SAN FRANCISCO — Welcome to the Bay Space, the place the NBA was the most important loser of all.
On a principally lovely weekend in a principally lovely metropolis, the league managed to show its All-Star Recreation into something however a showcase of the most effective basketball gamers on the planet. Everybody from Golden State Warriors star Draymond Inexperienced to comic Kevin Hart spent the weekend crapping on the product — even throughout the sport itself — turning what was purported to be a celebration of the game right into a joke.
LOSER: The NBA
We in all probability ought to have identified it was headed that approach when Anthony Edwards was requested in regards to the exhibition’s new format and stated, “I do not actually know an excessive amount of about it.” He didn’t take part within the four-team match. Nor did LeBron James. Neither allowed the league time to subject a substitute.
“It is simply who can run sooner, who can hit extra 3s; it’s no substance,” Inexperienced stated on Saturday of the game that has paid in extra of 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} over the lifetime of his profession. “I believe it’s totally boring.”
On Sunday, Inexperienced doubled down, declaring the brand new format “ridiculous” and a “zero” that “sucks.”
It was not that the brand new format didn’t work. The basketball was extra aggressive than it has been in years, a minimum of initially. It’s that the NBA made every thing however the video games a centerpiece of the evening.
There’s one other method to interpret what Inexperienced stated, however he is not going to need to hear it: The game requires extra athleticism and extra talent than ever, and at 34 years previous he can now not make the identical affect.
The league might have celebrated that athleticism and talent, however as an alternative they handed a microphone to Hart, who spent the primary sport of the match complaining to the group about “large males jacking 3s.” You might really feel the vitality being sucked from the world with each criticism levied towards the sport.
It’s the identical critique that Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal have levied towards the league, creating an echo chamber that features everybody who watches “Contained in the NBA” on TNT. I’ve already written at size about this topic. That is nostalgia for a time that by no means was. Capturing is just not ruining the sport. Speaking about capturing ruining the sport is ruining the sport. Allow us to simply benefit from the sport that we love.
As an alternative, the NBA paused its championship sport 12 factors into the competitors to current the TNT crew with some parting presents, as in the event that they had been leaving for good. They’re simply shifting to ESPN subsequent season. The interruption felt prefer it lasted for a number of hours and sucked no matter vitality remained from the constructing.
That Stephen Curry gained MVP of the video games in his hometown turned an afterthought. Take into consideration that.
If solely the league had turned the microphone over to its biggest stars, since Curry stated it finest: “I do not need to examine it to another period as a result of the world has modified. Life is totally different. The way in which individuals devour basketball is totally different. It isn’t going to appear to be it used to. However it will probably nonetheless be enjoyable for everyone.”
WINNER: The G League
Any person needed to inject some life into the All-Star festivities, and if NBA gamers weren’t going to do it, their G League rivals had been actually prepared, finally proudly owning the primary two nights of the weekend.
Within the second semifinal of Friday’s Rising Stars showcase, towards their rival NBA prospects, G League wing Bryce McGowens buried a game-winner in a 40-39 upset. Despatched house had been NBA gamers Amen and Ausar Thompson, Toumani Camara, Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington, Julian Strawther and Matas Buzelis.
The G Leaguers additionally took a 12-8 lead within the first-to-25 closing sport of the night, which prompted Stephon Fort and firm to save lots of the NBA from appreciable embarrassment. The San Antonio Spurs rookie scored or assisted on 18 of his crew’s 25 factors, ending the very actual risk {that a} group of G League gamers might need superior to face three eight-man groups of All-Stars in Sunday’s match.
On Saturday evening, the G League’s Mac McClung, who’s on a two-way contract with the Orlando Magic, gained his third consecutive dunk contest, defeating Fort, Buzelis and fellow NBA participant Andre Jackson Jr.
LOSER: Oakland
The NBA hosted its All-Star follow and media availability, in addition to its annual HBCU sport, on Saturday on the former Oracle Enviornment in Oakland. The league introduced its vitality to the constructing for the primary time for the reason that Golden State Warriors left Oakland for Chase Middle in 2019. Fan help was vigorous, particularly in distinction to crowds in San Francisco for Friday’s Rising Stars Recreation and Saturday’s abilities competitions.
Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard grew up in Oakland, the place residents have seen the Warriors, A’s and Raiders depart lately. It struck him how empty that space on his aspect of the Bay Bridge feels.
“Rising up shut by right here, trying on the Coliseum and seeing Oracle and the way useless it’s, when there was a lot vitality in it once I was a child with the Raiders, the A’s, the Warriors being right here, live shows, AND1 Mixtape tour coming by way of right here, Globetrotters,” he stated, “I keep in mind rather a lot about this parking zone.”
Lillard wished to make sure the NBA hosted occasions in Oakland, and whereas the league did maintain its Saturday afternoon showcase there, it might’ve been good to see that vitality gasoline the 3-point and dunk contests. Ultimately, the NBA’s transient go to was a reminder of how a lot town has been robbed of its sports activities historical past.
“How do you convey some kind of positivity again into Oakland,” added Lillard, “as a result of I really feel like having three main sports activities groups right here, regardless in case you’re a serious sports activities fan or not, it is one thing constructive that individuals within the metropolis might connect with and have as an expertise, proper right here in our yard. Hopefully we are able to all come collectively and work out a method to proceed to convey constructive issues to town of Oakland.”
WINNER: This man
LOSER: The dunk contest
Whereas McClung’s leap over a Kia might need represented the one biggest dunk within the contest’s historical past, and whereas Fort’s behind-the-back windmill 360 made the competitors shut, the occasion was once more a dud.
It wants star energy. There isn’t any query about that. It can’t be understated how quiet Chase Middle was as Buzelis and Jackson repeatedly missed dunks that some starrier participant might have made look simple.
Positive, within the aftermath of McClung’s third straight victory, Ja Morant, who was watching from house, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was sitting courtside, threatened to enter the dunk contest subsequent season …
… however neither participant dedicated to truly taking part. And if McClung’s second dunk contest victory final season didn’t persuade them to just accept duty for showcasing their sport, why would a 3rd?
Is it an excessive amount of to ask that, as a part of his $60 million annual wage, a star participant’s participation within the dunk contest is required upon request? Give us the NBA’s starriest high-fliers. See if they will beat McClung.
WINNER: The three-pointer
The three-point contest, gained this season by Tyler Herro in a shootout towards Buddy Hield, stays the most effective competitors of the night. Why is it not the ultimate occasion on Saturday? I get it. The dunk contest was once cool, however a minimum of there’s drama constructed into the 3-point contest, and stars usually are not afraid to take part.
For as a lot dialogue as there’s about there being too many 3s in at the moment’s NBA — and there was a number of it over the weekend as nearly each participant was requested about it — there have been some nice solutions on the topic, as gamers took it upon themselves to defend the talent that it takes to dial in from lengthy distance.
“That is the best way that I’ve seen the sport since I used to be a child,” stated Stephen Curry. “I like increasing my vary, however much more I like the work that goes into incomes and deserving that confidence. That is the message that I preach on a regular basis: I need all people to be impressed, in case you love basketball, to have the ability to shoot and get higher and stretch your vary. I might love you to be impressed to do this, however you have additionally started working at it, too. … If you wish to do this, then get within the gymnasium, get your reps in and earn it. I haven’t got any drawback with guys and groups capturing a number of 3s. Clearly, that is the best way that I play, and I like that issue within the sport, however you have additionally acquired to place the work in behind the scenes to take full benefit of it.”
Not everybody can dunk, however everybody can shoot a 3, and the NBA boasts the most effective to ever do it. We must always applaud that talent. Or maybe you’d fairly see extra of these inefficient midrange jumpers?
“The place [is the increase in 3-pointers] coming from? They don’t seem to be coming from below the basket,” stated NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “Roughly 50% of factors are nonetheless scored in that space. What you are seeing is a conversion from [long] 2-pointers to 3-pointers, and sometimes these longer photographs do take extra talent.”
LOSER: Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama
As Saturday evening’s festivities started, the very first members within the night — San Antonio Spurs teammates Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama — did their finest to undermine your entire weekend.
They tried to circumnavigate the foundations, failing to make any legitimate try and sink a single shot within the abilities competitors. (Why the occasion doesn’t require gamers to make a single shot is a separate problem.)
You needed to see it to understand how infantile it was.
It was apparently Wembanyama’s concept, although everybody figured Paul for the mastermind.
What was the purpose of this? To make a joke of the occasion? Mission completed.
WINNER: Charles Barkley
Prematurely of the All-Star Recreation, town of San Francisco tried to wash up its streets, basically wardening its unhoused inhabitants right into a small part of the downtown space. That has not prevented Charles Barkley from ripping town, calling it “rat-infested” and the “armpit of America” in latest weeks.
“If he ever goes out on this metropolis,” one bus driver informed me, “he is gonna catch some hell.”
Fairly the other, really. I noticed Chuck exterior TNT’s get together on Saturday evening, and spectators had been lined as much as greet him. He fortunately obliged. Maybe they’d gotten phrase that Barkley had pledged $250,000 to San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church, the place he spent a while feeding the homeless.
Addressing the difficulty, as Barkley inevitably did, is actually more practical than hiding it or criticizing it.
LOSER: The Dallas Mavericks
Although he refuted the idea, Silver entertained the concept the brand new Dallas Mavericks homeowners, led by Patrick Dumont, deliberately tanked the crew, buying and selling Luka Dončić, to maneuver the franchise to Las Vegas.
“I’ve completely no information or perception there have been any ulterior motives,” the NBA commissioner stated. “There is not any doubt in my thoughts that the Dumont and Adelson households purchased that crew to maintain it in Dallas. I’ve little doubt in any respect that they are dedicated to the long-term success of that franchise.”
Nonetheless, Silver stated, “I used to be shocked once I heard in regards to the commerce,” and “by way of anger inside the fanbase, I am empathetic. I perceive it. Dallas was within the Finals final 12 months, and as I’ve stated I like Luka very a lot.”
Even the commissioner was stunned by a commerce that thus far couldn’t have gone worse for the Mavericks. As Wembanyama affirmed, “Two weeks after, it is nonetheless the craziest commerce I’ve ever seen.”
WINNER: Muggsy Bogues
There are few extra entertaining sights within the NBA than seeing Muggsy Bogues subsequent to the sport’s giants:
And my man Dan Devine was proper:
I do not know if it qualifies as a scorching take, however I believe it’s cheap to imagine {that a} 5-foot-3 dude carving out a 14-year NBA profession is extra of a unicorn than a 7-foot man who can shoot 3s and stuff https://t.co/4e8tHXVGgW
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) January 9, 2025
LOSER: LiAngelo Ball
I don’t fake to be an knowledgeable in music, so let me flip this over to my colleague, Dan Titus, who insisted that the basketball player-turned-rapper be included among the many greatest losers on this checklist:
“LiAngelo Ball, aka GELO, introduced his debut hit single ‘Tweaker’ to the NBA All-Star stage, however neither he nor the Bay Space crowd had been prepared. The hooper-turned-rapper’s set had the pyrotechnics, an ode to the Huge Tymers and even an intro from his large brother Lonzo. Nonetheless, the faint cheers combined with boos despatched a transparent message — the NBA ought to’ve ‘tweaked’ the lineup for a extra polished act.”
WINNER: Tom Tolbert
Tom Tolbert averaged 7.2 factors and 4.1 rebounds for the Golden Sate Warriors within the early Nineteen Nineties, however his title is commemorated without end in Chase Middle, the place they paid homage to their longtime broadcaster.
A real Warriors legend.
LOSER: Self-driving vehicles
Empty Waymos had been all over the place in San Francisco. A dialog I overheard a handful of occasions:
“What’s that?”
“A self-driving automotive.”
“Would you ever get in a single?”
“Hell no.”
“Me neither.”
And … scene.
WINNER: Jalen Williams
“I really sweat,” stated the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder ahead. “I did not suppose I used to be going to sweat.”
Girls and gents, the 2025 All-Star Recreation.
Now can we get again to the precise basketball?
