Reaction to All-Star Sunday!

Author: Jack Gordon

Editor: Brian Symons

All-Star Weekend, or, should I say All-Star Day, wrapped up, and here are some rapid-fire reactions off the old dome.

● The time, energy, and money that the NBA put into highlighting HBCUs throughout the event were amazing. Time and time again, the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver place themselves in a great position to be leaders in the sports world. They continue to make an effort to make progressive choices and actually care about their players and communities, and it makes me really, really proud to be an NBA fan, as I’m sure it makes the players proud to play for the NBA.

● Once the events started, it was fun to watch and I understood why the NBA wanted to still have the all-star game. But the Simmons-Embiid covid stuff only hours before the game was scary and reminded me of why I thought they shouldn’t have had the game in the first place. What if one of them had contracted the virus, but the NBA wasn’t able to contact-trace them in time? Bam. Half the league’s all-stars out for two weeks. Not ideal, and a potentially close call.

● For some reason, the Skills Challenge continues to be the event where players compete to prove to everyone just how little they care about winning the Skills Challenge. Why this is the case, I will never understand - these are some of the most competitive people on the planet, supposedly. If I was competing, I feel like I would be sprinting as hard as I can from the start because losing sucks. Well, at least the relay format is miles better than the old format where players practically walked up and down the court (By the way, anybody that was picking Luca to win this contest, or the All-Star game MVP for that matter, clearly have not watched him in previous years. The guy is just not going to try in these competitions). The big men winning every year is a funny wrinkle, too.

● Disclaimer: If you do not like Steph Curry, skip to the next bullet. Alright, here we go. How could anybody not like Steph Curry? This is my own opinion and not directly related to the format of the all-star events, but watching Curry in the 3PT contest and in the All-Star Game was just the best. I knew I loved watching him, but I didn’t realize how much until the 3PT contest started and my stomach started churning; I really, really wanted Curry to win, and of course, he did. To anybody that doesn’t appreciate this happy, unselfish superstar dominate and launch shots from half-court like it's nothing, I feel bad for you.

● Everyone was happy that Mike Conley finally made his first all-star appearance, as was I. But

just a thought - he might’ve been better off without it happening. He was on pace to be known as the greatest player ever to not make an all-star team, which may almost be better than what he might now otherwise be remembered as. Aaron Gordon is the greatest

participant to never win the dunk contest, and that probably does more for his legacy than if he split the trophy with Derrick Jones, Jr. Either way, good for Conley.

● Why can’t we fix the dunk contest again? I get it, there are going to be years when the dunk contest sucks, and this was one of them. It doesn't help that they were pressed for time and only did one dunk in the final round, which was anticlimactic, to say the least when Anfernee Simons won with a dunk that he didn’t even execute correctly. First of all (and we say this every year), it would be nice to get some players that aren’t on two-way contracts and who have actually dunked in the NBA. Why is the maximum age for this contest like 21? It’s weird that certain things get established for certain things, and nobody wants to break the mold. For some reason All-Stars are willing to do the 3PT contest, but not the dunk contest (and we’ve already been over the established tradition of not trying in the Skills Challenge). Secondly, improving the scoring system is not rocket science. It will never be perfect, and at least they tried this year to change it up, but clearly having five judges give a score from six to ten can be a disaster. The bar is so low for a dunk to be a seven, eight, nine, or even ten, that I have no idea how I would rate the dunks if I were in the judge’s position. Just have the judges rate from a score of 1 to fifty to add nuance, and average the scores together. Or, at the very least, let the judges converse with each other. Please, no more eights when the dunker does their backup dunk that I’ve seen guys do at LA Fitness.

● I am a believer in the new all-star game format, and it’s truly just luck whether or not the two teams happen to be close heading into the fourth quarter. Last year it was, and the format made it super competitive and awesome. This year it wasn’t. But I think that when teams are close after three quarters, some iconic final moments will be made with the scoring target rather than timed play.

● Finally, the broadcast was a bit brutal this year. Normally, I absolutely love when TNT broadcasts games because the Inside the NBA guys are better than everyone else. But without Charles for six hours, it just wasn’t good. Never again do I wanna hear Kenny, Shaq, and Wade do the dunk contest where Kenny is talking too much and Shaq won’t stop adding his only input that the guy has to make it on the first attempt. Marv Albert in this game was noticeably just off the beat a little at this point, and Reggie Miller and Chris Webber were firing their clichés from all angles. To them, I say, “WE ARE NOT WITNESSING BROADCASTING GREATNESS,” and “ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BETTER!”

A bit of a dull all-star experience, and it just wasn’t the same without fans. Hopefully, the next one will be greater than ever! Where is it, again? Cleveland? Oh… well, we’ll see.

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