All Star Weekend Thread

[PhilBlackson]

Ant, Ja, Zion & Shaedon should be forced to be in the dunk contest moving forward lol

[GP2]

Please no more financial incentives. These guys get paid enough as is. The in-season tournament is looking like a joke in retrospect.

[StopitLeo]

Crazy idea but maybe they should have the East All-Star team vs the G-League East All-Stars and the West All-Star team vs the G-League West All-Stars.

The G-League reps want to showcase their talent and play hard against the NBA All-Stars while the NBA All-Stars don’t want to be embarrassed and win.

Good for G-League guys but the NBA players don’t want to have to really put in effort and/or risk getting hurt.

The All-Star game itself stinks. They should play King of the Court (2 dribbles, maybe different spots, idk). Have a few guys from the East and few guys from the West with the winner of each conference going one-on-one at the end. Winner gets $1M, loser gets $100k.

I still like the 3-point contest but lots of guys can make 3s. It needs some kind of refresher to reflect higher level shooting skill. I would change it to where you shoot until you miss. So the contest starts with your first make and once you miss you move to the next rack; if you miss your first shot on that rack you move to the next one. Could add a bonus logo-3 shot for extra points, again shoot until you miss. I want to see a guy make a string of shots.

The dunk contest is garbage. The star players are afraid to compete and lose and tbh the variety of dunks they can make have pretty much been exhausted. It’s hilarious that a G-Leaguer had to be brought in and then he doesn’t get the scores he deserves.

If they want dunks in the All-Star weekend then just bring in professional dunkers (that’s a thing) and let them do a showcase with a fan vote for the winner (no head to head with judges).

Maybe you need a Toronto element because the only 2 good dunk contests in the past 24 years were Vince (props to all the stars who competed) and then at the Toronto ASG with LaVince and Gordon going bonkers (should have been a tie but the NBA is dumb).

[ontnut]

I think it's fair to assume most of these logos don't have the consultation of indigenous folks, probably not so cool to call me out on that.

Dope that's the case though.

I think it's more the...what is it called, taking offense by proxy? It has just unnecessarily taken over so much of the western world/social media, and a landmine for people to unknowingly make themselves look foolish.

Naw it's more that I have a number of indigenous people in my life, so learn and here it first hand. Probably better to just always recognize you are on stolen land and be quiet.

If we're going down that route....then land can't be stolen, it never belonged to anyone. That's something I never understood. Stole from who? People who migrated here from Asia? Warring tribes that wiped each other out and annexed more land? Are we absolutely sure that there were no hominids here who the eventual First Nations took their land from?

It's one thing to ask people to not use cultural symbols and names without permission, I can get behind that. It's another to claim that people should stfu because of some wild conception of land ownership.

[raptorstime]

These guys play harder during summer runs. I’m not buying the injury argument .

[ontnut]

I get that All-Star weekend is primarily for kids, but it's a shame what the entire weekend has turned into

I don't care for the way they do the Rising Stars format, the dunk contest was a joke, and the All-Star game has become a 3-point shooting practice. It's just a weird weekend all around. Some of that's on the planners, some of it's on the NBA, and some of it is on the players. There just doesn't seem to be any pride in being competitive and actually running / participating in a quality event

I think they need to simplify everything and bring it back to their roots, stop trying to change everything every year

The MLB seems to be the one league that does the Home Run Derby and All-Star game right. Baseball is probably my least favourite sport to watch on TV, but their All-Star weekend is great imo

Baseball all-star games are played at a competitive level close to a regular baseball game because by and large, baseball is considered a non-contact or less physical than football, hockey and basketball. Maybe the pitchers aren't throwing as hard to preserve their arms but that works to the hitters' advantages...and what's more fun in a baseball game than to see lots of hits and home runs?

All-star hockey games...you will see less hitting and fighting but that also means more 2 on 1s or breakaways and those are lots of fun to watch even in a normal game.

Pro Bowl is a joke and everyone knows it. In fact...they're doing flag football this year so there will be zero hitting and as much as we like seeing offence...seeing a quarterback sacked or a receiver savagely taken down by a hulking linebacker...that's what people enjoy watching.

Basketball without the defensive intensity and shot blocking just isn't fun. Guys just jogging up and down the floor with clear paths to the basket...no one wants to see this.

If the NBA wants to make this fun...how about a 3 on 3 tournament? Pay the guys $500k each to participate but then offer an additional $500k to advance to the quarter finals, another $500k to advance to the semifinals and another $500k to advance to the finals with another $500k to win. Winning players get a cool 2.5 million and the intensity level increases dramatically...and we don't have to watch a completely neutered 5 on 5 game.

This could work or I think I saw someone suggest they adopt the rising stars format of a four team mini tournament. Or just say screw it entirely and have a 1 on 1 tourney.

I don't think they'd do a 3 on 3 because that's not really their product they'd be marketing. They'd also potentially lose out down the line to the Big 3 league if it became successful. I can't see it happening unless it involved the WNBA, meaning a 3 on 3 tourney but each team has a woman. But then it's just another gimmick where guys can go through the motions.

I think a 1 v 1 tournament would generate the most competitiveness. Because guys will be forced to play defense. Rivalries can form. I'd like them to give it a try at least.

[Scase]

Never forget people wanted to trade Scottie for Dame.

People here thought Dame & Pascal could win a chip.

Dame and Giannis can't even win the east, and people thought Dame/Siakam was a contender duo lmao.

This ASG reminded me why I have not watched them for years. Nothing but boring ass 3's.

We had more then Siakam to compliment a pure scorer and it was all we were missing to be a really good team TBH.

I can guarantee a roster with the bulk of last seasons vets would've been far more promising then what we are looking at right now and we will be faced with a similar decision in the future if we even have a piece to trade at that time and are lucky enough to be in that situation.

And if some peeps are judging Scottie for not winning on a trash team the same way they judge Dame in Portland then Scottie is going to be a serious bust in their eyes until we get him some real help one day as this is a team stacking league.

The bucks were and are a better team top to bottom, if they can't do it, we definitely couldn't, Siakam isn't even in the same stratosphere as Giannis. And the rest of their bench is better than ours was, easily.

[ItsDanger]

Even with no defense, the West only shot 35% from 3. Adjust your analytics please.

[Reeko]

The truth is that until viewership starts to go down and salaries start to go down these guys won't feel compelled to care about events like this. There are some young guys who have good mentalities, that respect the game and the fans, that understand this league was built from the ground up off of the backs of guys who understood that they had to perform at all times. A lot of guys are entitled for the most part, they make it to the league and feel like they deserve all the perks that come with it without having accomplished anything.

[T_saurus]

Simple solution to fix the all star game: Forget rewards, incentives - The losing team has to crawl through the legs of the winning team, just like back in high school!

[mtcan]

I really hope the LED courts become a thing for an entire league. I wanna see lightning and fire trails following guys when they are hitting shots like crazy. I wanna see the ball hit the floor like a concrete block crushing the court when a guy's shooting bricks. This is home court advantage.

[NBJ13]

here's a thought..., use the in-season tournament as the way all-stars are selected. The winner of the AS game is also the in-season tourney champ.

[KL78192020]

I just watched 3 hours of a 3 point contest? What the **** is Adam Silver thinking?

He was trying to appeal to casual fans by announcing he's banning defense in 2018 so there could be a lot more offense but now I do have some small hope that he's going to unban defense. I know he sees all the hate from the fans about all star games the past few years

I have zero expectations, watched out 5 minutes. It is what it is.

[NinjaBro]

You guys complain every single year but keep watching. The NBA isn't the problem, you're the problem.

I haven't watched an all star game since they came to Toronto. Before that, never and will never watch again.



"If you want to lose brain cells go read Realgm" - Pensare Basketball

[GP2]

Pretty inexcusable that the Raptors return from the break on a b2b.

[deeps6x]

I recorded all of the crap. Decided to watch none of it. Would be a huge waste of time.

[James_Raptors]

Pretty inexcusable that the Raptors return from the break on a b2b.

So does
-Philly
-Cavs
-Spurs
-Lakers
-Pelicans
-Rockets
-Nuggets
-Wizards
-Thunder
-Suns
-Clippers
-Hornets
-Warriors

14 teams have a b2b after the ASG.

[C_Money]

I recorded all of the crap. Decided to watch none of it. Would be a huge waste of time.

Yeah it pretty much all sucked.

[Mack11]

Watch on YouTube

miss the days when we had this man play for us and we were all eager to see what he was gonna pull off at the all star game

[refshateRaps]

Dame and Giannis can't even win the east, and people thought Dame/Siakam was a contender duo lmao.

This ASG reminded me why I have not watched them for years. Nothing but boring ass 3's.

We had more then Siakam to compliment a pure scorer and it was all we were missing to be a really good team TBH.

I can guarantee a roster with the bulk of last seasons vets would've been far more promising then what we are looking at right now and we will be faced with a similar decision in the future if we even have a piece to trade at that time and are lucky enough to be in that situation.

And if some peeps are judging Scottie for not winning on a trash team the same way they judge Dame in Portland then Scottie is going to be a serious bust in their eyes until we get him some real help one day as this is a team stacking league.

The bucks were and are a better team top to bottom, if they can't do it, we definitely couldn't Siakam isn't even in the same stratosphere as Giannis. And the rest of their bench is better than ours was, easily.

Not even saying a deal was available, but the urgency should have been there and I definitely believe we had a cast of players to support an Alpha as there were other players being shopped and our FO was sitting comfortably on their hands for no good reason either way.

Dame, Fred, OG, Pascal and Poeltl would have been fun to watch and dangerous AF.

Much more fun then the mess we have now which provides only a hope we can build something close to that good as we enter what might become the Wemby era.