Another year of NBA basketball means another year of All-Star selections. The NBA all star game kicked off on Sunday, pitting Team LeBron, led by Cavaliers star and 14-time All-Star Lebron James, against Team Stephen, led by Golden State golden boy and reigning champion Steph Curry.

This year’s lineups featured Demarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and LeBron James taking on Giannis Anetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, Demar Derozern, Joel Embiid and James Harden. Unfortunately, Cousins suffered a season-ending injury several weeks ago, keeping him from just playing in the All-Star game.

The All-Star selection this year was nothing unexpected. We have seen many stand-out performances in the NBA in 2018. James Harden is one of them. Harden has been a candidate for MVP for several years now and has played out of his mind this year, dominating on points and assists, he earned a top three spot in both while only ranked 14th in minutes played.

The All-Star game is not often seen as competitive; players often slack on defense and allow each other to score. This resulted in a final score of 143-145, with Team LeBron coming out on top.

Every year it’s fun to watch the All-Star game, as seeing the best players in the league all on one team going against each other is highly entertaining.

The MVP of the All-Star game, for me, fell to LeBron James with an impressive 29 point performance, but we couldn’t really expect less from a player that fans sometimes refer to as the “greatest of all time.” James Harden played poorly, heaving up 13 three point attempts and barely connecting on just two of them. This is a far cry from what we have seen this season, as Harden is the current NBA three point leader.

However, the big thing about this year’s All-Star game was not even the game itself, but rather the performance of the Star Spangled Banner by Fergie. I turned off the TV about 30 seconds into the performance. Fergie attempted to turn the song into something I have never seen before, howling and cackling her way through.

When asked about the criticism she received from her rendition of the anthem, Fergie stated, “[I have] been honored and proud to perform the national anthem and last night I wanted to try something special for the NBA.”

This performance has drawn more attention than the game itself. As of press time, the video of her singing on YouTube has more views than the highlights from the game.

This was a good year for basketball. Fans like myself are excited about possibly seeing a championship final that does not feature the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Great standout performances from young players such as Giannis Anteokonmpo and Joel Embiid give real hope for the future of basketball and controversy is always great for an All-Star game that saw its ratings drop heavily from last year. I think we have a good rest of the year in sports ahead of us.