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The NBA All-Star Game has historically been a very looked down upon event amongst NBA fans and sports fans in general. Even amongst players, it is viewed as a glorified vacation and not something to take seriously. Efforts were made this year to try and change this. Here are my thoughts.
This year's All-Star Game changed the usual East vs West style into a 4 Team tournament-style game. I thought this was a major improvement. It balanced out the teams a bit more and made it more entertaining. I thought the games were, for the most part, pretty fun and engaging, and players gave a little bit more effort this year (although not entirely). There is definitely a lot of engagement from the younger players, which I really like, especially Wemby. There’s a clip I saw on Twitter of Wemby getting irritated at the fact that Alperen Sengun did nothing as Jayson Tatum gave the game-winning dunk. A lot of people were calling it corny, but I actually really appreciate that Wemby was taking the game seriously, even if there were no real stakes. Overall, it was a decent improvement.
The skills challenge was fine. I found it really funny when CP3 and Wemby decided to take advantage of a loophole in the game and proceeded to get disqualified. It’s even more hilarious when you find out that it was actually Wemby’s idea and not Chris Paul’s. Another reason why I like Wemby even more.
The Dunk contest was fine too. I wanted my man Matas Buzelis to shine, but it is what it is. I don’t blame him since he replaced Yves Missi at the last minute. Mac McLung definitely was the saving grace of the contest. Definitely deserved that three-peat win. It is also insane he makes more from dunk contest earnings than his actual NBA salary.
Now, let's talk about the major issues. The All-Star game still has a major problem of feeling like a big, glorified product. The huge ad breaks completely disrupted my engagement and the overall flow of the game. During the final game, you would just have a 20-minute ad break, and at that point, I just lost interest. The commentating was also just plain annoying. Kevin Hart is a funny comedian, but I just didn’t like his commentating or input in this All-Star Game. Draymond Green was also just annoying. He was sitting there just critiquing the game itself and wondering if players even deserved to be there. I understand critiquing the All-Star game, but doing it as a commentator?
So overall, while I feel the All-Star game has made huge improvements, we are still a long way from having it be seen and treated as a serious event. The tournament model definitely works, but we need to do something about the overall structure and purpose of the game if we want more interest and engagement.
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