Quinn Campbell
Last weekend the NBA All Star Weekend took place in San Francisco at the relatively new Chase Center, the home of the Golden State Warriors. Once again, the weekend was a disappointment to NBA fans, as well as players. It seems like every year, the All Star game gets less and less competitive. It doesn't help that the NBA commissioner( Adam Silver) seemingly switches the format of the games every year. From the first All Star game in 1951 to 2017, the game consisted of the best players from the Western conference and Eastern conference going against each other in a full length game. In 2018, the NBA announced changes to the game for the first time, saying that the top two vote leaders for each conference would be team captains and get to hold a draft to select the remaining players, regardless of conference. In 2020, the NBA introduced the untimed fourth quarter, in honor of Kobe Bryant. The team who scored the most points in each quarter got to win a cash prize donated to a charity of their choosing. The game would be decided by the first team to reach the target score. Then, in 2023, the NBA reverted back to the the conference-based format and the untimed fourth quarter was eliminated. However, the charity aspect stayed the same and the team who won each quarter would receive a cash prize to go to their chosen charity. Finally, the format switched again this year to a mini tournament consisting of 4 teams with 8 players. 3 of the teams were composed of the 24 all-star selected players, while the fourth team was composed of the winner of the Rising Stars challenge which is an exhibition game for NBA rookies and Sophomores, as well as standouts from the G-league. Each team was named after a member of Inside the NBA, who also acted as honorary coaches. 2 initial games were played to determine who would face each other in the third game, the championship. Each game was decided by the first team to score 40 points.
Now, lets get to the reactions from the game and what needs to be changed in the future. A constant criticism of the game every year is the competitive level. It looks like a sloppy version of basketball that you would see at your local 24 hour fitness. The players don't get back on defense, shoot 40 foot threes every possession and turn the ball over constantly trying to make flashy passes. This year was exceedingly bad. The championship game was the least competitive of them all and the players could literally not make a jumper to save their lives. It looked like the only player who wanted to be there was Victor Wembanyama who at least tried to play defense and take good shots on offense. It's honestly embarrassing to watch the best players in the NBA go on one of the biggest stages in sports and just mess around and fulfill their obligation of being there. Quite frankly, the only part of all star weekend worth tuning in for is the dunk contest, which has been saved by Mac McClung's insane dunks for the last couple of years. The NBA didn't used to have this problem before the modern era of buddy buddy basketball, where it seems like every player is friendly with each other and players are constantly swapping jerseys after the game. I'm not saying that this is necessarily a problem, but it would be nice to see a little bit of fire and competitiveness on the court in both the regular season and the Allstar game. Back in the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's, the Allstar game was still pretty competitive, and resembled what an actual basketball game would look like. Part of the reason for this was that players had more pride and competitive spirit. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Hakeem Olajuwan, and many more past players would give their best every night, regardless if they were playing in an exhibition game or a NBA finals game. They wouldn't allow themselves to slack off and jog up and down the court the whole game. I think the players need to have a change of spirit if people really want to make this game worth watching. It seems like players have no problem competing in Summer pick up runs in the off season, but then they suddenly can't give at least 50% effort in the All-Star game. Hopefully, the NBA will do a better job of creating and sticking to a format that makes sense for the fans and players in the next year or so. If not, we will still be voicing the same complaints after next year's game!
Comments