All-Star Game Review

Yes, there are a ton of things to cover in the NBA right now: trade deadline moves, Dame Time dropping 71, my guy LeBron with a devastating injury, Ja maybe getting arrested, and so much more. However, the one thing I just can’t stop thinking about is that All-Star Game and how painful it was to watch. I have a ton of opinions on this and by nature, I can ramble on for hours; if you haven’t grasped already, I’m one of those people whose slightly intoxicated nature is naturally very smiley; I will happily talk to anyone, in any setting, about anything.  

But I digress, back to this laughable All-Star Game — I’ll shed my opinion through one simple story:

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I was on a flight back to NYC from Denver this past weekend and sitting to my right were two teenage Denver Nuggets fans. I knew this because one was wearing a Nikola Jokic jersey and the other a team hat. When I saw this, I was pretty excited: I was on a semi-cross-country flight next to two NBA fans, and as we’ve established, I can and will talk to anyone, so I was happy to engage in a fun conversation before flipping a coin to watch The Parent Trap or Remember the Titans.

I figured these guys must be excited about where their team stands and the superstar that they have, so I asked them what they think of the Nuggets’ chances for the title this year and Jokic’s prospects of a third straight MVP — they were just giving me a bunch of “homer” answers with minimal substance, but I was enjoying the conversation. After some back and forth and me telling them I wouldn’t be scared of your team in a seven-game series, I then asked them what they thought of the All-Star Game. I got the same quick answer from them both: “Oh, I didn’t watch.”

I don’t blame them. And that is the problem. It’s not that there’s a lack of marketing build-up, or high-profile names, or the hysterical TNT crew at this historic event, it’s that the younger superstars these young Nuggets’ fans are growing up admiring (Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Giannis and Ja Morant, among others) just don’t care about the product being put on the court. That’s not to say they’re not going to play in the game or are excited about being selected as an All-Star, but they don’t see the game as an actual basketball game or product, they see it as a circus. For f*** sake, a pickup game draft does not take over an hour; that sure as hell is not how it’s done at the park.

We could talk for hours about various incentives players could receive or different formats the game could take, but the fundamental crux is that it is a player’s game. And if they’re getting ridiculous bonuses, on top of their already lucrative contracts, and say it’s “such an honor” and they “never want to take it for granted” being selected to be a part of this staple piece of the NBA identity, then it shouldn’t be a chore for them to try.

And okay let’s address the elephant in the room: I get it, you don’t want to get injured. But you’re putting your body through the same risks during intense pickup games in the offseason (your actual break), so I think it’s fair to expect the same in a game where people are shelling out as much money for a Taylor Swift concert. At least there I know she’s going to put on a legendary show, and not just go through the motions of her job for a few hours like the players at that joke of a game did.

So, I turn the mic over to the league, an organization that I am beyond fond of and grateful for in so many ways — are we going to hold the players accountable?

Of course, you can’t force players to play a certain way, just like you can’t force someone to do something, BUT if something is wrong then you speak up; own it and call out how the players need to try. If you care about something and want it to be better, then you truly act on it. Because by just deferring, or shrugging off, or patching up quick fixes, or even worse just giving up, you’re shortchanging yourself as an organization, this staple game, and the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build.

All this is to say that, unfortunately, if this poor All-Star Game product continues, it’s more likely than not that soon enough the reaction of “Oh, I didn’t watch” won’t just apply to the All-Star Game anymore.