Well, the NBA All-Star Weekend has come and gone and all I can say is, stupid Jermaine O’Neal. The whole weekend was a tribute to the greatest player to ever step on the court — Michael Jordan — and O’Neal, along with Kobe Bryant, ruined what could’ve been one of the greatest moments in the history of any sports’ all-star game.

Jordan, playing in his final All-Star Game, missed the shot to win the game in regulation. He then hit that beautiful fade-away with four seconds left to put his team up by two. O’Neal then got the brilliant idea to foul Bryant on a desperation three. What an idiot.

So instead of another perfect moment in Jordan’s career, we have another example of how bad the Eastern Conference is, when the best center in the conference makes a bonehead play like that to help take away a piece of Jordan’s legacy.

We also saw the culmination of the “Who is going to give Jordan a starting spot” saga, when Vince Carter finally realized that he didn’t even deserve to be there in the first place, let alone start the game. I wonder who finally persuaded him to give up the start because if he was going to do it anyway, why wouldn’t he just save face and give it up from the get-go?

One other element of the All-Star Game that grabbed my attention was how Shaq dealt with all the Yao Ming questions. That’s because he didn’t. Every question returned a similar answer. Apparently Diesel has respect for Yao and his family, and he is glad Yao is a part of the game.

The commercial breaks also have me pumped up for what I assume is supposed to be the new action thriller of the year. Shaq versus Yao, part two. They built this up bigger than the new Matrix movies that are coming out. I guess I was sick the day the first one was in theaters, but I heard it wasn’t that great at all.

Yao better be ready, because I really think Shaq has had enough of the talking, and he is ready to break the rookie in half.

Anyway, the game wasn’t the only event that came out of the weekend’s festivities. We had the slam dunk — oh, sorry — the Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk Challenge. This has become a total snoozefest, ever since Vince Carter totally ruined it for any future competitors. Besides Jason Richardson’s winning dunk, which was off the hook, there wasn’t one dunk I haven’t seen before. They should have called it the Sprite “Who can best imitate Isiah Rider’s slam dunk” Contest.

If they can’t come up with a different format that gives us new dunks, then I suggest calling it quits again.

There was also the 1-800-CALL-ATT Shootout. My boy Peja Stojakovic took home the trophy for the second year in a row, knocking the lights out just like he will in the playoffs, whether or not the Lakers are in there with them.

Speaking of the Lakers, everyone has been down on them all season. Dwelling under .500 for most of the first half of the season when you are the three-time defending champions should draw some of that negativity.

Don’t get it twisted though. Shaq and Kobe will carry this team into the playoffs. We know Shaq doesn’t care about the regular season any more than the Nuggets need to worry about the playoffs. Kobe will run the team as long as he needs to, and Shaq will turn it on at the end of April, get his team into the playoffs and then get squashed by the Kings.

That’s right. I’ve been saying it the last three years — that the Kings were going to win the NBA Championship, only to have them choke when running into the Daddy and Co. Last year was a fluke, where Vlade Divac got the assist to Robert Horry for a game-winning three. Then David Stern forced his officials to fix the game so the league could market another three-peat franchise. Just kidding. Not this year, though. The Kings, when healthy, are way too deep for anyone else to stand a chance of beating them four games, now including the first round. The only problem the Kings face is injuries. Should-be MVP Chris Webber messed up his ankle again, and Bobby Jackson and Scott Pollard have broken hands which should be healed well before the playoffs begin.

Dallas is the only true contender that may give the Kings fits this post-season, and we saw what happened when they tried to run them in the playoffs last season.

This year the Kings got better while Dallas grabbed a couple more useless role-players. They couldn’t even beat Sacramento last week when the Kings were missing Webber.

Speaking of the playoffs, the NBA has made one of the worst decisions in its history. They are changing the playoff format to extend the first round of the playoffs to a best-of-seven series like the rest of the rounds. I think my roommate said it best, “Now the playoffs can end in October.”

It’s obvious the league is doing this to be able to sell more advertising by putting even more games on television. If that’s the case, then maybe they should just extend the Western Conference playoffs and eliminate the Eastern Conference from the playoffs altogether. Then maybe people would actually watch.

Rick Kerr is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Des Moines.