Posted by Dan Dragicevich.
With the majority of the focus being on Sunday and the all-star game, are the two previous days necessary anymore?
Sunday’s all-star game has been and always will be the cherry on top of the NBA all-star weekend. With Sunday’s game being no different than usual, the fans and even the players had an entertaining night. With the lack of defense being played and the frenzy of alley-oop after alley-oop seemingly always to either Blake Griffin or Lebron James, the all-star game was a success.
What wasn’t a success about the weekend was the bevy of events that take place on Friday and Saturday leading up to the all-star game. I mean it seems like it is getting a little ridiculous with everything they have now. On Friday, they have the Sprint celebrity game and the BBVA rising stars game, on Saturday they have the D-League all-star game, the Haier shooting stars challenge, the Taco Bell skills challenge, the Foot Locker 3 point shooting contest, and the Sprite slam dunk contest, and finally on Sunday they have the All-star game. Is it me or does it seem like the NBA is having all of these events just so companies can sponsor them? Of course the NBA is out to make their money, but what happened to the days when the all-star break was all about the players and the fans just relaxing and having a good time instead of it becoming a huge advertising party?
David Stern and the NBA are heading in the right direction, especially with many other sports all-star games kicking the bucket (NFL’s Pro Bowl). But is it really necessary to have an all-star game for the D-League? The Celebrity game is one thing, because it provides the fans with names they have heard before and gives them someone and something to cheer about, but unfortunately no one has heard of anyone in the D-League and having one event at the all-star break isn’t going to attract more people to go to the games.
What they should do is get rid of Friday’s events and the Haier shooting skills contest and make everything on Saturday and Sunday. Obviously they have to keep the 3 point shooting contest and the dunk contest because those are staples, but maybe they should try and have bigger names and better dunkers join the contests. No disrespect to Chase Budinger, but do the fans of the NBA really want to see him in the dunk contest? Yes, he can dunk the ball, but what happened to when Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon used to participate in it?
Lebron James is one of the best dunkers and high flyers of all-time and he has still yet to participate. I think if you are one of the best at what you do then you should feel responsible to participate in an event that showcases the best of the best. That’s the way it used to be and it needs to get back to that way very soon.
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