NBA All-Star Weekend – SirmacTV.com

Greetings, heathens…

That was a pleasant weekend now, wasn’t it?

Although all sports have their all-star weekends where they put their stars on a single stage to be celebrated, nobody does it quite as well as the NBA. I mean, the home-run derby is cool and the hardest shot contest can be funny when someone registers a measly attempt, but when it comes to the actual game itself, most people yawn their way through it, if they even tuned-in at all.

This is not the case with the NBA. In the NBA, players who aren’t even invited to participate in any events still show up, as opposed to the NHL who had to start fining players because they WEREN’T showing up. The bottom-line here is that the NBA knows how to market their game and they execute their plan every year. This year was no different although I do have some small beefs.

This year’s event went down in Phoenix with the Rookie/Sophomore Challenge kicking things off on Friday night. Normally this game can get a little carried away with guy’s stepping beyond their limits trying to find their way into a highlight…which usually results in a turnover or a botched dunk. Regardless, this game is still fun to watch because you can get a glimpse of the guys that will one day be the faces of the league. This year’s game was much closer than years past, with the Rooks leading the way most of the game. However, “big game” snub, Kevin Durant, went off for 30 chips in the 2nd half and led the Sophomore’s to their 7th consecutive victory. KD was the game’s MVP, finishing with 46 chips which broke Amare’s Stoudemire’s previous record of 36. Michael Beasley finished with 29 to lead the Rooks who were without Greg Oden who was sitting out with sore left-knee. Will this dude ever get healthy?

Next up was All-Star Saturday where upsets were the order of the day. In the Skills competition, super-rook Derrick Rose took home honors as he destroyed the field (including Tony Parker and Devin Harris) while barely breaking a sweat. Next up was the 3-point contest where Daequan Cook dethroned Jason Kapono as the king behind the arc after Kapono didn’t even make it to the finals. However the biggest upset came towards the end of the night when little Nate Robinson took out returning champ and heavy favorite Dwight Howard in the Slam Dunk Contest. Now although there were some nasty spikes, I gotta say I wouldn’t even put it in my top 5 contests of years past. I mean Vince back in 2000, J-Rich in 03, 04, Dwight last year…those are contests that I’ll remember. But for me, this contest lacked something. JR Smith was subpar, Rudy was nice but took too many attempts and Dwight went from having all new dunks last year, to not really maxing out on his capabilities this year. Nate’s dunk over Dwight was the highlight for a lot of people I’ve talked to, but I don’t think he should’ve even been in the finals after his dunk where he jumped off Wilson Chandler’s back. Like c’mon man, are you kidding me? I used to do that at the Y when I was like 12! It should’ve been 7’s across the board but for some reason the judges were feeling it and were giving it 8’s and 9’s which leads me to my next point; A lot of people are saying the whole thing was staged and the whole “Krypto-Nate” vs. “Superman” thing was a predestined storyline from the start. I feel that. I don’t necessarily think the whole thing was staged and I give the NBA a lot of credit for its ability to draw fans in, but I think the “entertainment” and “showmanship” was a little overboard this year and it took away from the athlete’s physical talents. It seemed as though guys spent more time figuring out what they were gonna do before and after their dunk rather than the dunk itself. Maybe I’m just old-school, but would you ever see Mike going into a phone booth and coming out with a skin tight mini-jersey (Aren’t those for chicks?)? What’s gonna happen next year? Is LeBron going to jump over a flaming pit of cobra’s while eating a piece of cheesecake in a Riddler costume? Just throwdown, man. I say the NBA should bring in some outside cats to make the NBA dudes step their game up. This dude is the same size as Nate and would crush him…

Well now that we have that rant out of the way (sorry guys), we can revert our attention back to the whole point of the weekend; The All-Star game.

Sunday’s All-Star game brought in an estimated 6.8 million viewers (up 8% from last year) and although the game was a blowout, it was still worth watching. Shaq was playing like it was the Laker-years, Dwight took Yao to the spa 3 mins. into the game, CP3 was breakin’ dudes off, Kobe and ‘Bron each went off for 20+, Amare and Brandon Roy threw down some nice crams and even Mo Williams proved that he belonged on the East’s roster from the start. The only guys who didn’t get much shine were Danny Granger and Joe Johnson who put up a donut in the pts. column but still got himself in the game log…with a game-high 5 TO’s. I’m sure he’ll have another chance to redeem himself in future years though.
Like I said, the game was a blowout with the West almost 30-piecing the East 146-119, and Shaq and Kobe took home co-MVP honours. This was the first time Kobe and Shaq had been on the same team since the Laker days and it was refreshing to see them on a mature level (especially if you read that Phil Jackson book that I recommended back in Week 9? 10? …umm, I dunno, it was after Christmas though!). After the game, Kobe told Shaq to take the trophy home to give it to his sons. You see kids, we can all get along!

My only quarrel with the game was the looooong half-time show and the fact that the game took almost 3.5 hours to finish when regular games take about 2.5. Other than that, it was bliss.

Now that the all-star weekend is over, teams are back to the grind and you can damn sure bet that some moves will be made before Thursday’s deadline. I know the O’Neal/Marion trade went down and Tyson Chandler just got dealt to the Thunder, but I’m too tired to provide my 2 cents right now. If you’re really dying to know my take, holler forth. I’ll also try and hit you guys with that Colangelo article I said I was gonna post last week. I procrastinate, so what?

Anyways, what you guys really need to be doing is sending Sirmac an email telling him to send my ass to cover the All-Star game next year…it’ll be a business expense!

See you guys next week…

-Gliz