The 2015 NBA All Star Weekend in New York City

Article by: Christine O'Connor

Twitter: @christineeeeO

​​​Image Credit: nba.com

Welcome to New York! 

The Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks will share hosting duties for the 2015 NBA All-Star Weekend. The Saturday nightevents, including the three-point contest and slam dunk competition, will be held at the Barclays Center, while the All-Star Game will be played at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Feb. 15.

Here is what you need to know for the weekend's events:

All-Star Celebrity Game

Two teams of celebrities will get to play at the World's Most Famous Arena on Friday night.

Tipoff: Feb. 13, 7:00 p.m. ET

​Location: Madison Square Garden

TV coverage: ESPN

Rising Stars Challenge

The top rookies and sophomores take center stage on Friday night at the Barclays Center.

Tipoff: Feb. 13, 9:00 p.m. ET

Location: Barclays Center

TV coverage: TNT

All-Star Saturday Night

The Barclays Center hosts the Shooting Stars, Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday night.

Tipoff: Feb. 14, 8:30 p.m. ET

Location: Barclays Center

TV coverage: TNT

All-Star Game

The East and West meet in the 64th All-Star Game on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. It will be the fourth time the game is played at The Mecca and the first time since Michael Jordan took home MVP honors in 1998.

Tipoff​: Feb. 15, 8:30 p.m. ET

Location: Madison Square Garden

TV coverage: TNT

Adidas unveiled the uniforms for the weekend: 

​Image Credit: lakersnation.com

Jumping Into The Action At The Source360's Weekend Festival Events

The anticipation surrounding the Source360 was sure worth the wait! Although the main event was the Source360 concert in honor of The Source Magazine's 25th anniversary, the publication also put together a weekend full of festival events that were just as exciting as the main event at the Barclay's Center. From Thursday, September 18 to Sunday, September 20th, The Source hosted various festival events out in Brooklyn, NY which included a series of celebrities talk panels, artist showcases, fashion shows and day parties. 

HipHopShortStop.com dove head in to the festival events on Saturday and had an absolute field day. The vibe of the atmosphere was so dope. It was so many events scheduled for the day our only regret is that we didn't get to attend them all! We also got the opportunity to sit in on the "Reality TV- Pros & Cons" panel featuring Tahiry Jose (Love & Hip Hop New York), Melyssa Ford (Blood, Sweat, & Heels), Po Johnson (Lala's Full Court Life) and Karen Gravano (Mob Wives). The panel of sophisticated ladies opened up about pros and cons of pursuing a career in the entertainment industry and especially reality television. The reality stars revealed some of their personal struggles in this field of work and how they have pushed to over come them.

After revealing a couple of details on each of their upcoming projects, we got a chance to chat briefly with the ladies which led to this mini photo op.

[Pictured Above — Top Left: Tahiry Jose, Top Right: Po Johnson, Bottom Left: Karen Gravano and Bottom Right: Melyssa Ford ]

After the reality television talk panel, we headed over to Woodland to grab a bite to eat at the Thank You Brunch sponsored by Coors Light. While surrounded by good music and good people, we sat and ate some delicious chicken and waffles as we geared up to watch the artist showcases later on that day.

We headed back uptown to check out the Soul + R&B  Showcase in Albee Square Plaza and to our surprise we came a across some shocking talent. While checking out the showcase, we came across actress Antonique Smith who is well known for her role as Faith Evans in the 2009 Biggie Small's biopic Notorious. Not only can this lovely lady play the hell out of a role on stage but she can also rock the mic too! Antonique let her voice ring out amongst the streets of Brooklyn as she sang her hit single "Hold Up Wait A Minute." HipHopShortStop Editor in Chief Dana Pelotta and I even got to snap a few flicks with the artist after her performance. You can check out a video of Antonique giving the audience LIFE here.

All in all, attending the Source360 Saturday festival events turned out to be a damn good day. But it wasn't quite over for us yet because we still had to make our way into the main event — the first annual Source360 concert. Stay tuned . . .

— Brittany Chanel Jackson

Twitter: @xPlatinumChanel