West beats East 146-119, Shaq and Kobe share MVP honors

Five years ago the dynamic duo of Shaq and Kobe was so rough that the city of Los Angeles was not big enough for the two of them, tonight made fans forget that drama.

O'Neal and Bryant helped lead the Western Conference to a dominant performance beating the Eastern Conference 146-119 in the 58th annual NBA All-Star Game. The former duo shared MVP honors becoming the first to do so since 2000 when O'Neal split the award with Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs.

This was the first time that O'Neal and Bryant have been teammates since 2004 when they lost in the NBA Finals to the Detroit Pistons. In addition, O'Neal and Bryant were joined by their coach Phil Jackson who help lead Bryant and O'Neal to three championships. Jackson was the West All-Stars coach.

"It felt like flashbacks. It felt like '99 to '02."O'Neal said during an interview on TNT.

Bryant lead all scorers with 27 points while O'Neal added 17. LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavilers lead the Eastern All-Stars with 20 points. O'Neal and Bryant join Michael Jordan and Oscar Robinson for winning All-Star MVP honors three times. Bob Pettit leads all-time in winning the award by receiving the honor four times.

Full story at http://www.espn.com/

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Durant sets record as Sophomores beat Rookies in first game of All-Star weekend

Durant sets record as Sophomores beat Rookies in first game of All-Star weekend

Every February in the NBA comes a time when the best talent in the league is put on display. It starts with the up-and-coming stars and finishes with the best players in the world. Tonight was the night when and up-and-comer became a legit star.

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder help lead his Sophomore team to a victory over the Rookies in the T-Mobile Rookie-Sophomore challenge in Phoenix tonight. Durant scored a record 46 points in the win shattering the previous mark, 34, set by then sophomore Amare Stoudemire.

"I approached it like a regular game," Durant said. "I wanted to go out and have fun. Fortunately my shots were going down."

The sophomores have one the last seven match-ups against the rookies. Micheal Beasly lead the rookies with 29 points, but the night obviously belonged to Durant. Although Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder do not have a chance to make the playoffs this year it is still a positive to see their "franchise player" dominate the competition. Hopefully in the future Durant and the Thunder can become a championship quality team.

The weekend festivities have just begun. Saturday night will bring the 3-point competition and the beloved dunk contest which will features last years winner Dwight Howard. The weekend will finish up on Sunday as the East meets the West in the 58th annual All-Star game.

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