The All-Star Game still fun, but losing rating
The All-Star Game still fun, but losing rating
Last weekend, the city of Charlotte was the host of the most exciting event for this time of the year, the All-Star Weekend, an event where rivalries are forgotten and everybody is like a huge family, the NBA family. The thing that we enjoy most throughout those three days is that we see the best players around the league hanging with each other, sharing stories, having a laugh, showing their human part, even if some of them doesn’t quite get along with each other during the season.
It all started, as usual, with the Celebrity Game, and we all had the chance to see Ray Allen running up and down the floor with a ball in his hands again. He showed us that the still got the range, even if he is a bit older now. In the end, Famous Los stole the show and the American comedian won the MVP award while scoring 22 points. Friday night continued with the Rising Stars game, Team World vs Team USA, a showcase of the promising future of the league, a game where everybody had some fun, but Luka Doncic seemed to have the most of it, as he was all smiles throughout the whole night.
Kyle Kuzma, on the other hand, messed around and got home the MVP trophy, scoring 35 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. Trae Young flirted with a triple-double, with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists while sinking in 6 threes, his speciality. On the other part, Ben Simmons with 28 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists and Lauri Markkanen with 21 points and 6 boards were the ones that remarked for Team World. Obviously, all these numbers are not representing anything in special, as this is only a friendly where the main goal was to have as much fun as possible.
The final score was 161-144 in favor of Team USA. Saturday kicked off with the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver who addressed to the media ahead of the All-Star Game. He showed us some interesting things, such as the “future of jerseys”, where the fans will have the opportunity to change the name and the number from a jersey with a mobile app. As the presentation continued, he announced that NBA will host a 12-team African league in partnership with FIBA, and the action will begin in January 2020, with an already existing team from Africa having a chance to qualify in the league. It will be named the Basketball Africa League. This was maybe the biggest headline of the weekend, as the game of basketball can grow a lot more with this idea, as a lot of good players currently in the league are coming from there.
The Skills Challenge was the next event of the night, having players like Doncic, Kuzma, Tatum or big mans such as Nikola Jokic and Nikola Vucevic testing their ball handling and shooting skills. Of course, nobody seemed to take it too seriously, except maybe Trae Young, who ended up losing in the final against Jason Tatum, who threw in a bank-shot from beyond the half court to beat Trae, while he was already in front of him, shooting from the 3 point line.
Maybe the most awaited event of the weekend, except the All-Star Game, was about to begin while the league sharpshooters were warming up for the contest. A lot of people thought that the Curry brothers will battle against each other in the final, but Steph’s brother, Seth, didn’t live up to the hype and he exited the contest from the first round, alongside with Damian Lillard, Dirk Nowitzki, Khris Middleton, Devin Booker, Danny Green and Kemba Walker. Steph Curry advanced to the final round with 27, Buddy Hield with 26 and Joe Harris from the Brooklyn Nets, with 25. It was only the beginning of what was yet to come as they warmed themselves up a little bit in the first round. Coming into the second, Kings’ sharpshooter Buddy Hield cooled off a bit and he only managed to score 19, but the ones that lit up the place were the other 2 contestants left.
Joe Harris began the first three racks on fire, sinking 12 in a row after he missed his first two shots. It was kind of impressive, given the fact that not much people even knew who Joe Harris is before this contest, not to even mention that somebody would’ve expected him to win it all. After all his money balls went in on the final rack, his score was at 26. Steph Curry came right back at him with 9 straight to open his round, but cooled off a bit at the top of the key and that gave Harris some advantage, because, at the last rack, where the money balls were, Steph needed all 5 of them to go in, in order to tie Harris’ score, but he only managed to get 4 and therefore he lost the contest even if he made more shots than his opponent in total, the money balls saved Harris, who ended up as the winner and stole the show. Next up was the Slam Dunk Contest, the most dynamic contest of the weekend, and even though the dunkers present in it were not all necessarily well known throughout the league, they tried to put on a show. Dennis Smith Jr., John Collins, Miles Bridges and Hamidou Diallo were the participants in this year’s dunk contest. The member of Oklahoma City Thunder, a player that only gets 11,4 minutes per game, came out of nowhere and won the contest. Hamidou Diallo’s most appreciated dunk was the one over Shaquille O’Neal, ending it with the famous Vince Carter elbow in the rim.
After all these contests and the media conference presses held throughout the weekend, the main event was about to begin, as Team Giannis took the challenge against Team LeBron. The first half was all about Team Giannis, and Antetokounmpo seemed to be running away with the MVP trophy this year, as he started the game strong with five dunks in a row. By the half, his team was up by 13 points and he already had 20 points on 10/12 shooting, including the highlight of the game which implied the alley-oop threw off the floor from Steph Curry over Kevin Durant. The second half, though, looked a little bit different, as Team LeBron made a bit of a comeback while Kevin Durant made some threes in the fourth quarter to give them the lead until the final whistle. He ended up winning the MVP with 31 points and 7 boards, while Giannis Antetokounmpo was the one who leads his team with 38 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists, but fell short of winning the trophy because his team lost the game. To wrap it up, it was an exciting weekend, the fellas looked like they enjoyed it at their fullest, and even though this All-Star Game joined the one from 2008 and 2010 as the lowest TV rating since 1990, suffering an 11% dip in viewers from last year, it was fun to watch all these superstars that are battling against each other all year, be like a family throughout the whole weekend.
Andrei Dilean, info@brainbasketball.net
The All-Star Game
