All-Star Friday Night Open Thread

It's All-Star Friday and that means tonight we get to witness the Rookie Challenge.  The sophomores have won all but two of these games since the Rookie Challenge switched to the Rookies vs. Sophmores format, and it's no surprise why.  No sophomore wants to go home and explain why they lost to a squad of rookies, so they always play hard enough effort to seal a comfortable win while the rookies are usually caught up in the bright lights of All-Star weekend.  The sophs have won this game seven years in a row and I don't see that streak ending this year, or any time soon.

The streak would be even longer if it hadn't been for the dreadful draft class of 2000.   When it was their turn to represent as the sophomores, their starting five consisted of Quentin Richardson, Mike Miller, Lee Nailon, Kenyon Martin, and Chris Mihm.  If that doesn't make you stop and wonder how basketball talent could completely skip a year for no reason, you haven't watched enough basketball this decade.  Not surprisingly, that squad lost to the 2001 rookie class 103-97.  Even without Derrick Rose, the sophomores should have enough talent to keep the streak going tonight.

Also, if you're looking for something to tease your appetite for tomorrow's Slam Dunk contest, tune in during halftime to see Eric Gordon and DeMar DeRozan compete in the Slam Dunk-In for the final spot in tomorrow's contest.  After some investigating on YouTube, I have to Eric Gordon credit for having better leaping ability than I originally thought, but I still don't see him standing much of a chance against DeRozan tonight.  It's hard to argue against his dunks that helped him win the McDonald's All-American Dunk Contest back in 2008.

This is an open thread, so predict how many rebounds DeJuan Blair will gobble up tonight here.  I'm going to guess somewhere between 85-90.