NBA All-Star Weekend 2020
Live From The Chi
As many of you may know the National Basketball Association (NBA) holds a yearly weekend extravaganza mid-February. This takes place during the middle of the regular season. A numerous amount of basketball events, branding events, exhibitions, parties, and performances happen during this weekend. These events usually start Thursday night continuing into the wee hours of Monday morning. During this time period no regular season games are played which gives the players a break if they aren't attending the festivities or playing in the Sunday night game.
Side Note: Why did they pick this weekend to always fall around Valentines Day and during black history month?!? #thingsthatmakeyougohmmm
All-Star weekend brings out everyone from the players to celebrities, brands (clothing, alcohol, etc) , and the most important of them all...THE FANS! The NBA not only highlights players that are already apart of the league during this time but also the rising stars in basketball from around the world.
Every year the NBA All-Star Weekend is hosted in a new location. In 2019, All-Star Weekend was in North Carolina. This year they hosted the weekend extravaganza in Chicago and in 2021, the All-Star Weekend will be hosted in Indianapolis (so start planning now if you are trying to go because things will get pricey).
I've been trying to go to Chicago for years now. Originally, it was to go visit my bestfriend since she moved there but she ended up moving back home before my finances were in a decent place. Luickly for me I had another friend who recently moved there a year or two ago. Since I turn 30 this year I wanted to do something different...unheard of ... a birthday tour to celebrate this milestone (yes, I have made this a thing)!
So I know you're wondering what the hell is a birthday tour Jen?!!?
Well I'm glad you asked! A birthday tour is like any other tour (music, comedy, etc.) where you would visit different locations during set dates leading up to your actual birthday celebration event or trip.
Well I'm glad you asked! A birthday tour is like any other tour (music, comedy, etc.) where you would visit different locations during set dates leading up to your actual birthday celebration event or trip.
I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to make this apart of my birthday tour... cross off attending All-Star Weekend from my bucket list, visit my friend, and visit The Windy City for the first time!
Lucky for me a friend of mines from back at home was also going to All-Star Weekend. So we all started looking for events through social media, Eventbrite, and through word of mouth from others.
ALL THE EVENTS THAT WE ATTENDED WERE FREE.
ALL THE EVENTS THAT WE ATTENDED WERE FREE.
My flight ticket from Phoenix to Chicago (round trip) was less than $250. It was actually cheaper than that in August but I was procrastinating plus I was not entirely sure if the move to Phoenix was in the cards for me.
FYI: It was definitely in the cards for me! Left Delaware 4 days before my birthday...arrived in Phoenix two days before my birthday then turned around and went to Vegas on my birthday lol.
FYI: It was definitely in the cards for me! Left Delaware 4 days before my birthday...arrived in Phoenix two days before my birthday then turned around and went to Vegas on my birthday lol.
Let me just tell yall when I arrived to Chicago on Thursday night (after 11pm) it was probably the coldest point of my entire trip. I was walking through the tunnel to catch the train to meet my friend and that cold DEFINITELY hit different! Bruh, mind you I was still technically inside the airport.
Thursday
Since I flew in late Thursday night I did not go to any events. However, Terrence J was hosting a celebrity bowling event that night. All I did was got some Harold's delivered and talked with my friend until he couldn't stay awake anymore.
Friday
My friend unfortunately had to go into work. So it was pretty much a chill mid-day for me. I slept in until like 12pm got myself together and then searched online for somewhere that looked like they had good breakfast. I ended up going to Eggy's Diner which wasn't that far from my friend's crib. Majority of my food was good and so was the regular mimosa, however I wasn't feeling the strawberry mimosa and the pancakes.
The itis definitely kicked in so you know ya girl took a nap (I'm fluent in napping y'all).
Once I woke up I linked up with my friend (who also flew in for the weekend) and his ppls at Persona. This spot was hosting a Love & Basketball ALLSTAR Weekend Day Party. It was free but you had to check your coat which was $2 so in actuality it was a $2 entry. It took me over an hour to get bar service so I ordered two drinks at once. They had rotating DJ's but they seemed to play the same songs. This event was a decent warmup to the weekend, however I wasn't happy with the bar service there. I stayed until my friend went to the rookie game.
Next, was the Jack Honey AB+L event. This probably was my favorite event out of the entire weekend!!! We showed up a little late and the line was wrap around the building but we were able to get in and they even gave us a free drink ticket as well as an after party ticket. I also got to see Dsmoke perform live which was cool.
The art displayed was soooo dope! They had little stations around the venue with different activities and some free little goodies. There was also a main stage with a couple of artist performing.
Saturday
The beginning of Saturday started off by hitting some of the well-known landmarks and food spots. My friend lives not too far from 
Millennium Park so we went there first. Then we went to the Cloud Gate aka the "bean", which had a decent amount of people there despite the flurries and cold weather.
Next, we walked around downtown for a little. We made a stop so I could get popcorn from Garrett Popcorn Shops. Multiple people raved and told me this was a stop I had to make, so I went. While I was getting my popcorn I noticed Youtuber Bigg Jah . I was nervous to confirm if it was him but my friend (being the great person that he is lol) asked him and then I went ahead an asked for a picture. Of course he was nice enough to take a picture with me.
I also got to see the Chicago Theatre which is across the street from Death Alley. I knew nothing about the history of the alley but my friend that lives there made sure to tell me lol. We also wanted to go to Skydeck but we couldn't get in contact with customer service so we figured the wait was crazy long. Later on we found out it was over a two hour wait!
You can't visit The Chi without having staple foods like Harold's and AUTHENTIC deep dish pizza, you just can't! If the wait isn't over an hour for your deep dish pizza to be made then its not fresh period 🙅. With that being said we stopped and got some pepperoni deep dish pizza from Giordanos. You have to wait over an hour for take out and dine-in since the pizza is made to order. We also got the dry rub ranch wings and I order myself a mojito once we were seated and still waiting for the pizza. Those wings was jumping....my mouth is literally watering right now thinking about them 😋😋. Bruhhh, the pizza was good but I could only eat one slice...it was just TOO MUCH!
We went back to the crib and dropped off our leftover food then we hit our first event of the day which was the Crown Royal Apple & Joe FreshGoods Pop Up. Of course we didn't show up on time. The wait in that line was the longest wait we did the entire weekend it seems but once we got in I could see why it took longer because the venue was small. EVERYTHING at this event was FREE. From the coat check to the finger foods, drinks (endless no max), merchandise (canvas bag, outfit. stainless steel cups), haircuts, shoe shines, nails...literally every booth/station was FREE! I liked this event only for the endless free items and there was a pretty good intimate vibe happening. Unfortunately, toward the end someone snatched up homeboys goodie bag while we were making the GIF below 👇👇👇.
That night we went to the Y-Bar. The guest list was free before a certain time of course. The event was sponsored by Jack Daniels. They gave us two free drink tickets, they had a GIF booth set up, and gave out one piece of free JD merch of your choosing. If you follow me on IG / Snapchat you would know that this was the wackest event I went to 🙍. The DJ's sucked; from their mixing of tracks to song selections. Think we left and went back to the crib around 1am and ate some more of the deep dish pizza and watch Narcos for a little.
Sunday
My last day 😡😢!!
I had found this Chicago brunch event for my friend when he first moved there so I figured why not experience a true Chi event, plus y'all know how I feel about my brunch & day parties lol. So we decided to get tickets to The Blackout Brunch.
I had found this Chicago brunch event for my friend when he first moved there so I figured why not experience a true Chi event, plus y'all know how I feel about my brunch & day parties lol. So we decided to get tickets to The Blackout Brunch.
However, this was the event I had to go to partially on my own because my friend did not get the brunch & day party ticket in enough time! He was able to get a day party ticket though. I found out later once I was there that he could've paid at the door to get in for brunch but the price they wanted wasn't worth it food wise.
I went to brunch by myself found a table that was half occupied by a group of ladies. They were very nice and made conversation with me, they pretty much included me in their group. I ended up buying some of the ladies drinks that stayed during the day party since they treated me like a friend they already knew.
The food was blah but the open bar during brunch made up for that. I had a good amount of mimosas before I switched over to hard liquor. I tried to be mindful of my drinking because I had to leave no later than like 5:20 to get back to my friends apartment change out my clothes and catch the train in order to make my flight back home around 8pm. I did not want to chance getting caught up in traffic, getting lost (which I kinda did & my phone was on less than 20%), or TSA being backed up.
I went to brunch by myself found a table that was half occupied by a group of ladies. They were very nice and made conversation with me, they pretty much included me in their group. I ended up buying some of the ladies drinks that stayed during the day party since they treated me like a friend they already knew.
The food was blah but the open bar during brunch made up for that. I had a good amount of mimosas before I switched over to hard liquor. I tried to be mindful of my drinking because I had to leave no later than like 5:20 to get back to my friends apartment change out my clothes and catch the train in order to make my flight back home around 8pm. I did not want to chance getting caught up in traffic, getting lost (which I kinda did & my phone was on less than 20%), or TSA being backed up.
With any of these brunches that turn into day parties they end up moving tables and chairs. Lucky for me I was sitting in the section for VIP (sarcasm). So we all had to move and the ladies and other table that was in that section was not happy!! But the DJ had it rockin. They also had celebrity guest Jacob Latimore, R&B singer and he currently plays on the T.V. show The Chi. He seemed like a regular guy and wasn't being all extra with females in his face and stuff which I loved witnessing.....it made me feel like he respected his girl & relationship. His girlfriend did end up coming to the event a little before I was about to leave. I also seen later on IG that Jason Lee (I think that's his name) was there as well.
The day party vibes was lit and I was reminded why I started this blog in the first place, for events that are experiences just for us!!!!!!
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| It was toasty in there ..sadly didn't take much pics 😥 |
I wanted to go to the Martell x BET event with Quavo as well as Megan the Stallion's B-day party but sadly I wasn't fast enough with the rsvp lol.
I highly suggest that you guys take a trip to Chicago if you haven't already and if you can try and attend at least one All-Star Weekend during your lifetime.
Please like, share, and comment your thoughts about this post. Also follow me on Instagram if you haven't and Twitter to see videos, pictures, and learn about other events and places to check out!!
Until next time ✌
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