NBA All-Star Weekend Disappoints Again

Courtesy of Abhay Siby Mathew

The NBA All-Star Weekend, designed to showcase the league’s top talents in a weekend filled with exciting events, took place from Feb. 16. through Feb. 18. this year. The weekend, however, has been the course of controversy for years now. Fans who tune in to watch continue to debate if the All-Star game can even be considered a real game with its lack of defensive effort, and this year has especially sparked debate regarding the biases of the Slam Dunk Contest judges. 

All-Star Game:

After six seasons of an All-Star Draft, in which the leading vote getters from the Eastern and Western conferences served as team captains and drafted their teams from the pool of all stars, the NBA reverted to its traditional East vs. West format. Much was made by the league office in the build up to this year’s showcase, with the league trumpeting the notion that this All-Star Game would be more competitive than the lazy-effort-filled snooze fests of recent seasons. The game also reverted from an Elam ending to its original four quarter format, with each quarter being twelve minutes. 

Although the All-Star game consists of the most esteemed and skilled players in the league, the exceptionally high final score of 186-211 in favor of the East can be explained by nothing other than a complete lack of defense. The game was just three points away from being the first ever 400+ point game, which is absurd considering the average score of an individual NBA team per game this season is only 115 points. While the game is intended to highlight the offensive skills of the selected players, the total absence of defense has left fans and players unamused and unsure that there is a chance of fixing the game. 

Considering this lack of defense, the offensive skill was quite laughable at times. The West, even with a team full of superstars, was only able to shoot 35% from three. The East was not much better, shooting 43% from three with an open look almost every time. How are the best players in the league failing to make the majority of their shots when they have nobody even defending them? Because they are not trying. Half of the three’s put up are shots put up from way beyond the arc that are meant to be flashy rather than skillful. 

Western Conference leading vote getter and 20-time All-Star LeBron James was asked about his thoughts postgame. He admitted that “Obviously, from a player’s perspective, it’s fun to get up and down, but at the end of the day, our competitive nature don’t like to just be able to have free-flowing scoring like that. The good thing that came out of tonight was that none of the players were injured, or came out of the game unscathed, how they were before the game. So, it’s a deeper conversation”. 

Despite all of the problems with the game, it did still have some notable highlights. Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks led the East to victory and won MVP with 39 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 assists. He managed to sink 2 half-court shots in the process, making it look easy and exciting the crowd. On the West, Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves amassed an impressive 50 points coming off of the bench. 

It is unknown how exactly the NBA will go about fixing this problem, if they do at all. The game had already been reverted to the East vs. West format this year, but that clearly did not do anything to fix the issue. Considering the amount of players and fans who have publicly complained about the lack of competitiveness, there is hope that something may change soon. 

Slam Dunk Contest:

The dunk contest goes as follows: each contestant has a timed 90 seconds and three attempts to perform a dunk of their choosing. The dunk is then scored by five judges, all of whom are former professional basketball players. The contestants get two dunks in the first round, and the two with the highest scores move on to the next round.

To get as close to a perfect score of 50 as possible, players have come up with some very athletic and impressive dunks in the past. Dunks like these are what made fans love the competition; Michael Jordan dunking from the free-throw line and Vince Carter flawlessly performing a 360 windmill dunk. However, fans have been quick to criticize the contest in recent years for the judging bias when it comes to who is dunking.

This year’s contestants were Jacob Toppin of the New York Knicks, defending champion of the contest Mac McClung from the Osceola Magic (NBA G-league affiliate of the Orlando Magic), rookie sensation Jaime Jaquez Jr. of the Miami Heat, and All-Star forward Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics. Jaylen Brown’s appearance in the dunk contest marks the first time an All-Star has participated since 2017.

Brown’s appearance, though seemingly intended to bring more talent into the contest, did just the opposite. In the first round, Brown received a score of 49.2 for a simple dunk with a glove on his left hand. This scored better than Toppin’s through-the-legs 360 and Matt McClung’s double-clutch reverse dunk. Fans and experts alike widely agreed that both Toppin and McClung’s first round dunks were far more impressive than Brown’s. 

After moving on to the next round, Brown received a score of 47.6 for a fairly unremarkable dunk over social media influencer Kai Cenat (who is already very short) sitting in a chair. This score was higher than Jaquez Jr’s dunk over 7’1” Shaquille O’Neil. 

In the end, McClung ended up winning with a perfect score of 50 for his reverse dunk over Shaq. However, it was by no means a blowout. Brown received a high score of 48.6 for a one-handed 360.

Fans and sports reporters alike have taken to criticizing the judges for their bias towards Jaylen Brown. Sports analyst Shannon Sharpe expressed his opinion on Brown’s dunk over Cenat, stating that “they should have [given] him a two…across the board. The man’s already three-foot-tall. You put him in a chair, now he’s 1’5” and Jaylen Brown dunked over him and he got 40-plus points”. 

It is very obvious that the judges are considering more than just the dunk when scoring, but also the reputation of the player. There is no reason why an all-star with mediocre dunks should score higher than G-League players and rookies who put on an impressive show. Ultimately,  McClung’s win in the contest was well deserved.