There are many things that I enjoyed in my younger years that just haven’t aged very well. Most of them are actual humans, who either aren’t as sharp, funny, nor attractive as they were in, say, the late ’80s and early ’90s. That’s to be expected.
However, big events from our youth should get better over time, with the backing of more media dollars and more platforms and ways in which to consume. The Super Bowl and Wrestlemania are two iconic events that are now way bigger and more bad-ass than they were in 1990.
The NBA’s All Star weekend, though, is the exact opposite of those great events. What was once a heart pounding itinerary of big events, from three point shooting and slam dunk contests that stars legitimately wanted to win, to the game itself, which was 48 minutes of hatred, largely fueled by Michael Jordan’s hatred of everybody, is now a shell of that. In fact, calling it a “shell of what it once was” is an insult to shells.
The NBA staged its annual three day All Star event this weekend in San Francisco, and it was every bit the disaster that it’s been for years now. The NBA has tried numerous ways to get players to actually try in thee games, and the players will not budge. They put forth an effort level that makes post office workers look like marathon runners.
I could go on for days about the poor quality of the basketball, but there was so much other mind numbingly stupid stuff going on with this All Star weekend that putting “effort of the players” on the list would just be lazy. Here are five other things that made the NBA All Star Weekend horrific:
5. Wemby and Paul crap all over the Skills contest
One of the events on Saturday is the Skills Competition, where a handful of duos, each duo consisting of two players from the same NBA team, dribble, pass, and (supposedly) shoot their way around an obstacle course, each duo seeking the fastest time. Well, this year, Spurs duo Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul decided to skip the shooting part by basically dumping the three balls in the rack on the floor:
The way it’s supposed to work is that the player is supposed to actually shoot the balls until they make one or miss all three, whichever comes first. Needless to say, the Spurs duo was disqualified, much to the shock of Wemby:
4. Steph sits on Saturday
Once the Skills Competition is over, then comes the three point shooting contest. Typically, this draws more stars than the dunk contest, which was three no-namers and a G League player this year, but it’s still viewed as optional, even by the league’s best shooters. The issue with this year’s contest was that the greatest three-point shooter in history, Steph Curry, was in the building, and he chose not to participate. Oh, did I mention that San Francisco is his home arena? What the hell are we doing, NBA?
3. LeBron bails out of the game at the last minute
Well, while the Saturday events have become watered down and irrelevant, and while the effort put forth in the actual All Star Game is infamously lazy, at least we get to see all the stars on the floor together, right? Wrong. Prior to Sunday night’s series of games, LeBron James, the greatest player of this century, springs it on the media at the last minute that his ankle was hurting, and he wouldn’t play:
Hey, I don’t know how badly he’s hurt, but perhaps he could have notified folks before Sunday afternoon, in order to allow some other player to replace him and experience the All Star Game, as a player. Just a thought.
2. Draymond Green, poor sports take machine
For some reason, TNT thinks it’s a good thing to give Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green a microphone so we can hear his thoughts. In case you didn’t know, the league decided to reformat the game this year into a four team mini tournament, with three teams of All Stars and the fourth team being the winners of the Rising Stars game on Friday, a game between rookies and sophomores. The games in the mini tournament were all “first team to 40 points wins” format. Draymond did not like this:
Hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but nowhere in here does Draymond acknowledge that the main reason the NBA is forced to try these funky formats is because the current generation of NBA veterans, including Green, choose NOT TO TRY in the actual All Star Game. It’s maddening! Yo Draymond, the presence of this format you hate is partially YOUR FAULT!
1. Too much Hart
I don’t know when this happened, but somewhere along the way, people making content and production decisions decided we needed as much Kevin Hart in our lives as possible. This could not be further from the truth. Look, I find Kevin Hart’s comedy to be funny. If I had tickets to one of his shows, I would definitely go. However, Kevin Hart cracking out-of-place, repetitive, obnoxious jokes while talking over the entire TNT broadcast team is NOT what I am signing up for. Please, please, all of you sports production decision makers, stop mixing Kevin Hart into your programming, and if you do still plan to, please give us fair warning, so we can go binge “Tulsa King” or “Cobra Kai” instead. I am Kevin Harted out.
Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.
