The National Basketball Association All-Star Game provides a big stage for the league to showcase its top players and their exceptional skills. This annual exhibition contest is typically very high-scoring, and Sunday night’s game was no exception, as the Western Conference All-Stars beat the Eastern Conference All-Stars, 152-149, at Amway Center arena in Orlando, Florida. Let’s check out some of the top plays.

“The Durantula,” Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, checked in at #3 in the highlights above. The 23-year-old Durant, playing in his third consecutive NBA All-Star Game, tallied 36 points, seven rebounds and three assists and was named the competition’s Most Valuable Player.

“It’s a dream come true,” Kevin Durant said after receiving the trophy in Orlando. “These guys behind me tried to feed me the ball … I’m glad we came out on top.” Durant has come out on top the past two seasons as the NBA’s highest scorer. While the individual accolades are nice, he realizes lifting the NBA championship trophy is more important.

At the NBA All-Star break, Durant and the Thunder were tied with the Miami Heat for the league’s best record, 27-7. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we see those two teams in this year’s NBA Finals. Miami lost in the championship round last season to the Dallas Mavericks, four games to two.

Abubaker Kaki

With the London Olympics a little more than five months away, one Sudanese athlete to watch is Abubaker Kaki, one of the fastest runners in the world at the 800 meter distance.

As part of his build-up for the London Games, the 22-year-old Kaki will travel in March to Turkey, where he will aim for his third consecutive world indoor title over 800 meters.

Kaki competed in the two-lap race at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but was not able to advance to the final. Another athlete, Ismail Ahmed Ismail, won silver in the event, becoming the first Sudanese to win an Olympic medal in history. It was Sudan’s only medal at the 2008 Olympic Games.

David Rudisha

In London, Kaki is expected to renew his rivalry with Kenyan world record holder David Rudisha, who does much of his training in the town of Iten in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Kaki and other top international athletes have traveled to Iten for its high altitude training conditions and with the knowledge the town has helped produce some of the world’s greatest middle and long distance runners.

“Before I’ve trained in different countries,” says Kaki, “like the United States and even Europe sometimes. But this is the first time I’ve come to Iten because 2012 is the Olympic year.”

And in the Olympic year of 2012, Abubaker Kaki would like nothing better than to beat David Rudisha and win Sudan’s first ever Olympic gold medal.

Zambian players celebrate their victory over Ivory Coast (AFP/Getty Images)

There were cheers in Lusaka and Chililabombwe and all across Zambia Sunday night as the country’s football fans celebrated the national team’s first ever Africa Cup of Nations title. In a dramatic penalty kick shoot out, the Chipolopolo of Zambia beat the tournament favorite Elephants of Ivory Coast, 8-7, in the final in Libreville, Gabon.

The victory came 19 years after another Zambian team perished in a plane crash off the coast of Gabon, killing the coach and 18 players. Before the Nations Cup final, one Zambian fan, Elson, told VOA the Chipolopolo “would be playing with 22 players on the pitch in Libreville,” saying the spirits of the deceased would help deliver Zambia its maiden Nations Cup trophy.

The Chipolopolo were runners-up at the 1974 and 1994

Kalusha Bwalya

Nations Cup tournaments. The captain of the 1994 squad, Kalusha Bwalya, is now the president of the Football Association of Zambia. Before the final, Bwalya spoke with VOA’s Shaka Ssali, who described this Zambian squad as “a team of destiny.”

While this team of destiny created celebrations in Zambia, there was bitter disappointment in Ivory Coast, which was bidding for its first Nations Cup title in 20 years. Led by England-based stars Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, the 2011 African Footballer of the Year, the Elephants were picked by many before the competition kicked off to win the trophy. Ivory Coast also lost the 2006 Nations Cup final to Egypt on penalty kicks.

Former Cameroonian football player Emile Mbouh recently visited our VOA studios to discuss his soccer academy and the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The 45-year-old Mbouh played professionally for clubs in France, Malaysia, Portugal, Qatar and Singapore. He also played in the 1990 and 1994 World Cups for Cameroon.

Emile says he was very disappointed the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon did not qualify for the 28th edition of the Nations Cup, since the co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are geographic neighbors of Cameroon.

Mbouh says the performance of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, which both reached the quarterfinals, shows African soccer is progressing.

Though his playing days are over, Mbouh is still very involved in football. He runs a soccer academy in the Washington area for players between the ages of 5-19. Mbouh says his philosophy is about development and not winning at all costs. He says the traditional American system of developing soccer players is “too structured and needs to be changed.” Emile Mbouh says there is no flair and no creativity in U.S. soccer.