Last weekend was NBA All Star weekend. This is a three day period that I very much look forward to. I love all the extra stuff that the NBA does leading up to the All Star game on Sunday night. I watch it all. I watch the skills competition, the celebrity game, the three point contest, the rising stars game and the dunk contest. I usually find it all very, very enjoyable. In fact, I wrote last year around this time that I thought that the dunk contest was back after the show that Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon put on, even though some think that Gordon got robbed, I personally do not. For the most part, last year's skills competition, three point contest, dunk contest, I found it all very exciting. I was very hopeful that this year would be the same.
Unfortunately, All Star weekend was a pretty big let down this year. It was quite dull in fact. The rising stars game was fun, I do have to say. It was cool to see the World rising stars play the US rising stars. I like that format since the NBA is a global phenomenon. Jamal Murray looked every bit as good as people said he was leading up to the draft and Johnathan Simmons is an inspiration to guys that may not think they have a shot at the NBA, but if they put in the work, they can make it. Other than those 2, Nikola Jokic and Karl Anthony Towns were the only other standouts.
The celebrity game prior to that was a complete dud. Winn Butler from Arcade Fire takes it way, way too seriously. Master P was an absolute nightmare. Go watch the "highlights". The famous NBA impersonator, his name escapes me now, is a really good player, but he was trying way too hard to capitalize on his 15 minutes of fame. The only true highlight, and what saved the game, was the 7 year old child with a rare disease coming on the court, showing some sick dribbling skills and draining his only shot attempt. That kid and that moment was great. He should have been the MVP of the game, not only for the shot, but for the whole weekend. This kid was so funny and so much fun to watch allAll Star weekend long.
Then, we went to Saturday night. I recorded all of the competition stuff because I did not want to watch commercials so I could fully enjoy each event. They started off with the skills competition, and unfortunately, that was the "best" part of the night. I like the new setup of "Bigs" versus "Littles". It's pretty cool to see these big guys, each 6'9 or taller, going up against guards who are wonderful at the skills they put in the event. I was certain that Isaiah Thomas was going to win. He did great in the first two rounds, breezing by the completion, but when he went up against Gordon Hayward, he could not knock down the three and Hayward made one on his fourth try. Kristaps Porzingis, as far as "Bigs" went, looked pretty impressive. He was dribbling by the cones easily, putting the pass through the net with no problem, making the layup and dribbling down court for the pull up three. He breezed by all the "Bigs", and faced Hayward for the title. Again, Porzingis eased his way to victory, draining a pull up three with ease. It was an okay start to the night.
But, it got worse from there.
The three point contest was next, and I was hoping for Klay Thompson to do something like he did last season, but he did not even make it out of the opening round. In fact, most of the shooters looked a bit off all night. Shots were either short or very long. On some racks guys would find a rhythm but on the next rack, they'd brick 4 of the 5 shots. Wes Matthews and CJ McCollum did not do well. As I said, Klay was bounced before the second round. The only 2 who did any good were Kyrie Irving and Eric Gordon, and that is who made it to the finals. They had a decent final, it went to a 60 second overtime, and Gordon came out on top. But, I think it was partly due to the fact that Irving got tired and knew he needed to save himself for the All Star game on Sunday night. There were no amazing numbers put up by any contestant and the final, even with an overtime, was pretty bland.
The dunk contest was next, and this was a flaming bag of garbage. First off, no Zach Lavine. He said he wasn't going to do it before he got injured, but man did the dunk contest need him. At least we had Aaron Gordon, and his first attempt, with the drone, could have been amazing. But, Gordon looked like he was tired, and he just did not have it in him to do anything coming close to what he did last year. It took him four attempts on the first try with the drone before he finally put one dunk through the hoop. By then though, he already looked defeated. Glenn Robinson III had a pretty good first round dunk, dunking over 2 people backwards, but they gave him a perfect 50. No way was that dunk a 50. DeAndre Jordan should not have been in this contest. Seven footers never really do anything great in dunk contests. They are so big and do not have to have the amazing vertical that shorter guys have to do these amazing dunks. Jordan dunked over a DJ booth, but it was not that interesting, or that hard for a pro, for that matter. He was scored accordingly. Then there was the unknown Derrick Jones Jr. All week leading up to this contest people talked about what a leaper he is, and how he was going to replace Lavine no problem. Well, his leaping ability is nothing to shake your head at. In fact, I was very impressed at how high he can jump. But, the problem, he kept missing dunks. It took him 4 attempts to put one through in the first round. This contest hearkened back to the days of Nate Robinson, who I believe one time attempted like 25 dunks before putting one in, and that is not a good thing. By the time a dunker is on his third or fourth try, as a viewer, I check out. It is not impressive to me anymore. Derrick Jones Jr eventually put down a sweet windmill off a pass off the side of the backboard that he also put between his legs, but other than that, the contest was a total waste. Glenn Robinson III won, but it was basically by default due to all the misses Derrick Jones Jr had in the final round. This dunk contest stunk. It was real bad. I knew last year's would be hard to follow up, but this was a nightmare. It was boring and pointless.
Finally, we had the All Star game on Sunday night. The game went exactly as I expected. The dunks were so much better in the game than they were in the dunk contest. Giannis Antentekoumpo threw down thunderous dunk after thunderous dunk. Anthony Davis was hammering home alley oops. LeBron was putting on a show. Steph Curry got in a few dunks. John Wall was going hard with his left hand. Any dunk in the game was better than any dunk in the dunk contest. But, a lot of dunks were missed too. That was kind of a bummer.
No defense was played, but I definitely thought that was going to happen. People that are complaining about the lack of defense are the same people that would complain if these guys went out and tried as if the All Star game is not a glorified exhibition. They are the same people that praise guys like Pete Rose when he runs over a catcher in the MLB All Star game. They are all old, curmudgeon sports writers that claim the game is not competitive and needs to be changed. It does not. The people tuning in want to see a million points. I was hopeful that at least one of the teams would eclipse 200 points. I do not expect the players to go 100 percent on defense and I expect the players to let these guys get off crazy dunks and shoot open shots. I say again, it is an exhibition game. I do not want players to hurt themselves trying too hard in the All Star game. I was completely fine with all the points and broken records and lack of defense. None of that stuff bothered me. I think it is great that Anthony Davis shattered Wilt Chamberlin's scoring total in the All Star game. I loved seeing him go for 52, in his home arena. I loved his array of dunks. I do not care that he took 39 shots. The people complaining about that need to let it go. It was known that everyone on the West was going to defer to Davis. I also loved seeing Russell Westbrook go for 40 plus, KD getting a triple double, LeBron putting on a dunk show, everything Giannis did. I thought it was a very entertaining All Star game, and the second best thing from the weekend, behind only the 7 year old kid.
2017 in New Orleans was a very inconsistent All Star weekend. There were 2 good things, the game itself and the kid, but everything else I thought was pretty rough. I wonder if this will lead to some changes. I guess we will have to wait until next year to find out.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He will maybe give the NFL Pro Bowl another shot if a team can score over 200 points. Just don't get in Kirk Cousins way. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.
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