Digital Sports Desk

While We’re Young (Ideas) | ’24 NBA All-Star Weekend

BREAKING NEWS FROM SATURDAY NIGHT: The ups and downs, ebbs and flows of the annual NBA All-Star Weekend were on display Saturday night. The verdict for the NBA this year was another serious high mark.

Highlights of the night included a very competitive three point contest won by Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard who is now a back-to-back champion, defeating Atlanta’s TraeYoung on the final shot.

NY Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu set the bar very, very high by shooting an incredible round at the NBA three-point line and scoring 26 points (which included her hitting her first seven shots and 8-of-9 of the “money balls” which counted for two points each.

Under pressure in the single round of competition, Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors met the mark and scored 29 points to secure the victory and a ‘boxing or MMA-like” championship belt. Curry drained two perfect racks of five basketballs and then went three for five on his final rack of all money balls.

The end result was a significant ($55,000) donation by State Farm Insurance to benefit each player’s charity efforts.

In the final scene of the night, Mac McClung, the former Georgetown and Texas Tech guard, turned pro via the NBA G-League’s Osceola Magic (Orlando’s minor league club) became a back-to-back champion by defeating Boston Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown.

Brown brought out some of the classic Dominique Wilkins’ power dunks and fit them into a creative repertoire of well choreographed dunks. It wasn’t enough as McClung scored an amazing “50” on his final dunk of the night to take honors.

For an event that always seems to have some high notes and clinkers, Saturday night scored well and was a highly entertaining evening. Turner (TNT) Sports outdid itself with dozens upon dozens of well-placed cameras, super slo-mo replays and great commentary and back and forth humor – especially by Kenny Smith.

In the column below, you’ll read of other All-Star Weekend memories, noting – It was a great night from the couch and the home LED Hi-Def TV.

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – While I’m very accustomed to being on site and – in the case of this year -listing an Indianapolis dateline, it’s very nice and comfortable writing from Boston and watching the All-Star festivities from the couch.

It was 16 years ago tonight that I watched the NBA All-Star Saturday events from a couch, joining former NBA referee Bob Delaney and his wife, Billie, at their home in Florida after a 12-day tour promoting Bob’s first book – COVERT. The last couple days were in the NBA All-Star city – New Orleans – where we did hundreds of interviews and enjoyed the Thursday-Friday tip-off of a great event in one of the greatest American cities. Overall, we were exhausted but had a great time tuning in to watch.

This weekend, it’s quite the same. I’m scoring from home.

At his pre-event media availability, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stated that the league examined many of the intricacies of the All-Star Game and the league and its players – largely behind the experiences of new NBA Players Association executive director Andre Iguodala – have agreed to put the focus on the game of basketball.

Amen.

“We returned to the East versus West format and the 48-minute game format because we thought what we were doing was not working,” said Silver at his Saturday media availability. “I’d say people uniformly were critical of last year’s All-Star Game and felt it was not a competitive game. It was not a position held solely by the league. I think the players collectively recognized, as well, that it wasn’t what they wanted to see, either, that they had not put their best foot forward.

“I’d say Andre Iguodala now, who is the executive director of the Players Association, and a former player, shares that view with the league office; that we’re not necessarily looking for players to go out there as if it’s the Finals, necessarily, but we need players to play defense, we need them to care about this game.

“And the feeling was that maybe — and I’ll take responsibility for it … as you know, I used to run something called NBA Entertainment … that we’d gotten carried away a little bit with the entertainment aspect,” added Silver.

“By that I’m not just talking about the halftime or the intros, per se. One of the things we heard from the players, was on one hand now, ‘you’re telling us you want us to play this as if it were a real game, but there’s nothing about it that feels like a real game.’ You have us standing up on stage, operating through this draft (of players choosing sides). Then once the intros start, we get cold, we’re standing there forever, we don’t get to go through our usual routines. Then come halftime, you’re adding not just a little bit of extra time but a lot of extra time, so we get cold in the locker rooms.

“I think we sat down with the players and we listened to them, and we said, all right, we have to return to basketball, back to basketball, so to speak. It’s about the game. That’s ultimately how we’re going to be judged.”

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: It’s worth noting – ahem – that this columnist was fortunate enough to work 25 consecutive NBA All-Star Games, dating from 1982 to 2007 and attend another four as a media member for a grand total of 29 NBA All-Star Games. The line of demarcation was the 1984 NBA All-Star Weekend in Denver where the Nuggets’ organization encouraged the league to stage a Slam Dunk contest, reminiscent of the great ABA Slam Dunk Contest of 1976 when NY Nets forward Julius “Doctor J” Erving squared-off against Denver’s David Thompson – both Hall of Famers – for the greatest slams in basketball history.

That February, as Commissioner Larry O’Brien passed the torch to David Stern, the league paired the Slam Dunk with a valiant attempt to organize an “Old-Timer’s Game” which was very well received and began a long process for the league to proiperly reconnect with the players of yesteryear. Recognizing the opportunities ahead, we quickly switched the phrase from “Old Timers” to “Legends.”

The Legends Game made its way through the late ‘80s and early ‘90s until a couple serious injuries – to LA Lakers/Clipper great Norm Nixon and to Thompson – called for an end to the Legends Game and the introduction of other contests like 2Ball, the Skills Contest and the inclusion of WNBA Players into the various events. For the most part, a good time was had by all but certain weekends were much beter received than others. There was a definite ebb and flow, with the likes of Larry Bird (3-point king) and Michael Jordan (Slam Dunk champion) getting high praise for their participation.

In one man’s opinion, high points over the years included:

1. Jordan and Dominique Wilkins going mano-a-mano at the ‘88 Slam Dunk in Jordan’s home court Chicago Stadium.
2. Vince Carter dominating the Slam Dunk when the weekend was played in a rain-soaked Oakland in the Year 2000.
3. Bird, Craig Hodges, Mark Price and Peja Stojakovic shooting the lights out at various Three Point Contests over the years.
4. Spud Webb amazing the Dallas crowd and his peers with dunk after dunk to defeat his teammate, Dominique Wilkins.
5. The NBA at 50 celebration.
6. Dee Brown slamming it down with a blindfold on at the ‘91 Slam Dunk Contest in Charlotte.
7. Blake Griffin jumping over a car in the Slam Dunk leading to Dwight Howard popping a sticker high up on the backboard, then later blowing a candle out of a strategically placed cupcake on the backboard.
8. Of course, there were dozens of other highlights over the years, NYK Kenny “Sky” Walker reaching new heights in Houston – The Space City; Jason Kidd in the Skills competitions; The WNBA’s Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird proving they could compete at the highest level; among many others. (Feel free to add your suggestions in the comment section).

The greatest of NBA All-Star Weekends and my favorite, for sure, was the 1992 NBA All-Star Weekend in Orlando, when Earvin “Magic” Johnson returned from his abrupt and forced preseason retirement (HIV Virus) to lead the West to a decisive 153-113 victory, while gaining Most Valuable Player honors in an astonishing and emotional event.

Of course, Johnson would later play on the ‘92 Dream Team and eventually return for limited action in the NBA.

NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND in INDIANAPOLIS: Tonight, as noted, the NBA will return to its roots with an old-fashioned EAST vs. WEST all-star game. No more shenanigans with LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo choosing up sides. Thankfully, the league didn’t fold to pressure mounting for a USA vs The World contest, as that’s for the Olympic Games and Basketball World Cup, not an NBA mid-season exhibition that’s supposed to be fun. … That’s the one, “key” factor that everyone seems to overlook as they criticize the players for not competing as though its the NBA Finals. The weekend is a three-ring circus of events, parties, meetings, interview sessions, network media obligations and late-night hanging, and that’s encouraged as the norm. It makes it damn near impossible for the All-Stars to compete at a high level after a three-day gauntlet of commitments. … Over the years, the level of high competition only comes when the score is relatively close at the end of the third quarter and very close at the 6:59 timeout in the fourth quarter. Then, the players’ competitive spirits kick-in, the adrenaline flows, the coaches call for solid team defense and the stars shine. It’s somewhat cyclical. The league had a great experience the first time they tried the “Elam Ending” with a 157-155 thriller (2020 in Chicago), tacking on “24” points to the 133 points “Team Giannis” had accrued as of the end of the third quarter. With the clock turned off, and as fate would have it, “Team LeBron” kicked it in gear and outscored “Team Giannis” 33-22 down the stretch to win a very exciting game, much to the pleasure of Nick Elam, a professor from Ball State, who came up with the idea ((although his version called for a 35 point addition to the leading team at the end of the third quarter but the NBA shortened it to “24” in honor of the late LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his uniform number.

Tonight (Sunday night), the NBA will return to its East vs West roots created when the NBA All-Star Game began (1951 in Boston) – five years after the birth of the Basketball Association of America. The league considered the long history of the game of basketball in the State of Indiana, and decided to go the traditional route. Maybe it was the thought of coach John Wooden, or paying tribute the the love of the game at the high school and college levels. Regardless, the 2024 game will have no gimmicks, no choosing up sides – playground style. Just basketball.

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