Condensed Thoughts From All-Star Weekend

Instead of doing a big wordy column about the All-Star Weekend, I just wanted to give some thoughts about different people involved with the weekend. I guess it would look like #HOTALLSTARTAKES, but whatever, enjoy.  

All-Star Game - The game was fantastic. I realize defense did not get played much at all, but that's exactly what you want in this game. TNT's Reggie Miller described it as 'The world's greatest pick-up game' and I think that's the best way to describe. I also think this is the ultimate 'Give the people what they want' game where all that is needed is big dunks, points and fun combinations.

Kyrie Irving - Big game for Kyrie as he continues to be one of the young stars of the game in terms of a marketability standpoint, but now is the time Kyrie needs to start getting some victories under his belt. All of his Pepsi ads and now an All-Star Game MVP trophy are good, but it does not mean shit in the grand scheme of things. Cavs need to do something to ensure their star player does not get away in the coming years like LeBron James.

Skill Competition Duos - Saturday had a ton of faults which we will get to some of them in this blog post, but the skill competition adding the teams was awesome. I almost think they could add one more team to the mix or make it a complete relay with teams of three. There are a lot of things the NBA can do moving forward with this aspect of All-Star Weekend.

John Wall - Since he is sort of a quiet dude, does not do many commercials, casual fans are not really on board with Wall. After Saturday night, I think people are on his bandwagon more so than ever before. We talked on the podcast a couple weeks ago whether you want Wall or Irving and this seems especially given what happened at All-Star that this could be the next great rivalry. Maybe Cleveland can make some noise and be the sixth seed this year... Naaaah.

Blake Griffin - Sure he had a ton of dunks so everybody will act like Griffin did what he normally does, and while that's true, this continues Blake's big run in Feburary. We talked about it in the Roundball Wrap-up, but Griffin continues his hot month even if all he did was throw it down. I keep telling people how he is making a push at being one of the better all-around players in basketball yet people just keep throwing shade at him. Okay.

Giannis' Baby Bro - Thanasis is the Johnny Drama to Giannis' Vincent Chase.



Money Ball Rack - This is pretty much won Marco Belinelli the 3-point contest and it is complete BS. If it were not for the 3-point racks, he does not get to his dominant tie-breaker round. Marco might be the most obscure 3-point contest winner. Somewhere Jason Kapano gleams when you say it wasn't him.

Damian Lillard - I would say this was a sub-par weekend for Lillard. He won the Skills competition which is good, but he did nothing in the other events. No one came away from All-Star talking about Damian Lillard which is a shame because he is a good player but also a reason why people might stay away from doing everything events.

Dunk Contest - Kazz already covered it this morning. He is completely right.

Charles Barkley's hangover - No one has looked more hungover on television than Sir Charles. I am not mad at him, I get it but good God man, get some better cures for the hangover.

Dunk Contest Disaster

Like the end of my first relationship with a rude and swift stomach punch, NBA Dunk Contest ended abruptly and without emotion. Boos echoed down from the “Smoothie Center” rafters, as the players stood awkwardly around Nick Cannon. This was not the ending that anyone was looking for to fire them up before heading out on a Saturday evening.

We can all agree the ending of the Dunk Contest was a giant, horrific scab on the face of an otherwise successful first All-Star Saturday for the new NBA commissioner, Adam Silver. The event has been under scrutiny, as interest in the dunk contest seems to rise and fall yearly. Dunk Contest used to be the pinnacle of the weekend. Winning it absolutely meant something for the winner and his team. At its best, winning the Dunk Contest cemented a legacy for the individual. It was a competitive event showcasing athleticism that doubled as bragging rights for your team.

But that's like your Grandpa telling you a story, 'Back in my day, the dunk contest meant something.' Superstars today don’t feel the same pressure Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan felt to win the award, and coupled with the fact it is harder now to impress people with dunks than it was in the early 90's. An NBA player cannot use the same dunk that someone else did in years prior. That unspoken rule did not apply 25 years ago. Twice, Jordan won the contest with his own variation of the free throw line dunk. Last year, former New York Knicks forward James White could have done his between the legs dunk from the free throw line and still lost. Most of the dunks that happen in today’s event, would seem borderline incomprehensible when this event was super in its heyday. Dunk creativity has skyrocketed, and this new reality has definitely hurt how people perceive today's contest. Often negatively.

Another common knock on the All-Star weekend is how buddy-buddy the league has gotten, a perfect example of how AAU has improved league camaraderie while simultaneously making the pundits argue the game has gone soft. Whatever the matter, there is no denying that tempers don’t flare and bodies don’t fly quite like they did in the 80’s and 90’s. When you talk to any NBA fan, it was those decades seeming to warrant the most amount of respect from the casual fan. Fair or unfair, that is the level of nasty competitiveness, people seem to be looking for.

For All-Star Weekend, NBA decided to add more of a competitive flair to things in an attempt to revive Saturday in an effort to pit the East vs. West. In a season that injuries have stolen players like Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant and Russell Westbrook, the regular season thankfully been saved by the individual greatness of LeBron James and Kevin Durant. As the media has carefully orchestrated a way from these two friends to have bad blood, their fictional rivalry would serve as a perfect parallel for the new All-Star format. LeBron Vs. Durant. East vs. West.Whatever the case, it was clear to me the league is trying to bring back any semblance of bad blood to help boost ratings. And honestly, I am all on board for that plan. The new format did not bothering me one bit. In fact, I thought it was working. I found myself cheering a little harder then usual. But then the Dunk Contest happened....

The Freestyle round was different, but unique. I had not seen that before, and thankfully, they let the Eastern Conference team of Paul George, John Wall and Terrence Ross trot out there first. They were eloquent, barely missed any dunks, and put on a show. Did I have a problem with the way it was graded with three NBA legends holding up East or West? Yes, but at least for this part of the night, grading did not bring to question any doubt within the competition, because the East team showed up, and showed out.

Unfortunately, the end of the first round also is when the door can start to swing open to criticism. The grading system sucked, as my buddy Ryan texted me, “I want a mutha f$%#$ score out of 10”.  He could not be more right. Again, I enjoyed the East vs. West moniker, but why not just still rate every dunk and then take averages and have that serve as the decider? That would work just fine, right? America likes numbers. We don’t care that TNT can afford iPads, and only the really stoned ones watching forgot which player was in the Eastern and Western Conference. So we don’t need to vote that way. NBA taking away one of the key cornerstones in the dunk contest is a massive oversight. 

And of course, the judging was just the first complaint. My next one although smaller, is to please rid the event of props. I don’t need to see a “knighting” ceremony led by Shaquille O’Neal, because simply jumping over him will speak for itself. I don’t need Drake coming out with a backwards snapback, because that can arguable lose Damian Lillard a chance at winning his “Dunk Off”. DeMar DeRozen, who I feel is the leagues best dunker, declared a few years back that he would not participate in the event again until the props are dropped, and quite frankly, he is right on the money. Terrance Ross won the Dunk Contest last year, not using props. Athleticism is all we want to see as fans.

Which brings us back to the start. The slap in the face. The punch in the gut. The fact we did not get a final round. It was tragic. Fans and players alike were duped, as we all waited for the final round. The winners of the round two “challenges” were supposed to have a final round to declare the real winner. But the NBA had other plans. And we all lost.

And we all watched the Drake Sprite Commercial.

If it wouldn’t have been for such an unfortunate ending, I wouldn’t have been forced to write this, but we were all cheated. Everything the league pushes on to us is that this is a competition worth watching. Dominique said it like 55 goddamn times. But on Saturday night, the dunk contest was a waste of my time. We did not get to see who really won. John Wall was voted winner, but I’m not even sure. They never showed me a graphic. Graphics are an easy part of the business, and something should have been produced. Nick Cannon stumbled through the award ceremony with everyone in a state of confusion.

As an NBA advocate, it embarrassed me. And I hope next year, East vs. West moniker aside, they don’t short us a round of competition because nobody has time for that. This format needs to be changed. If they don’t figure it out, the precious viewers they seek will diminish, and the only savior would be finding a way for LeBron and KD to square off.  

I have confidence something will happen. I am not saying those two powerhouses will square off, but something will draw us back next year.

I  hope that something is getting graded out of 10.

May the wind be at your back,

~Andrew 

NBA's Attempt to Grow Giannis Antetokounmpo's Brand.

When Giannis Antetokounmpo entered the league, the expectations were not very high for him. Everyone
saw him as raw talent needing time to develop in the league. Many Milwaukee Bucks fans were pleased with Anteokounmpo being an eighth or ninth man off the bench getting valued minutes and learning how to play the game while contributing a little bit as well. No one saw this coming from the rookie out of Greece. Anetokounmpo will now be involved with two All-Star events as he will be in the Rising Stars Game on Friday night along with the Skills competition Saturday night. The National Basketball Association knows they want to push Giannis and build the Milwaukee team brand harder than ever before in the Internet era.

Honestly, none of this would have happened if the Bucks were a competent basketball team. If Milwaukee with their veterans like O.J. Mayo, Caron Butler and others played .500 basketball, I have a hard time seeing Anetokounmpo making this much of an impact. When Milwaukee had injuries to begin the season, head coach Larry Drew's hand was forced to play Giannis with extended minutes. He responded to the trial by fire with great passion for the game including some big performances. Drew continued to play Antetokounmpo and it has been history since then.

For the season, Anetokounmpo is averaging seven points a game with four and half rebounds a game. The numbers do not jump off the page yet he always seems to fill up the stat sheet with points, steals, rebounds, blocks and assists. But more important than his scoring or anything in the stat sheet is he is beloved by the fanbase. Milwaukee has its first fan favorite in a long time. Just like Milwaukee Brewers when Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder were starting to develop in true talents, kids had to have their jerseys and shirt jerseys. The same thing is happening right now with Giannis. This summer, over 50 percent of kids will have something on their body saying 'Antetokounmpo', hell half adults will have something on their body too.

Best thing for the city of Milwaukee is this is not a localized love. Giannis is loved all over the Internet. He is the golden child of NBA Twitter where everyone fawns over cool stuff Anetokounmpo says on Twitter or what he might do on the court. For example, he had over 2,000 retweets for proclaiming his love for smoothies earlier this season. Speaking of which, if a Milwaukee smoothie place has not come up with 'The Giannis', they are doing it wrong. NBA more so than any other professional sport pays the closest attention to what goes on with the Internet. Having Giannis for two nights of NBA All-Star Weekend will be beneficial to them as people want whom already love the guy and he will gain fans in the process whom have not watched a Milwaukee game all season long (Do not blame those who have not seen the Bucks all year).

Remember, this is only the second time a forward is competing in the skills competition and the other one is ... LeBron James. Let that soak in. Also with the NBA's savvy international presence, they know Antetokounmpo can be the first Mediterranean star capitalizing on another part of Europe, they have not been able to get in with original talent. Greece has a huge basketball following yet there is not been a star out of Greece or Italy yet. The closest thing to it is the wealth of talent out of Turkey yet Greece and Turkey mix about as well as tuna fish and peanut butter. Greece needs its own star and this is what Giannis brings the NBA. I would be stunned if Milwaukee does not play an exhibition game next season in Greece or somewhere near it. I can almost guarantee that will happen because it is clear to me the NBA wants to build Giannis's hallmark.

Will the growth of the admiration for Anetokounmpo bring a new arena to Milwaukee?  Honestly, there should be belief this will only help things. Investors might be more interested in the Bucks at a low price knowing there is a potential star with a huge following from Milwaukee and around the world. It is Giannis' world and we are just living in it.

Charlie.