This year, for the first time,
I purchased an NBA League Pass, which means I can watch any NBA game I like
whenever I like. This is of less value if you have a full-time job or any life
outside of watching basketball, but I’ve been pretty happy with it so far. I
particularly like watching on the weekends and being able to flick between multiple
games. After a few months of watching I have got to the point now where I
instinctively know how long a time-out is, and know when to flick back.
Part of having full access is
being able to watch the NBA All-Star Weekend. This is something I haven’t been
able to do much over the years, so I was looking forward to it. While I couldn’t
watch the actual All-Star Game live – due to having a job, you know – I could
watch live some of the All-Star Saturday events.
All-Star Saturday was great. The
Skills Challenge (the first event), which is generally considered the least of
the events, was actually quite enjoyable. This was in part to dividing the draw
into ‘guards’ and ‘bigs’, so that a ‘guard’ and ‘big’ played off in the final.
The camaraderie among the groups was somewhat unexpected to me, with Minnesota
rookie Karl-Anthony Towns being mobbed by his fellow bigs after unexpectedly
hitting the winning shot.
The Three-Point Shootout was a
bit long, with eight contestants and then a tie-breaker between three contestants
to determine the last qualifier for the final, but was still fascinating to
watch to find out which of Golden State’s ‘Splash Brothers’ would emerge
victorious. Stephen Curry, the league’s best player and now often considered
the greatest shooter ever, narrowly lost to Klay Thompson, who some consider
the second-best shooter in the league. It was Thompson’s day though, and he
shot beautifully to edge out his more heralded teammate. The Golden State
Warriors, boosted by their two great shooters, entered the All-Star break with
a record of 48 wins and just 4 losses.
I didn’t see the Slam Dunk
Contest live, as I had to go to a mothers’ group meeting (I was one of two
fathers there). But I didn’t know the result when I watched it, other than that
Aaron Gordon and reigning champion Zach Levine met in the final. I haven’t
watched many Slam Dunk Contests but it was clear to me that there wouldn’t be
many contests better than this. In the final Gordon and Levine had three dunks
each with perfect scores before Gordon, running out of ideas, finally scored less
than perfect on his fourth go. Some felt, like I did, that was a bit harsh on
Gordon, who for me had the most memorable dunk of the night when he went
through his legs over the Orlando mascot, but alas for him you can’t get higher
than a 50. At the least I wish they had been made joint winners.
And then there was the
All-Star Game itself, which I watched on replay. The introduction of the
players at an All-Star Game, which I hadn’t seen before, was interesting for me
to watch, but after a few minutes of tribute to retiring Laker Kobe Bryant I
fast-forwarded to the tip-off. What followed was a bit of a disappointment, my
knowing the result notwithstanding. There was essentially no defence – just a
series of easy shots, and contrived alley-oops. I got to the point in the
second quarter when Andre Drummond from my team the Pistons had played a few
minutes, and then gave up. The highlights told me all I needed to know about
that game.
Could they make the
All-Star Game better? NBA commentators The
Starters suggested that they have two captains that pick teams, with some
stars having the ignominy of being picked late or last, hence adding to the
players’ motivations. But I don’t know that the players would actually care
that much about that. I like the intrigue around who gets picked as All-Stars
each season, and the game has a long history, so I hope it sticks around. Maybe
the games are more interesting when they are close.
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