Oh, boy. I was feeling under the weather tonight and sat in my comfy chair with a pot of tea. The remote was just out of reach so I just sat back and watched this. What a mess!
First up was the “Skills Challenge.” This sucked when I watched it a few years ago, and it sucks now. Not a thing has changed. Dribbling around cones? What is this, six tear old soccer practice? Then they run down the court and shoot a layup (!!!) then race to the other side and hit a three pointer. A high school kid would have as much of a chance to win this as an NBA guard.
The three point contest had all the star power. The Splash Brothers, Kyle Koerver having the greatest shooting season in NBA history, defending champ Marco Belinelli, and several others. All great shooters and deserving to be there. The first round was great, but as it narrowed down the field, the shooters got tired and started missing. Stephen Curry The Winner kept up the pace but all the others fell apart. Still, this was the highlight of the night.
The Dunk Contest. Awful. Two of the guys were 6’11". Sorry, I don’t get any thrill watching guys who can grip the rim standing flat-footed dunk. Nonetheless, they both sucked. The Greek guy from the Bucks missed all his dunks, and Mason Plumlee put up the biggest popcorn fart of a dunk I’ve ever seen. Zach Lavine and Oladipo were good, at least. Not that they needed to be. After the first dunk, they were both locks for the Final.
Oladipo failed at his second dunk, handing the trophy to Lavine. Lavine at least kept up his end of the bargain and finished with a very impressive dunk.
The one saving grace is that they cut out a lot of the fluff and kept things moving. That and watching Dr. J try to figure out how to use a tablet.
They need to just get rid of this night. At the very least blow it up completely and come up with something entirely different.
The dunk contest has mystique, but the thrill is largely gone for me. Zach Lavine’s dunks were pretty awesome, though. For whatever reason, everyone seemed to try some variation on a reverse dunk from the side. They should let the Phoenix Gorilla compete with a trampoline.
Kevin Durant challenged detractors of his All Star selection to play him one-on-one for his spot. That should be a thing on Saturday, one-on-one or two-on-two, or Horse.
I missed it - do they still have the contest with teams of current player, former player, and current WNBA player, where they have to do something like layup, free throw, 3-pointer, and half-court shot?
Dr. J is under the impression that mascot dunking ruined the dunk contest. I think what “ruined” it is, when it started, dunks were not that common; you certainly didn’t expect pretty much every high school team in the country to have someone who could dunk.
Here’s a thought: use a backboard that can be raised up, and then turn it into something along the lines of a high jump competition - who can dunk the ball on the highest rim. The only problem is, I can see somebody trying for an 11-foot dunk and come down wrong on his ankle.
As for one-on-one and Horse, both of these have been tried on NBA game broadcasts. In fact, one-on-one probably started becoming popular because of the ABC series in the 1970s (and CBS, if I remember correctly, did a HORSE competition for a year or two).
There are only so many dunks anyone can do, Vince Carter already did all the best ones perfectly back in like 2000. Once in a while someone like Lavine can put on a good show with their freak athleticism alone, but even for them there really isn’t anything new they can do. Four guys going at it every single year is going to be a snooze fest 9 times out of 10. You’d be better off getting amateurs to show off than NBA players.