It’s hard to be excited about the NBA All-Star festivities when the players themselves are so strongly opposed. But, as we’ve seen with sports around the world over the past year, once the whistle or first pitch is launched, we tend to put all the stress and worry aside for a few hours to enjoy the spirit of competition among the greatest athletes in the world. planet.
This will again be the case on Sunday, when the Skills Challenge, the 3-Point Contest, the Slam Dunk Contest and the All-Star Game will take place on a compressed schedule to promote the safety of those involved. Despite the players’ initial confusion and disapproval of making an All-Star Game in the first place, most expressed joy and gratitude for being selected, and none – up to this point – declined the invitation.
This sets the stage for a star-studded night that may have everyone crying out to do it in one night for the rest of the time. Here are five bold predictions of what could be the strangest All-Star “weekend” that we will ever see.
Players like Mitchell – who now won several All-Star selections as a 6-foot shooting guard after being selected in the 13th overall – are fueled by disrespect, and the level of contempt pointed at him and the direction of Jazz is a high of Everytime. Just this week, Mitchell was fined $ 25,000 for publicly criticizing referees for not giving calls to Utah that other teams in the big market receive (our Brad Botkin pointed out that the numbers don’t exactly support that statement). The rant about the referees was followed almost immediately by LeBron James and Kevin Durant selecting Mitchell and his Jazz companion Rudy Gobert with the last two All-Star draft choices, with James providing the fact that he never played with John Stockton and Karl Malone in video games as a disconcerting reason for his choice.
All of this is a recipe for Mitchell to go crazy on Sunday. He has a great set of skills for the Game of the Stars, bouncing 3s backwards as easily as he shoots dunks. The fact that he will play against Team LeBron just makes him more likely to make an extra effort to prove that he deserves more respect from the national audience. And if LeBron is under the basket at any point when Mitchell has a clue for the painting, James will likely have to make a business decision to avoid getting wet, both literally and figuratively.
2. Bradley Beal’s conversations with other All-Stars will be out of proportion
It almost became an All-Star Weekend tradition. A player in the trading block has a conversation or exchanges glances of knowledge with another superstar and, suddenly, the rumors revolve. The name related to this season’s deal is Bradley Beal, which the Washington Wizards insists will not be traded, but is by far the potentially most attractive star available on the market. Interactions between the All-Stars will be limited due to the tight schedule, but surely Beal will share a conversation with someone like Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid and / or Jayson Tatum that will inevitably lead to rampant and irresponsible speculation.
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Unfortunately, we cannot look down on the rumor-mongers too much – the last two notable times this has happened, once between Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, and also between Anthony Davis and LeBron James, the stars have really come together. So maybe keeping an eye on Beal’s tête-à-tête on Sunday is a worthwhile activity after all.
3. Cassius Stanley will make a name for himself at the Dunk Contest
Stanley is my favorite to win the Slam Dunk Contest, but recent history dictates that judges don’t always choose the player with the best sink as the winner (* cough * Dwyane Wade * cough *). But I’ve been in love with Stanley’s athletics since I saw him hit his head on the table while he was a freshman in the California high school championship game. He became something of a grooming legend because of his leap and continued to show it off in his only season at Duke last year.
This is something with eyes on the edge, and he seems to jump equally high with one or two feet, which should increase the range of dips he is able to attempt. Stanley played exactly 23 minutes this season, so even Indiana Pacers fans may not know who he is right now. That will change on Sunday with his performance at the dunk contest, which should at least give him a chance to fight Shaquille O’Neal during the next round of “Who Does He Play?”
4. Elam’s ending will make us think again
The 2020 All-Star Game was the best we’ve seen in years, and this was due in large part to the implementation of Elam Ending, where the clock is turned off in the last four minutes and instead teams play until they reach a goal – usually adding eight points to the winning team’s score. It eliminates the need for incessant fouling at the end of the game that relentlessly drags the whole game even semi-fierce and, like baseball, gives the losing team the feeling that it is never really out of it.
Because of last year’s success, the NBA decided to run the Elam Ending for Sunday’s game, which will likely lead to another exciting and disputed ending. If it works again, many will question why we don’t use Elam Ending in all basketball games, a topic that our James Herbert recently discussed with Nick Elam himself. The ending makes a lot more sense than what we currently do on virtually all levels of basketball, so it will be interesting to see if another use of it in the All-Star Game makes the league consider running away from tradition and implementing Elam Ending full time at any moment.
5. The 3-point contest will be more exciting than the dunk contest
The main event of the All-Star Saturday night has always been the Slam Dunk Contest, with mixed results over the past two decades. We had epic clashes between Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson, and the 2016 masterpiece by Aaron Gordon and Zach Lavine. But we also had some absolute disasters, like Chris “Birdman” Andersen taking about 25 minutes to complete one of his dunks.
This year’s Dunk Contest has some things working against it. First, the list of contestants – despite my affinity for Cassius Stanley – doesn’t exactly make the blood boil. Second, the contest is in the range of the All-Star Game, like a friendly 9-year-old in the background, while fans refuel with 64-ounce nachos and sodas.
The 3-point contest, in contrast, consists entirely of All-Stars, including Stephen Curry. Even with Devin Booker leaving the festivities, you will have another All-Star as your replacement for Mike Conley. The 3-point shot has become fundamental in the modern NBA, and the league will continue the plot it represented last year, adding two six-foot shots behind the 3-point line, according to the distance most participants are thrown regularly. during games.
There is almost always drama reaching the last rack of almost every round, and these are the participants that we really care about, so it is safe to say that the 3 Point Contest will be more fun than the Sink Contest.