Crowded around a room, awaiting the glorified and relatively mundane Saturday of All-Star weekend, I wondered what it meant to win one of the many events of the night. Was it simply an attempt to inflate a player’s ego and give them material to use when joking of who is better? Or did it distinguish a player from actually being a level beyond his peer’s abilities? That is the main point because the NBA doesn’t have any true reasoning in choosing these events. In an entertainment starved age lets do the fans justice by providing some substance rather than just some glitz.
For example, last night during the slam-dunk contest there was maybe one truly original dunk that got the fans excited. Even then it was a watered down excitement that only came about because of the low amount of splendor beforehand. It was like the dining hall serving London broil, it was surely not quality but not only did I eat it, I ate a lot of it. To get back on track on this whole slam-dunk worriment, I thought the contest leaves the fans with another year of hyped up expectations that inevitably fail. They keep on tweaking the event with little props and changes in the format but it just hasn’t done the job. We all know the excitement from watching videos from the late 1980’s of the slam-dunk contest. Where real “flight” was born and where classic videos are shown on NBATV to show fans what the contest used to look like.
So the smart-mouth writer must have some sort of solution, right? The claim that dunks can’t be spectacular anymore is clearly wrong. I do grant credence to the theory that dunks can’t expand to a certain point. The human body can only do so much so sometimes the only way to create the spectacular is through the rare special players that can do freakish things (Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, Nate Robinson, etc…).
James White showed us in some clips of him participating in a European dunk contest that he was still able to put fans in a frenzy over a dunk. It shows that creativeness is not dead but its tough for a player to out-think history and put their talents on display in the perfect fashion. Creativeness mixed with originality is the biggest calling card from the fans. Higher profiled names might change the excitement but I think most fans just want to see more effort being put forth. White was favored to win the contest but he wasn’t even able to practice his dunks because of the aches and pains of being 30. There has to be some sort of practice runs for players as fans don’t want to see a failed dunk seven times in a row, no matter how fantastic it may have looked if it landed.
The second issue I have is that basketball is the most relatable and exciting sport we have to watch. It is based on school grounds and parking lots where respect and idolizing of athletes lay. We want to imagine hitting last second shots and we want to see our favorite athletes do them. We also want to see who is better.
So lets just combine all of these simple needs into a little competition called the one-on-one round robin tournament. You let players choose fellow all-stars to play in a game of one-on-one and you play to a score of 11. Who wouldn’t want to see Carmelo Anthony play Kevin Durant? Watch LeBron James prove his dominance against the likes of Kyrie Irving or Kobe Bryant? This would easily be the most viewed event of all-time and would finally prove some semblance to who is the “better” player. Talking media heads would have a field day talking about the games and it would shed a light on the history of the game. Showing how so many youngsters get the confidence and ability to start playing basketball. Where respect and pride are everything.
Are the NBA player’s egos to delicate to handle this event? Possibly. I can understand why a player might be hesitant to participate because it is rigorous and could be seen as blow to their possible perceived “respect” among players and might count against their final legacy. The players don’t make this decision though, and for an industry that tries to expand and market the game, this seems like a layup. Do what’s best for the fans Mr. Stern, and let them see some fun. It’s about time.
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