Rose Wins Skills Competition; Trade Deadline Ends on Thursday

By Sean Mackey

NBA All-Star weekend 2009 was pretty awesome. D-Rose pulled off an upset at the Playstation Skills Challenge on Saturday night, defeating all-star Devin Harris in the final round. He's the first rookie ever to win the competition. Congrads to Rose!

The first ever NBA All-Star H.O.R.S.E. contest was held on Saturday afternoon. This might have been my favorite event. Joe Johnson, Kevin Durant and OJ Mayo competed for about 45-50 minutes until Kevin Durant eleminated OJ Mayo for the title. The outcome may have taken a little too long but I hope they continue this event next year. The 3 point shootout was terrible. The event was won by newcomer Daequan Cook who won with a disappointing 18 points. If Ben Gordon was thrown into this, he would have blown away the competition. I hope next year he's still in a Bulls uniform and gets to compete after being snubbed for 4 straight years. The dunk contest was amazing, althought I think Rudy Fernandez got kind of shafted on his dunk scores. Howard's dunk on the 12 ft. goal was outstanding. Nate Robinson jumping overtop of Dwight Howard was nothing short of incredible. Both "Krytonate" and Superman displayed some great showmanship at what will probably be remembered as one of the greatest dunk contests of all time.

So onto the trade talk. Thursdays the big day, the 2009 NBA trade deadline. A lot of online NBA insiders have said the highly anticipated Bulls/Suns trade for Amare Stoudemire has already happened. Others, such as Bulls.com writer Sam Smith have said the Bulls are no longer the frontrunner in the trade for Amare.

I don't know who to believe and won't believe anything until something is officially announced by ESPN or the Chicago Bulls. If the bottom falls out on this trade, the Bulls need to quickly make a move for L.A. Clippers' center Chris "Capt. Caveman" Kaman. Something has to be done to change this Bulls roster. Just getting rid of Larry Hughes doesn't count.