NBA All-Stars fail to put in all-star performance

The NBA All-Star Weekend ended last night. There were three big events over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Friday, first and second year players played in their mini all-star game, the Rising Stars game. On Saturday, a collection of those rookies and sophomores, invited dunkers along with three-point shooters, and All-Star Game players participated in the skills festival. On Sunday, the All-Stars finally hit the floor for the game. It was about 11 hours or so of programming and I watched probably 5 minutes total. I admit

I’m not a hardcore basketball fan. Hockey is my favorite sport, however, I spent about the same amount of time viewing their All-Star festivities. This weekend felt flat. After the season-opening rush from Christmas Day to near March, there was curiousness from myself about the NBA. They were playing a much limited schedule than most years meaning the games were more important. In early February, a unknown kid raised in California by Taiwanese parents named  Jeremy Lin began starting games for the New York Knicks as their point guard.

Through his all-around excellence passing and scoring, he became an instant star in New York and across the world. Linsanity was born and you couldn’t escape it even if you were a non-basketball fan. All of a sudden, you saw and heard people talking about Lin and the NBA in a non-stop manner. I don’t’ know if I have Lin fatigue or NBA fatigue but I tried my hardest to get away during the All-Star celebration. I’ll probably watch pro hoops again tomorrow or the day after. One thing I know, the All-Star game and weekend celebration don’t excite me like they did when I was a kid even into my teenage years.

I think one of the biggest problems with All-Star games in general is it a celebration rather than a competition. There is no defense played in these games. The Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference 152 to 149. There was no overtime. If a team scores over 100 in a regulation game, that is high-scoring.  The two teams combined for 301 points. The losing team in the last three years has at least put up 139 points. There is no intensity, no effort, and no physical contact between offensive and defensive players.

For instance, the announcers during the National Hockey League’s showcase game told the viewing audience if a body check was thrown and when did it happen previously. In most hockey games, you can’t go seconds without a player hitting another player. With the NBA, there was a lot of buzz from people on ESPN and through social networking site Twitter when the East’s Dwyane Wade fouled the West’s Kobe Bryant hard in the face during the third quarter. Apparently from replays, Kobe had the ball in the low post, spun toward the left baseline, jumped up toward the rim, and Wade took his two hands knocked Kobe’s hands down to stop the shot. Kobe actually got a bloody nose from that job. Yes, there was some real intensity for about five seconds.

I understand that nobody wants to get hurt themselves or injure someone else but it devalues the game. I remember clicking over to the game and hearing Marv Albert say the Clippers’ Blake Griffin was 8 of 9 on field goal attempts and 7 of them were dunks or lay-ups. When I watched some of the highlights, I saw a lot of fancy crossover dribbles, passes off the backboard, and spectacular dunks with basically everybody on the defense standing still. There was a lot of one-on-one offensive plays with very passive defense. The Rising Stars game on Friday night had the same characteristics except the players were younger and not as good yet as the regular All-Stars.

I wanted to end with Saturday’s skills contest because it was something I would watch more than the game. I probably saw two minutes live and maybe five more in highlights. I should have probably watched the point guard skills challenge and the three-point contest since there is shooting and passing involved. I admit watching the Washington Capitals hockey game versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. The most frustrating  part of the night was watching the Slam-Dunk Contest highlights on ESPN.

First of all, the dunkers were players I never heard about before. Second, they had ridiculous gimmicks like jumping over people. Chase Budinger of the Houston Rockets jammed one ball while leaping by rapper P. Diddy. Later on, he dunked a ball blindfolded. Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz did two jams jumping past people. The first dunk was a double-dunk with two basketballs tossed by someone sitting down. His final round winning jam used celebrity Kevin Hart as a high jump bar. Finalist Paul George of the Indiana Pacers slammed a ball down in a glow-in-the-dark jersey arena darkened except for some flashing glow sticks Meanwhile, it took ten attempts for Derrick Williams of the Minnesota Timberwolves to successfully make a slam-dunk in the last round.

I feel sorry for Evans, George, Budinger, and Williams since they had the guts to go out and perform. Where was Lebron James? Where was Dwyane Wade? Where was  Kobe Bryant? Most importantly, where was last year’s champ Blake Griffin? They all played in the All-Star Game the next night. At least, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder  was a big-time superstar who competed in an event. He finished second in the three-point shooting contest.

I think some of these superstars (Lebron, Kobe, etc…) are afraid of getting embarrassed. The fan response on Twitter was pretty obvious, “That was okay but where are the big-time players?".