Wizards rookie John Wall has been selected to complete in the Skills Challenge on Saturday in Los Angeles as part of NBA All Star Weekend. He will be joined in the event by Chris Paul of New Orleans, Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City, Derrick Rose of Chicago and Stephen Curry of Golden State vintage alhambra earrings replica.

Wall, Westbrook, Rose and Curry were chosen to compete against Paul through an online vote. They beat out the Clippers' Baron Davis, the Kings' Tyreke Evans, the Lakers' Derek Fisher and the Spurs' Tony Parker.

In the Skills Challenge, competitors make their way through a timed obstacle course of dribbling, passing and shooting stations. Wall will also play in the Rookie Challenge game on Friday night.

On the resumption of the Melo talks with NJ: personally I thought he'd wind up there because 1) Prokhorov has way more money than anybody else, and 2) with a move to Brooklyn, the Nets absolutely, positively need the guy to make the franchise work in NY. They'd no doubt change the team name, too.

Anyway here's how it's shaping up in this second round of talks:

Melo, Billups, Renaldo Balkman, Melvin Ely and Shelden Williams to New Jersey for Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, Troy Murphy, Ben Uzoh and four first round draft picks.

As a two team deal, it works pretty well. The possible stumbler being those 4 first rounders. Some negotiating to come there, no doubt. After the trade, the Nets lineup would be Billups, Anthony, Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries, and the SG of your choice, probably Vujacic and Anthony Morrow. That sends Travis Outlaw to the bench and adds Mel Ely to the big man rotation. A stronger roster than the Nets have had in the past replica clover diamond earrings, that's for certain. Playoffs this year? Still a bit of a long shot replica van cleef baby earrings, but next year, they could be contending.

The Nuggets take the really big hit, of course, in the name of the future.

With him playing with the beast Cousins again and also luckily having Blake on his squad, I could see the rookies pulling the upset and him winning the MVP since he will have the ball more then anyone else. I remember Gil won it one year, I think as a Soph.

Wall also has the speed passing ability to win the skills comp and alot of vets dont go as hard as possible at it so if he can get dat pass through the tire then he could win that also.

In the dunk contest to me it comes down to IQ again. Our team is always dumb and McGee is one of the worst. He's talented enough to win it but its all about tempo. Those dunks he was doing in that one video is not going to win it. He may even come in 4th. They were good but no one wants to see a 7footer dunk unless it looks like a small man. Those dunks looked like a 7footer and it was all about tempo.

The good thing is that they were practicing so I dont think he was going hard but just watch those dunks in the vid and watch him in games at times. When he gets a running start or goes full speed then he can dunk like a guard. Its going to be about tempo. If he's nervous or just dunks slow like he did in that vid then he will look like crap but if he gets a running start on all his dunks and does it with energy then we could see a Jordan Wilkins type faceoff. It's cool that you'd never heard of Wally Pipp we all have our own blindspots. However, you can't claim that it's unknown, because it's probably THE MOST WELL KNOWN OF ALL SPORTS ANECDOTES. It is THE preeminent sports fable. Don't miss a game, because Lou Gehrig might replace you and then play 2130 consecutive games. Wally Pipp is THE story in sports. So, don't get all upset and claim it's unknown just because you don't know it. It is very, very, very well known, but you just missed it. That happens. To all of us. Just dial it back a bit maybe. Oh, and I know: Flip sucks and Livingston is god. Got it.

As a two team deal, it works pretty well. The possible stumbler being those 4 first rounders. Some negotiating to come there, no doubt. After the trade, the Nets lineup would be Billups, Anthony, Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries, and the SG of your choice, probably Vujacic and Anthony Morrow. That sends Travis Outlaw to the bench and adds Mel Ely to the big man rotation. A stronger roster than the Nets have had in the past, that's for certain. Playoffs this year? Still a bit of a long shot, but next year, they could be contending. They're giving up a player they were going to lose for nothing, and aging PG, and bench fodder for a young, legit starting caliber PG (although, admittedly, Harris isn't quite the lustrous catch he appeared to be when he first got to Jersey. He's still a quality starter, but in this age of the point, he's in the 2nd tier), a young big with talent and a healthy dose of the dreaded "upside," and cap space. As for the picks . . . it depends where they come from. They obviously aren't all going to be Jersey's "native" picks. For the ones that are, however, I don't see Jersey being contenders any time soon. Playoff team? Sure, but that's not a big feat in the East. Melo's a great offensive player, but I really don't think he's a transformative player in and of himself. He can be the catalyst guy if he has the right ingredients in the mix, but it looks to me that NJ will have a good bit more mixing to do after this deal.