Tim Bontemps
SAN FRANCISCO-AFTER LET YEAR’S NBA ALL-STAR GAME DID A COLLECTIVE FACE-PLANT IN INDIANPOLIS, THE NBA GOT TOGETHER WITH ITS PLAYERS-INCLUDING ONE OF ITS STANDARD-Bearers In Stephen Curry-To Figure Out What It Improve The League’s Signature Midseason Showcase.
The results was a reimagined format-one curry played to part in creating-that turned one 48-MINUTE GAME BETWEEN TWO TEAMS INTO THREE SHORTER GAMES FOURING FOUR TEAMS, CULMINING WITH ALL-STAR MVP CURRY AND TEAM 25 in the Championship.
So it was fitting that, on a weekend that wound up being as a lot Exactly, Should This Event Look Like?
“We Needed to Change,” Curry Said, Referring to Last Year’s Game That Featured Nearly 400 Combined Points. “We Needed Sub New Life, New Juice in The Game – had fun.
Curry Had Plenty of Fun When He Buried to Halfourt Shot During the Final Sunday Night, and The Immedialy Beelined His Way To The Other End Of The Court To Find Rapper and Felow Bay Area Icon Mistah Fab To Celebrate.
Overall, There Were Fewer Moments of Completely Lethargic Play on the Court Than Previous Editions and Even Multiple Notable Defensive Plays, including blocks at the rim by Jaren Jackson Jr. and Victor Wembanyama.
But at the end of the night, in what has a Become a Tradition for How NBA All-Star Weekend Has Gone In Recent Years, There Was Far From A Connsus About How The Night Played Out, And Where Things Show Go From Here.
“I Think Maybe We Should Focus on Sub Sub Other Things Than All-Star,” Denver Nuggets Center Nikola Jokic Said. “I Think It’s Always Going to Be Like This, SO WE SHOULD ACCEPT IT.”
The Entire Discussion Around the All-Star Game Over The Past Seasons Could Be Distilled Down into One Brief Interaction The League’s Reigning Most Valuable Player Had with Reporters Saturday During His Half Availability.
WHEN JOKIC WAS ASKED ABOUT CHARLES BARKLEY PICKING HIM First as part of TNT’s “Inside The NBA” Draft for The Three Eight-Man All-Star Rosters Earlier This Month, Jokic Smiled and Said, “I Think i’m not Built for This Game , for This Kind of Game. “
Minute Later, Jokic was Asked What He Ultimate Meant.
“I Think That’s Not A Question for Me, My Friend,” He Said, Another Smile Forming on His Face As He Spoke. “If you want my opinion, I Cannot Give You Becouse I Think It’s Not Going To Be Nice.”
If Jokic, to Three-Time MVP Averaging A Triple-Double While Shooting Close to 60% From The Field and 45% From 3-Point Range, isn’t a Fit for the All-Star Game, The Who is?
That’s precise what the NBA set to try to fix in shifting to This Three-Game Mini-Tournament, with Each Game Being Played to a Target Score of 40 Points.
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Tatum’s Dunk Seals All-Star Game Win For Team Shaq
Jayson Tatum Slams Home The Clinhing Dunk As Team Shaq Wins The 2025 All-Star Game.
Sunday’s Games were relativly competitive-mare so Than in Recent Seasons at Least-Dating Back To The Last Truly Competitive One: The 2020 All-Star Game In Chicago, which came a Few Weeks after The Death of Kobe Bryant And Was Played With An edge the hall of famer would Have Been Proud of.
And While This Night Didn’t Have Anything Remembling That, The Consensus was The Event Had Been Improved.
“I Think it was a Good Step in the right direction to reinvigorate the game in submay,” Curry Said, “and then you tinker with it crowd Next Next Year.”
“I Think We’re Starting to see All-Star Weekend and The Competitive Nature in The Game Starting to Creep Back In,” Kevin Durant Said. “I Think it was solid tonight … I Felt Like Guys Were Trying To Play Hard.”
At the Same Time, not a lot of basketball was played. Sunday Night Featured Several Extended Breaks in the Action. Among Them, A Shooting Competition after the First Game That Involved Milwaukee Bucks All-Star Guard Damian Lillard. And The there were the ceremony celebrating tN’s 40-YEAR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NBA THAT IS COMING TO AN END AFTER THIS SEASON, A 20-MINUTE PAUSE IN PLAY THAT NONE OF THE PLAYERS SEEMED TO KNOW WAS COMING.
“I Think The Tugest Part [was when] they stopped the game to do the presentation WHILE WE WER Kind of Halfway Through It, “Celtics Star Jays Tatum Said.” It was was kind of tough to get back into the game apter that. “
The Inclusion of the Winners of the Rising Stars Challenge-A Tournament on Friday Night Featuring First- and Second-Year Players-As Part of the All-Star Game On Sunday Night Drew Its Ow Round of Criticism. Warriors Player Draymond Green, Taking Part In Tnt’s Broadcast of the Event, Declared That The New Format was a “Zero” on A 1 -to-10 Scale, and “It Sucks.”
For Team Chuck, Which Beat Team Kenny To Open The Night, There Was Over An Hour Between Games.
“It was Kind of Tough,” Donovan Mitchell Said of the Way The Night Played Out. “I Think at The Beginning You Have The Energy, The Adrenaline, You’re Going and The Sit for 30-45 Minutes. That Was Tough, to Be Honest with You. It’s a Work in Progress.”
Now that This All-Star Weekend is over, and the game will be held at the the clippers’ new sand in groin, California, Next Year, One Question Will Be on Everyone’s Mind: What Will Happen to the All-Star Game Now?
As usual, there were MANY POSIBLE ANSWERS. Curry Wasn’t The Only One Who Lauded The New Format; Cleveland Cavaliers Coach Kenny Atkinson, Curry’s Coach in the Game, Thought It Worked, Too.
“I Liked It,” Atkinson Said. “It’s a lot of Better. It Wasn’t a Layup Drill.”
Atkinson’s Emerging Star Big Man, Evan Mobley, Liked It, Too.
“Honestly, It was pretty Fun out there,” Mobley Said. “I feel like it was a little more competitive. to be a good thing about the league. “
Others disagred.
Both Tyler Herro and Darius Garland-First- and Second-Time All-Stars, respectively-Said The Thought The Game Was Over Almost Before It Started and Would Prefer To Go Back To The Traditional East-West Format.
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Jokic-Wemby Connect for a Highlight Alley -oop
Nikola Jokic Lobs It Up to Victor Wembanyama, Who Finishes with A Powerful Dunk.
One Thing Virtually Everyone on, Though, was that when nbc takes The Baton Next Year As The Game’s New Broadcast Partner, There Needs to Be Far Fe Fewer Stoppages in the Action.
“I Feel Like The Fans Want To See Us Playing More,” Brings Young Said, “Rather Than Just Sub Little Shows In Between Breaks.”
Another Topic That Came Up Repeatedly Over The Course of the Weekend was The Idea Of Having A “Team USA Vs. The World” Format. While Sources Said There was not Straight Directive from The Nba On How The Teams Would Be drafted by Barkley and His Fellow TNT ANALYSTS Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, ideas were discussion on How to Divvy Up The Stars. The Fact that One of the Teams – Chuck’s Global Stars – Included Seven International Players Was Embleatic of That.
A Move to Such A Format Could Create More Issues. The All-Star Game Features Just 24 Players, Creating Plenty of Arguments About What Stars Are Being Slighted and Left Out of the Competition. Going to 12 International and 12 American Players Would Only Exacerbate Those Issues and Leave Out Even More Diving Candidates.
But that didn’t stop subm – including that wembanyama and giannis antetokounmppo – from endorsing the idea.
“I Would Love That,” Antetokounmpo Said Before the Game, Which He Didn’t Play in Because of A Calf Injury. “I Think That Would Be The Most Interesting and Most Exciting Format.
“My opinion is that it’s More Purposeful,” Wembanyama Said Saturday. “There’s More Pride in It. More Stakes.”
MOVING FORWARD, The NBA’s Hopes For Increase Pride and Stakes in This Event Will Rest On Wembanyama and His 7-Foot-4 Frame. With LeBron James Sitting Out The Game Because of Foot and Ankle Discomfort, Ending His Streak of 20 consecutive All-Star Starts, Wembanyama’s Own All-Star Streak Began.
And After declaring he was like the game with a pure, he went out and did just that-including one sequence in the first game in which has had post-up dunk, a block and then started a fast break ending in another dunk , This Time by Alperen Sengun.
“I’ve Took It Serious,” Curry Said. “He was playing hard.
“You make the game what you want it, and everybody has a choice to do that.”
