Allstar Weekend Thread

[Inigo Montoya]

All things Allstar can go here, including Mitchell's performance in the Rising Stars game.

[dr0welf]

I have no interest in the All Star game any more. It's all hype and no substance. Even the rising star challenge is not competitive basketball. I would love to see these guys play hard quality basketball, but that is probably asking way to much for a bunch of non defensive players to show more then offense. Hopefully get rid of the games and just give acknowledgement awards to the top players in each statistical category.

[Inigo Montoya]

I agree. Allstar weekend is boring to me. I might check out highlights of the dunk contest, but not much more than that. Frankly, it gives fans time to re-charge before the playoff push, and serves as a much needed rest period to fans just as much as it does to players.

[eLo]

this is great example how nba is eating its tail, back in time asw was real thing, a celebration of basketball, this days no one seams to care, its pointless event, and hard to not understand, when rs games looks now more like asg few years ago when it comes to intensity, defense etc

[FJS]

I don't care about allstar, much less with no conferences. If you break that, then choose the best 24 players in the league and not 12 of each conference

[Crunch 99]

I watched a few minutes of the Rising Stars game yesterday to see DM run around, but I could only stand to watch for five or six minutes. I'll probably watch some of the Skills Challenge and three point contest, but not the main game.

[Winglish]

I don't watch any of it. The game is boring because they don't even play basketball.

Where are the Michael Jordans and Kobe Bryants and Karl Malones and John Stocktons? Guys who only play to win because they have competitive fire?

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My issue is you're under contract. Most jobs you aren't under a contract, so it's not a fair comparison. If you agree to play for a team for a certain number of years then honor it. Or don't sign on to do so for that many years. Or don't go public with it and keep it behind closed doors (of course that is next to impossible because you can't quietly inquire about packages for that caliber of a player and for it to remain quiet)

They really should just shorten the length of contracts to 3, maybe 4 years, so this stops happening.

[Inigo Montoya]

Not very encouraging to see DM's take on AD. It's not like he's laying the groundwork for leaving the Jazz, but such comments can't make the Jazz feel more confident about keeping him longer than they did Hayward.

[vryadli]

Not very encouraging to see DM's take on AD. It's not like he's laying the groundwork for leaving the Jazz, but such comments can't make the Jazz feel more confident about keeping him longer than they did Hayward.

There some people who are more forgiving toward colleagues and friends than for himself. Let's hope that DM is from that kind and that he doesn't consider the finding most comfortable and profitable location for himself as his top priority.

From one side he looks like very good teammate, on the other he doesn't look like small market kind... We will see which side prevail in couple of years...

[AingesBurner]

Not very encouraging to see DM's take on AD. It's not like he's laying the groundwork for leaving the Jazz, but such comments can't make the Jazz feel more confident about keeping him longer than they did Hayward.

There some people who are more forgiving toward colleagues and friends than for himself. Let's hope that DM is from that kind and that he doesn't consider the finding most comfortable and profitable location for himself as his top priority.

From one side he looks like very good teammate, on the other he doesn't look like small market kind... We will see which side prevail in couple of years...

This is where DL being a sitting on his hands dumb ass is important.

[zero24gravity]

My take on the weekend (my stance on AS selection process is a whole other thing):

The Rookie/Soph game has turned into the worst part of the whole weekend. I didn't think it was possible to watch worse, less inspiring, less defensive basketball than the actual All Star game, until I tried to sit through that garbage. Thank goodness the game I was playing on my phone while I tried to stomach that "game" was semi-entertaining. I heard that one soundbite of Mitchell asking for the team to play a little D. Guess nobody listened. DM got his 20 points, but really, this was pure trash.

Skills challenge. First, the "random" picking of the match-ups seemed very suspicious. The 2 bigs got matched, the 2 smallest & quickest guys got matched, come on... really? I actually don't mind this contest, and don't even care who they pick to participate since it's multiple "skills". The only thing is, it's really only about who makes the 3 at the end since the players are always very close coming down the stretch. I feel like something else needs to be added to make it about more than that one shot. Who won? I didn't remember until I checked online a minute ago. (Tatum, ok)

3 point contest. Again, I don't mind this contest. Here's my beef .... how the hell do they pick who gets invited? Unlike the dunk-contest, which it a lot about using judgment on how players will dunk in a non-game situation, who might have some flare, and also who's actually interested ... the 3 point shootout seems like there should be an easy formula for invitations, with heavy weight on 3%, and less-so 3's made (and maybe a bonus points for being on the All Star team, so we at least are assured a little star-power in the contest). Not this year, but the last 2 years Ingles had been the #2 3% in the league, but not invited. Anyway, it was nice to see that guy I had never heard of from the Nets win, since he deserved to be there based on being #2 in the league in 3%, behind Davis Bertansm who wasn't even in the contest. (Anyone other than S.Curry winning was fine with me.) Lastly, I appreciate Dirk, but it was lame to include him.

Dunk Contest. So yeah, how to pick who to participate is tough. A lot of established players don't even want to do it. So, I'm cool with whoever is in the contest. My issue (yes more issues), is the judging. It's simply terrible. 10's raining for mediocre dunks we've seen dozens of times, and 8's across the board for the first dunk of the night by Collins, which (while not 10 worthy) was a better dunk than most the 9's & 10's we saw the rest of the way. Judge the same way on every dunk, sheesh. The dunk over Shaq was pretty damn impressive. Too bad it wasn't saved for the ho-hum final round, where the judges tried to force suspense by giving a ridiculously high score to Dennis Smith for a middle-of-the-road dunk that took him 36 tries to complete. The right guy ended up winning, and we didn't have to suffer through Blake Griffin jumping over a 3' high car hood .... so that's good. Also, fun to see Mitchell reping the Jazz with the TNT commentators.

Lastly, the All Star game. Better than the Rookie/Soph, but still pretty sad. At least I can appreciate the mass amount of 3's made as a skill, unlike the R/S game, which was a stream of allowing players to run down the lane for dunks. The big come-back was kinda impressive by Team LBJ, even in an AS setting. Durant as MVP wasn't the best choice, but not horrible. Still, having fans vote for MVP (and voting with 10 min left in the game, none-the-less) is stupid, IMO. Again, the NBA caring more about big-market popularity than substance and fairness. Wade and Dirk, while great-ones, should have not been on the teams. Call me cranky, but with the selection process & the amount of non-deserving Leastern conference players already being lame, adding those players now sets a precedent for every retiring "star" to get a spot, which unfairly bolsters their career resume and takes court space from (in most cases) deserving players. With that said, seeing Dirk's ear-to-ear grin after nailing 3 deep 3's was my favorite AS game moment. (Did i just disprove my own argument against him being on the team?)

In closing: RUDY, RUDY, RUDY, RUDY

[Cappy_Smurf]

I watched a few minutes of the skills challenge and of the 3 point contest. I'd be willing to bet the best part of the entire circus was Tatum's come from behind half court shot to knock out Young's shot and win the skills.

[Luigi]

Again, the NBA caring more about big-market popularity than substance and fairness.

The product has been changing pretty seriously over the past 5 years. I'm losing interest. I think they'll kill the golden goose.