The NBA All-Star weekend was hosted in the Bay Area. The Rising Stars event was in the San Francisco Chase Center, and the actual NBA All-Star game was hosted at Oracle Park Arena, for the first time with a new All-Star game format and the celebrity game. Fans were excited to see some of their favorite NBA stars compete against each other with the new format, skills challenge, 3-point contest, and dunk contest. Instead of East versus West –how the All-Star Game has been in the past– it would involve 24 All-Star selections that were each split up into three teams, and the fourth team would be the rising stars winner.
There were 4 teams and they played 3 games in semi-final matches with a target score of 40 points. Whichever team won advanced to the championship game to play each other. The teams were even made by some of your favorite sports analysts such as Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaq.
At first, I thought this would be very entertaining to watch; it seemed like this would be great for the All-Star Game. But NBA fans actually hated the new format of the All-Star Game. Several fans wished it was the regular East versus West, and it seemed as if the game was a total disaster. There was a lack of basketball and the players weren’t trying. Fans were enraged and started to leave the game; it just didn’t seem entertaining.
Fans were even more upset when LeBron and Giannis showed up, knowing they couldn’t participate in the games. They held up spots for other All-Star caliber players such as Lamelo Ball, Tyreese Maxey, and Domantas Sabonis. If these players played, it could have allowed them to achieve being an All-Star for the first time.
The All-Star game itself was terrible for most fans and in my opinion, the target score of 40 points is way too short and easy for the All-Stars to achieve. You could blink and the game is over. Having the actual game be only 42 minutes, yet played for 3 hours is crazy and outrageous. There were 80 minutes of ads!! There were more ads than basketball being played. How does that happen? 80 minutes of ads is far too excessive, and due to the big lack of basketball, I can see why fans were leaving the game so early.
But even still, I feel like there was nothing wrong with the new format. It was just the ads that were run and how there was no actual focus on the game and basketball itself. I feel like 40 points as a target score needs to get thrown out the window. If they were to have another target score it should be maybe a hundred plus or not have one at all.
Outside of the All-Star Game, I feel like everything else went well. The three-point contest, dunk contest, and skills challenge were a success in my opinion. A highlight from this three-point contest was Buddy Hield tying Stephen Curry’s 31-point contest record for most points. He also had a chance to tie with Tyler Herro but fell short in the last round by 1 point.
The dunk contest was entertaining again this year, thanks to Mac McClung who put on a show for us along with Stephon Castle, making his first appearance and doing very well for his first time in the dunk contest. Mac McClung would go on to win the dunk contest again this year and throw down one of his most impressive dunks: dunking over a person and a car with the person being through the sunroof of the car, and him grabbing the ball and dunking it. Some fans think that Castle deserved to win, but I feel it was kinda close. Mac was just better and sealed the win. He would go on to win his 3rd dunk contest in a row and is now tied with Nate Robinson for the most dunk contest wins and saving the dunk contest again keeping fans entertained.
Nothing really special happened for the skills challenge but sadly, Victor Wembanya and Chris Paul were both disqualified for the funniest thing ever. They didn’t actually shoot that ball, so they finished insanely fast. The NBA didn’t like this so they were disqualified.
Another highlight from the All-Star game was Curry shooting 2 half-court shots and multiple 3s, with him having 12 points in the finals, leading his team to victory and winning All-Star MVP.
Something new the NBA should do is add a 1-v-1 challenge. I think fans would love to see their favorite players go 1-on-1 in the All-Star game to a score of 7 and make all points (1s, 2s, and 3s) be the value of one point. I also think that having a 12-player bracket, and in the finals, the last 2 players will play a game to 21. Then have the 1 and 2 points determine the 1-v-1 winner.
