be awesome.

Expect a fun-filled game full of exciting alley-oops, creative plays and a tightly contested final few minutes.

3. 3-Point Contest

Kevin Durant is adding some star power to this event now that Joe Johnson is rehabbing an injury and sitting out.

There’s plenty of talent aside from Durant, and it promises to be one of the better three-point contests in a long time.

4. Dunk Contest

Surprisingly, this is going to stink in 2012.

There are no superstar contestants, there is only one round with three dunks apiece and fan votes decide everything, meaning there won’t be a score for each dunk.

The changes are terrible and hopefully it reverts back to the old form in 2013.

5. Celebrity Game

Does anyone watch this?

Vinny from Jersey Shore and something called a Ne-Yo are involved in this irrelevant game, so catch it if you're into that kind of stuff, I guess.