November 20, 2012; New Orleans, LA, USA; New York Knicks shooting guard James White (4) dunks against the New Orleans Hornets during the fourth quarter of a game at the New Orleans Arena. The Knicks defeated the Hornets 102-80. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

It’s NBA All-Star Weekend and the 2013 Slam Dunk Contest will be held tonight. The Saturday night festivities will begin at 8:30 p.m. EST. The dunk contest will be the final event and likely to start between 9:30-10:00 p.m. EST.

There won’t be any superstars participating in this year’s contest but there is more hope than usual that the contest will return to glory this year.

There is a new format this year where the six contestants will be divided into their respective conferences. There are two rounds where the best scores from each conference will then meet in a final round.

Here’s a look at each contestant and their dunking highlights:

Eastern Conference

James White, New York Knicks
Stats: 6.7 MPG, 1.8 PPG, 0.8 RPG

White is 30 years old and only in his third season in the NBA. He was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers back in 2006 and has never really found a home in the league playing in just 44 career games so far. White’s claim to fame has always been his dunking. He finished second in the McDonald’s All-American Slam Dunk Contest and has become a YouTube sensation with some of his dunks in dunk contests around the world. This is the first time White has been on an NBA team at the time of All-Star Weekend so it is fitting that he will be competing in the contest as one of the favorites to win it. White loves getting running starts for his dunks and jumping off one foot. He will use his great speed to his advantage with at least a few attempts from the free throw line tonight.

Gerald Green, Indiana Pacers
Stats: 19.8 MPG, 6.6 PPG, 2.5 RPG

Green has a history with the NBA Slam Dunk Contest already having won it back in 2007. Like White, Green was also out of the league for a little while but has come back strong the past few seasons with the Brooklyn Nets and now Indiana Pacers. Green and White have met before in a dunk contest in Russia a few years back which is known as one of the best ever. Green is a two-footed dunker and gets up extremely high with his face nearly level with the rim often times.

Terrence Ross, Toronto Raptors
Stats: 16.9 MPG, 6.4 PPG, 2.1 RPG

Ross was drafted 8th overall by the Toronto Raptors in this past NBA Draft. He came in as a solid outside shooter and great athlete which he has lived up to with his invite to this contest. Ross will join a long list of participants from Toronto in the history of the dunk contest which includes Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady. Ross has been especially good with windmill dunks this season.

Kyrie Irving and Team Shaq lost Friday night but the former No. 1 overall pick still managed to steal the show.

Irving found Brandon Knights trying to check him late in the second half and he went all Uncle Drew on him not once, but three times.

Irving’s handles are really in a class by themselves. He’s so smooth and makes it look so easy. Not even Knight who is a great defender in his own right can keep up with Irving.

Irving’s display was not enough to get past Team Chuck who won the game 163-135 thanks to a 90-point first half.

Kenneth Faried was the MVP scoring 40 points and he got the most help from Ricky Rubio who had 10 dimes in 15 minutes.

Rubio is perfect for this game as alley-oops and sick passes often dominate the game. Faried and his motor only know one speed so going for 40 against the smaller Team Shaq was made easy for him.

There is no better warm-up for the dunk contest than playing in a game like this with Rubio. Faried will compete in the dunk contest representing the Western Conference Saturday night.

This was the second year that the Rising Stars Challenge teams were drafted by Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. Barkley is 2-0 in the series.

Irving was the Rookie of the Year and averaged 18.5 points and 5.4 assists per game this season in 51 games. He played only 30.5 minutes per game as he was on a minutes cap because of his injury while at Duke. He also shot .469 percent from the field, .399 from three and had a PER of 21.4.

Rubio took the league by storm in the first few months before tearing his ACL. He averaged 10.6 points and 8.2 assists in just 41 games.

Kenneth Faried and Klay Thompson were third and fourth and then there was a three-way tie for the fifth spot on the First Team between Iman Shumpert, Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Knight.

The second team consists of Chandler Parsons, Isaiah Thomas, MarShon Brooks, Derrick Williams and Tristan Thompson.

The only rookie for the Thunder this season was Reggie Jackson who was getting a lot of run as the backup point guard after the Eric Maynor injury and before the Derek Fisher signing.

Jackson played in 45 games for the Thunder and averaged 3.1 points in 11.1 minutes per game. He struggled shooting from the field at just .321 percent and .210 percent from downtown.

Irving is expected to be named the 2011-12 Rookie of the Year early this week. Irving played in 51 games this season and averaged 18.5 points and 5.4 assists per game. He only played 30.5 minutes per game and was very efficient shooting .469 from the field and .399 from three.

It was a solid rookie class this season but Irving had little competition for this award.

Ricky Rubio was the talk of the league at the beginning of the season but he leveled out after a great start and then went down with a season-ending injury.

Kenneth Faried and Isaiah Thomas came on strong late but their resumes weren’t as impressive as Irving’s.

Irving will become the first Cleveland Cavaliers player to win the award since LeBron James.

The Cavaliers finished the season with a 21-45 record, third worst in the Eastern Conference. With a deep draft coming up the Cavaliers will have a chance to pair Irving up with another lottery pick.