Another NBA All Star Weekend has came and went.
Indiana played host to this years’ festivities, with the leagues’ brightest stars taking the court in what’s become more of a formality than a spectacle.
Here’s a recap to a regrettably memorable All Star Weekend from a once hopeful fan’s perspective.
Friday Night
Friday Night saw the Celebrity All Star Game and Rising Stars Tournament take place.
A fun introduction to the weekend, the Rising Stars Tournament might have been the most competitive event of them all.
Four teams made up of top draft picks and young standouts were coached by various Pacers legends in a single-elimination pickup-styled tournament.
Every year the neophytes (Shoutout Clyde Frazier) take this event seriously, which makes it the purest form of hoops during the All Star Break.
The Pacers’ own Benedict Mathurin was visibly motivated and engaged throughout the night, eventually taking home MVP and even chirping at second-year league-mate Jaden Ivey.
Nothing’s better than a little bit of spice and trash talk in a game of pickup.
Friday Night also saw the team completely made up of G-League players defeat the team led by phenom, Victor Wembanyama.
Even when “Wemby” hung his head low following the loss, he was still about 7-feet tall. He’s an absolute monstrosity of a human.
G-League star and now two-time Dunk Contest Champion (more on that later), Mac McClung had 12 points and paced the winning Team Detlef in their first contest against Wemby and Team Pau.
The championship game was a mismatch from the start, with G-League guys facing off against some of the NBA’s brightest young stars, including former #1 pick Paolo Banchero, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren, Keegan Murray, and more, coached by Indiana Pacers legend, Jalen Rose.
Yes, Team Jalen won in a one-sided affair, but it was still pretty entertaining, nonetheless.
Saturday Night
Oh, boy.
Saturday Night was a blur.
Between the careless participation in some of the events and the horrendous commentating from the TNT crew, the night left a horrible taste in the mouths of fans.
The Skills Competition
This used to be a cool test of skill, speed, and preciseness with the leagues’ top talent competing to prove who’s the fastest, most complete player.
Those days are unfortunately over.
I don’t know if anybody actually enjoys this competition besides the fans of the hometown team in the competition.
Let me break this down for you: over the past three years the league has made the decision to change this competition from an individual challenge to a team challenge.
Teams of three compete to get the fastest times and highest scores throughout an incomprehensible maze of obstacles, hoops, balls and windmills.
Every year, one team of three will feature players from the city’s team that’s hosting the NBA All Star Weekend. Every year, the host team has won.
So who really enjoys the skills competition? The players probably enjoyed making light of the integrity of the event.
The players don’t even know what they’re doing half the time. A few guys went the wrong way, Scottie Barnes was running around, dribbling the ball off his foot, acting a fool.
Anthony Edwards was shooting lefty as a natural righty.
Scottie Barnes you’re a treasure, but how can we take this seriously as a product?
Three Point Competition
This event should probably be the closer from here-on-out because it’s been much better than the dunk contest over the past few years.
Milwaukee Bucks guard, Damian Lillard took home the trophy in a star-studded lineup of shooters, including Tyrese Haliburton, Trae Young, Lauri Markkanen, Karl Anthony-Towns, Jalen Brunson, Malik Beasley, and Donovan Mitchell.
The event was pretty standard, but this is where the broadcast team on TNT started to go off the rails a little bit.
Kenny “The Jet” Smith, known for his sub-par NBA career and electrifying commentary every year at All-Star Weekend was unbearable this time around.
He sounded like that one drunk guy at a party that just won’t go away. The whole time I couldn’t help but think: Kenny, please shut up. For your own sake.
Kenny, we know you participated in the three point contest, dunk contest, had a long basketball career, and have cool friends. But we want you to talk about the competition at hand from an impartial standpoint.
Believe it or not, Smith’s commentary got much worse as the night went on.
Steph vs. Sabrina Three Point Contest
This was the best event of the night.
Steph Curry is widely known as the best shooter in the history of basketball, as he should be.
Sabrina Ionescu broke the (recorded) world record for score in a three point competition with 37 points in the WNBA’s contest last year.
Ionescu called Curry out, prompting the NBA to set up this great event.
Ionescu went first, shooting a WNBA ball from NBA range, displaying her smooth, one-motion shot.
Very Curry-esque, she scored 26 and tied Damian Lillard for the highest score of the night.
Until Curry stepped up to the arc. Curry scored 29 and took home the honorary championship belt.
Awkward isn’t even the word for the commentary provided by Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller and Kenny Smith.
As soon as Curry hit the contest-clinching shot, Smith claimed the contest wasn’t fair and that Ionescu should have shot from the WNBA three-point line. He also made sure to mention that she shot with a WNBA-sized basketball, and alluded to the idea that she wouldn’t be able to compete with a regulation NBA-sized ball.
If the contest wasn’t fair, how did Ionescu manage to tie the winner of the NBA three point contest?
After the event, Curry and Ionescu were given a chance to address the crowd and cameras to talk about pushing the game forward.
Directly following that, Miller and Smith debated on whether girls should play with dolls or basketballs.
Tough scene for the NBA.
Dunk Contest
Mac McClung took home the trophy in a seriously flawed event.
The juice is gone.
The judges don’t care, the players don’t care and the fans definitely don’t care.
Let’s just say the crowd in Indianapolis wasn’t exactly the most lively.
The problem with the Dunk Contest doesn’t go much further than we’ve seen everything before.
Every year, someone jumps over Shaq, or the tallest guy in the building, to win the contest. It’s rare that we see someone with the originality and ability to execute to bring the contest back to prominence.
It’s time for a serious Dunk Contest overhaul, from the format, to the judging, to the participants.
Sunday Night
Sunday brings what we’ve all been waiting for: a clash between the greats in a star-studded back-and-forth affair of skill and competition. At least that’s what it’s supposed to be.
The All Star Game was so boring that I stopped watching to catch up on homework.
Defense wasn’t even optional in this game; if you played any hint of defense throughout the night, you were the anomaly.
The East All Stars defeated the West All Stars with a whopping final score of 211-186.
The East All Stars went 42-97 from 3-point range, and were led by All Star MVP, Damian Lillard.
I don’t know if there’s a way to motivate players into actually trying, but this game felt like a way to display defiance towards the league-office.
The NBA recently implemented a 65 game minimum-policy for awards to incentivize players not missing games; something that many players have spoken out against.
During a news conference before Saturday Night’s events, Commissioner Adam Silver said, “I can tell you that the number of games that players have participated in is up this season and interestingly enough, injuries are actually down.”
Either way, the effort-level in the All Star Game was a hell of a way to represent the league.
This isn’t just one play where the players let someone score. I’m not exaggerating when I say this is just about what every possession looked like.
Sure, everyone wants to see the All Stars score at a high level.
But this was like playing a video game on easy mode.
It gets really boring, really fast. So what’s the point in watching?
Silver did not seem too pleased about the way the game went, either.
Wrap-Up
I promise I’m not a hater; All Star Weekend has had an unfathomable fall from grace.
Players want to make the All Star Game, but want nothing to do with actually participating throughout the weekend.
From the abysmal effort displayed by the leagues top talent, to the ignorant commentary, to the disinterested fans of Indiana, All Star Weekend has not been deemed a success by viewers.
A financial success, sure. I was surprised to see this tweet from NBAPR regarding the viewership ratings for Sunday Night’s game.
Almost every year, the Dunk Contest’s winning dunk is celebrated by Kenny “The Jet” Smith yelling “It’s over ladies and gentlemen!” to accentuate the fact that the contest has been won in amazing fashion and that a champion has been declared.
Regarding All Star Weekend, I give you a downcast, underwhelming and comforting in a “the suffering is all done” type of way;
It’s over, ladies and gentlemen.
-Dom