I'm heading out in a few minutes to fly down to New Orleans, and I thought I'd give a little bit of a rundown for my plans for the weekend so you know what to expect.

Friday morning and afternoon: With New Orleans still very much in recovery mode (and still in the early stages, if you ask me), the league has arranged a day of community service called the NBA Cares Day of Service. Both Al Horford and Joe Johnson will be involved, and I will hopefully be accompanying them to their respective locations to pitch in and get some photos. As someone who grew up not far from NOLA, I love that the league has made this such a large focus of the weekend.

Friday night:  The highlight will be the Rookie-Sophomore game (though I am hoping to find a way to see the D-League's H-O-R-S-E competition), and I will be on hand to live-blog all the action. We were talking around the office yesterday about Big Al's chances of winning MVP, and I think it rests upon a couple of things. For one, the rookies need to win (or come darn close), which is something they haven't done in several years. Looking at this year's lineups, I don't know how confident I am in their chances. But if they can pull it off, it will certainly make him an option. Secondly, Horford needs the teams to shoot at a low percentage. I don't see him getting many touches in the paint (other than lobs) as the All-Star games are typically very guard-dominated, but he could put up some pretty big numbers if he cleans the glass the way he normally does. If the players are missing shots, I can definitely see Al riding rebounds and putbacks to a 20-point, 15-rebound performance to take MVP honors.

Saturday: Both All-Star squads will practice in the morning, so I'll be there to talk to a bunch of them much like last year. Without Shaq on hand to lead the festivities, I'll be interested to see if the players treat the fans to something special like last year's impromptu breakdance competition.

Saturday night: I'll be live-blogging this as well. I have high hopes for Saturday night, even if Charles Barkley doesn't give Dick Bavetta a rematch. The Slam Dunk contest participants have raised expectations this year with their pre-contest trash talk and innovation, and the 3-point shootout has a lot of great shooters and former contest winners (and some trash-talking as well). Dominique Wilkins will be on hand to judge the dunk contest, 20 years after he was robbed of the title by some home cooking judges in Chicago (I'm looking at you Dave Bing).

Sunday evening: The main event. I'll be finishing off the weekend with a live-blog of the 57th NBA All-Star game, where Joe Johnson will be making his second consecutive appearance. Last year he had 12 points, 3rd best for the East, and most impressively, dunked a basketball. That's right - you never know what you will see on All-Star Weekend!

It should be a fun weekend in the Big Easy, with a lot of good times, good basketball, and of course, good food.

Feel free to follow along with me in the comments!