The NBA All-Star game leaves too much to be desired

During the time I spent watching the NBA All-Star Game this past weekend, I could not help but notice the sheer awkwardness of the event.

The lack of enthusiasm was deafening.

The spectators in Indiana were uninterested, completely still, and at times critical of the events taking place. Throughout the 3-point contest and dunk contest, it felt as if the fans were energyless, which subsequently tarnished the feel of the supposed spectacle.

This year’s 3-point contest might have been the greatest all-around performance in NBA history with Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard, Karl-Anthony Towns and Trae Young all scoring 26 points in the first round - then Damian Lillard won the contest with the last shot in the final rack. Yet, people were not jumping out of their seats or even cheering loudly, it was mostly small echoes of faint, diminished entertainment with spurts of excitement.

The reception stayed the same when the world’s greatest shooter in Stephen Curry went toe-to-toe with Sabrina Ionescu, who is maybe the second greatest shooter in the world.

When Ionescu applied tremendous pressure on Curry by scoring 26 points, Curry one-upped her by scoring 29 points, and the significance of the moment was immense.

We’ve never seen an NBA-WNBA crossover like this and its underlying messages of gender equality are topical. Ionescu’s speech after the contest highlighted the importance of coming together and how women can match men in the basketball arena. This time the crowd was almost completely silent.

These were two fantastic moments in NBA history that just didn’t feel as big as they should have, and as we painfully witnessed during the Covid-19 years, the presence of fans and the engagement that comes with it are integral to all sports.

You can’t go without it.

The start of All-Star Weekend was first burdened by the lack of engagement, then followed by a dunk contest filled with a lack of creativity and questionable, highly questionable scoring from the legendary judges.

I soon realized that viewers there in Indiana and across state lines had nothing to cheer for.

A star of Jaylen Brown’s caliber was a breath of fresh air for the dunk contest, yet his dunks left much to be desired.

Seriously, in what world is a 360-dunk between the legs not better than a one-handed leaping dunk over a seated Kai Cenat who is under six feet tall. This was when the fans seemed to be most passionate, albeit negatively towards the judges’ scoring which prevented Jacob Toppin from advancing to the next round.

It also does not help that a popular sentiment regarding the dunk contest seems to suggest that creativity has hit its limit in relation to what is humanly possible. That may or may not be true, but it is clear that contestants are running out of ideas.

The All-Star Game is supposed to be the main event of the weekend that celebrates the greatness seen on NBA courts, but the game is more akin to a Harlem Globetrotter extravaganza - with spectacular high-flying dunks, exquisite passing displays, and long, long 3-point shots.

The presentation in and of itself can be entertaining, but could you imagine a game in which all of the world’s best basketball players collectively played hard? It would make for some of the best pick-up games of all time, year in and year out.

That is the reason why many fans feel cheated every time they watch the All-Star game. We could have so much more but the players clearly do not care or just want to mess around.

We need to figure out if we want this event to continue in its current state. Do we really care for a yearly game with no stakes or any ounce of effort?

Adam Silver is in yet another tough situation and I forecast some major changes coming to the event. Silver could incentivize the players to play with heart, but at what cost?

The legends of yesterday’s NBA would have competed much harder than today’s players and the torch should have been carried forward in the same manner as before, but that is not the case.

Silver could also give the winning team home-court advantage in the NBA Finals, but that could create some pushback. Maybe you could push the All-Star game to the end of the season after the NBA Finals which would allow more time to select worthy participants, and then players might be less worried about injuries since the season would be over. But that is an IF.

It will be interesting to see what Silver decides to do, as he has shown that he can make effective change in the past. The NBA In-Season Tournament served to increase fan interest and competition amongst the players early in the season.

Setting a 65-game threshold for awards and the new player participation policy forces players to do away with load management. In this case, you are fighting the players’ willingness to carry out their duties with fervor - the league is already experiencing heightened scoring across the board and defense is becoming a lost art in the regular season, so it is hard to expect the players to change much for an all-star game that is seen as a time to relax.

As Scott Van Pelt tweeted on Sunday night: “It's really simple: if you don't care, neither do we”.