The 2023 NBA All-Star Game May Have Been the Worst Basketball Game Ever
The 2023 NBA All-Star Game was not only the worst NBA All-Star Game ever, but it may have been the worst basketball game ever "contested"--and I use that word with hesitation--by high level players. Denver Nuggets Coach Michael Malone, who coached Team LeBron, made this statement after Team Giannis prevailed 184-175: "It's an honor to be here, and it's an honor to be a part of a great weekend with great players, but it's the worst basketball game ever played." Malone also admitted that he has no idea how to fix the game.
The NBA All-Star Game began its horrific slide to irrelevance several years ago (see game recaps appended to this article for more details), but yesterday the league's showcase midseason event descended to a nadir from which there may be no recovery.
At its best, NBA basketball is about the world's greatest athletes competing at a high level at both ends of the court while working together to help their team win. At its worst--and its worst was on full display last night--NBA basketball is about players flaunting their individual skills without any connection to team success while their "opponents" step aside and watch instead of competing on defense. The 2023 NBA All-Star Game was such an abomination that it is difficult to decide which moment was the worst.
Maybe it was when eight players stood off to the side for multiple possessions so that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown could play one on one. To be clear, this was not Magic Johnson near the end of his final All-Star Game with the outcome decided facing off against Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan for brief one on one skirmishes that were loaded with meaning at a time when we were not sure how long Magic Johnson would live, let alone if he would ever play pro basketball again; this was two players stealing the show in the middle of the game with the outcome not decided, and with the amount of money that various charities would receive yet to be determined based on which team won.
Maybe it was the times too numerous to count when one player drove down the lane and dunked with no defensive resistance.
Maybe it was the times too numerous to count when players jacked up half court shots--including several possessions at the end of the game when Team Giannis did not even need a three pointer to reach the target score. Why would a player shoot from half court when his team only needs two points, and when nobody has guarded the paint all night long? One time, 2023 All-Star Game MVP Jayson Tatum stepped out of bounds while stepping back to attempt a three pointer when his team only needed two points to win.
Kids are watching this trash and thinking that this is how basketball is supposed to be played: uncontested dunks followed up by half court shots.
Anyone who wants to put "advanced basketball statistics"--with their emphasis on dunks and three pointers, and their abhorrence of the mid-range game--on trial for destroying the game that many of us know and love should just submit the 2023 All-Star Game telecast as Exhibit #1 and then move for summary judgment. "Advanced basketball statistics" have played a major role in destroying competition--think "load management," the ostracism of post play and the midrange game, and the overemphasis on dunks and three pointers to the exclusion of other shot types--while also taking the fun out of the game. Competition is fun. Running up and down the court without playing defense is not competition, and it is not fun to watch. There is a place and value for using various basketball statistics in an intelligent way, but the "stat gurus" have been given way too much power and way too much influence. Watch a tape of any All-Star Game from the 1980s or any NBA Finals from the 1980s, and judge for yourself if the game was better and more fun to watch then or now.
The league should be embarrassed as a whole, and each player should be embarrassed. Sport is about competition, not exhibition. If the NBA is unwilling or unable to restore the All-Star Game to what it can and should be, at a minimum the NBA's official records should distinguish between statistics posted when the All-Star Game mattered and statistics posted when the All-Star Game became a farce, a sham, and a travesty.
Usually in a game recap, I cite individual statistics but yesterday's game was such a travesty that I refuse to give any publicity to the individual statistics other than to insist that the "All-Star Game record" 55 points that Jayson Tatum scored are only slightly more meaningful than 55 points that any of us could score while shooting uncontested shots in our driveways or at our local recreation center.
The All-Star Game scoring record should still be the 42 points Wilt Chamberlain scored in the 1962 All-Star Game. The inflated scoring totals posted by various players in the past several All-Star Games--during which the league abandoned the traditional East-West format and tampered with various rules in a futile attempt to persuade the players to actually at least pretend to compete for a few moments--belong in the fiction section of a library or bookstore, not in the NBA record book. Tatum, who I respect greatly for his regular season and playoff performances, did not score his 2023 All-Star points under the same conditions or rules that existed for Chamberlain and the other great players from the past several decades.
The decline and fall of the NBA All-Star Game has transpired for several years, and there may be no way to rescue one of the league's marquee events. Julius Erving eloquently described the problem as far back as 2006, at a time when the All-Star Game still had some semblance of competitiveness but was already heading in the wrong direction:
Today's game, some of these All-Star Games, players have figured out a way to allow guys to dunk the ball and not have it perceived as the guy dunking on somebody. When I was coming up, you rarely could dunk on people and people did not want to get dunked on, it was almost like being 'posterized' if somebody dunked on you. Guys tried their best not to let anybody dunk on them. Sometimes they would just grab you rather than let you dunk. That seems to be lost somewhere in what I see with a lot of the high wire act performances. It is almost like, 'I'm going to let the guy dunk. And I'm going to get far enough out of the picture so nobody is perceiving this as me being dunked on or being posterized.' I don't understand the mentality of just letting a guy go in there and throw it down and applauding it, if he's wearing a different colored uniform. It's just playing to the crowd but I think that the crowd would respect and appreciate a play being made when somebody is trying to contest it. I think it makes for a great photo-op and a great poster if somebody is there. I remember being in Madison Square Garden and going up for a dunk and Lonnie Shelton was there and my knees were up on his shoulders. He was trying to draw a charge, I guess. Looking at that shot, when somebody is there, it is poetry in motion. Just throwing the ball up and going through the motions, I guess guys don't want to get hurt. I like watching the dunk contests--but I don't like a game to turn into a dunk contest with no defense. That does nothing for me.
In the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, the teams combined to jack up 126 three pointers while attempting just four free throws. The league should just get rid of the All-Star Game, and replace it with a one hour show during which each player selected as an All-Star is provided with 90 seconds or two minutes to go on the court and do whatever uncontested dunks, three point shots, and fancy dribbling he would like to show off so that fans will buy his new signature sneakers. That is what the All-Star Game is about now, so the NBA should just be honest about that and stop pretending that this is actually any semblance of a competitive game between two teams trying to win.
Recent NBA All-Star Game Recaps:
NBA Formally Honors the 75th Anniversary Team, Stephen Curry Wins the All-Star Game MVP (2022)
"How much has the All-Star Game devolved from an actual competition featuring the league's best players to an exhibition of players demonstrating individual skills devoid of competition or team play? Free throws are a quick way to gauge physicality/defense. The 2022 All-Star Game included eight fouls, four of which were called in the fourth quarter, and Team LeBron shot 2-2 from the free throw line while Team Durant shot 7-7 from the free throw line. This season, NBA teams average a little over 21 free throw attempts per game, so it is obvious that the All-Star Game featured few fouls, few free throws, very little physicality, and token defense compared to a normal NBA game.
All-Star
Games used to be played much differently. In the first NBA All-Star
Game, the East beat the West 98-93 in overtime in 1954 with the East
shooting 36 of 44 from the free throw line and the West shooting 17-26
from the free throw line. In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain set an All-Star
single game scoring record (42 points) that stood for 55 years.
Chamberlain shot 8-16 from the free throw line, and his East squad shot
24-43 from the free throw line. The West, which won 150-130, shot 36-51
from the free throw line. Chamberlain's scoring record took place during
a competitive game, and the record stood until long after NBA All-Star
Games ceased to be competitive; his record is so exceptional that even
in an era during which it is much easier to score in All-Star Games only
two players have surpassed the standard that he set--and Curry did so
by making a bunch of uncontested three pointers.
"Giannis Antetokounmpo did not have the first perfect shooting performance in NBA All-Star Game history--Hal Greer shot 8-8 from the field en route to scoring 21 points and winning the 1968 NBA All-Star Game MVP--but he set the NBA All-Star Game record for most field goals without a miss (16), and he captured his first All-Star Game MVP by scoring a game-high 35 points as his Team LeBron routed Team Durant, 170-150. Antetokounmpo played just 19 minutes, so he scored nearly two points per minute. Most of Antetokounmpo's shots were lightly contested--if not uncontested--dunks, but he also shot 3-3 from three point range. Each team shot 3-5 from the free throw line as both teams spent most of the game not even pretending to care about defense. Perhaps the league and/or the players think that the fans want to see uncontested dunks and wide open three pointers, but I think/hope that true basketball fans want to see competition. A contested dunk is a great play; an uncontested dunk is just performance art."
"After
three quarters, it seemed that the new NBA All-Star Game format had not
inspired many players from either team to even pretend to play at a
fraction of their full capabilities. Fortunately, the fourth quarter--a
race to 157 points based on adding 24 points (in honor of Kobe Bryant)
to the 133-124 lead enjoyed by Team Giannis over Team LeBron at the end
of the third quarter--featured high level play as both teams looked
fully engaged: Team Giannis' Kyle Lowry seemed to try to take a charge
on every defensive possession, players from both teams contested almost
every shot, and the level of physicality ramped up to top notch regular
season levels, if not even first round playoff levels.
It is mystifying that most NBA players seem to need external motivation
to play their best in the All-Star Game, but with a substantial portion
of the weekend's festivities dedicated to the memory of
Bryant--including naming the All-Star MVP award for him--it would have
been a travesty for the players to just sleepwalk through the entire
proceedings. Kawhi Leonard is a pioneer of the less than commendable
load management scourge, but at least he always plays hard when he is on
the court. Leonard scored a game-high 30 points on 11-18 field goal
shooting (including 8-14 from three point range), grabbed seven
rebounds, dished for four assists, and received the first Kobe Bryant
All-Star Game MVP Award as his Team LeBron won, 157-155."
Kevin Durant Wins his Second All-Star MVP as Team LeBron Overcomes 20 Point Deficit to Defeat Team Giannis, 178-164 (2019)
"The All-Star Game sunk to such depths a few years ago that there were
even whispers that it might be discontinued. Instead, the league changed
the format from East versus West to a format in which the top two
vote-getters conduct a draft consisting of a pool of other All-Stars
selected by fans, coaches and media members. LeBron James faced off
against Giannis Antetokounmpo in this year's All-Star draft. Popular
consensus was that James, whose draft strategy seemed to be focused on
acquiring every major player who will be a free agent soon, got the
better of Antetokounmpo--but it did not look like that initially, as
Team Giannis led 53-37 after the first quarter and 95-82 at halftime.
Antetokounmpo scored a game-high 38 points on 17-23 field
goal shooting, including 10 dunks. He also had 11 rebounds and five
assists. He set the tone in the first quarter with 16 points.
Antetokounmpo's
Milwaukee teammate/All-Star teammate Khris Middleton added 20 points on
7-13 field goal
shooting, including 6-10 from three point range. Middleton scored 12
first quarter points.
To coin--or repeat--a phrase, it seemed like Team LeBron was in 'chill
mode' during the first half, but in the second half they exerted at
least some defensive effort and they rained down a barrage of three
pointers. Team LeBron outscored Team Giannis 96-69 in the second half
while shooting 22-49 from three point range. The teams combined to
attempt 167 three pointers during the game, compared to 108 two pointers
attempted.
Kevin Durant earned MVP honors by scoring 31 points on 10-15 field goal
shooting (including 6-9 from three point range) while also contributing
seven rebounds. He had 11 points on 4-4 field goal shooting in the
fourth quarter. Durant's Golden State teammate Klay Thompson finished
second on Team LeBron with 20 points on 7-16 field goal shooting (6-12
from three point range) and he had eight rebounds and four assists as
well."
LeBron James Earns Third All-Star Game MVP as Team LeBron Outlasts Team Stephen, 148-145 (2018):
"LeBron James scored a game-high 29 points on 12-17 field goal shooting,
grabbed a game-high tying 10 rebounds and dished eight assists as Team
LeBron defeated Team Stephen 148-145 in the first year of the NBA's new All-Star selection format;
instead of the traditional matchup featuring the Eastern Conference
facing the Western Conference, a team of All-Stars picked by LeBron
James faced a team of All-Stars picked by Stephen Curry. The NBA tweaked
the All-Star Game in the wake of several subpar All-Star Games,
culminating in last year's farce.
Before the 2018 All-Star Game, James already held the NBA All-Star Game
career scoring record (314 points) and yesterday he surpassed Julius
Erving (321 points) to set the record for most points scored in ABA and
NBA All-Star Games combined. Bob Pettit (1956, 58, 59, 62) and Kobe
Bryant (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011) share the record with four All-Star Game
MVPs each, while James joined Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and
Shaquille O'Neal as three-time winners; James previously earned the
All-Star Game MVP in 2006 and 2008."
The NBA All-Star Game Has Become a Farce (2017):
"The Western Conference's 192-182 victory over the Eastern Conference is
without question the worst NBA All-Star Game that I have ever watched.
Other than the MLB All-Star Game that ended in a tie (and many NFL Pro
Bowls of recent vintage) it may be the worst major professional league
All-Star Game ever. When the reigning two-time regular season MVP
literally lies down on the court instead of attempting to play defense,
you know that the event has jumped the shark."
Labels: 2023 NBA All-Star Game, Team Giannis, Team LeBron
posted by David Friedman @ 11:00 AM
