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This weekend, we made a great basketball memory. But first, let’s talk about everything that tried to drag it down.
ASG Snubbed Itself
Be better than the Pro Bowl
I never wanna sink into complaining about this stuff, but the 2023 NBA All-Star Game was a mess.
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Jayson Tatum set the All-Star single-game record for points (55) without anyone caring, and recorded the defensive play of the day: forcing a shot clock violation against Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown. And by forced, I mean Brown just forgot the clock was about to expire. The evening’s highlight was Nikola Jokić picking himself for LeBron’s team to avoid being the last selection.
People in the arena were bored. A lot of us basketball nerds were bored. And, while nobody is expecting Game 7 of the NBA Finals, we should at least expect the NBA’s celebration weekend to be punctuated with something more competitive than an open scrimmage. The NBA is in danger of this weekend becoming irrelevant. Where is the product worthy of everybody’s time?
There was no shortage of feedback from participants:
Brown described the contest: “That’s not basketball.”
Michael Malone said it’s the worst game of basketball ever played. Do you realize how many bad basketball movies this game is therefore worse than?
Want everyone to take it more seriously? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander says, “Money talks.”
And above all else: Please, NBA, I beg of you. Stop throwing Karl Malone out in front of us. It’s an easy enough Google search to figure out why this is inappropriate.
The Latest From Shams
The Cavs and five-time All-Star Kevin Love agreed to a buyout this past week, and — as The Athletic first reported on Saturday, during an otherwise slow news weekend — Love has confirmed he’s headed to Miami.
A quick rundown:
The Heat rank 26th in offensive rating, way down from finishing 12th last season and on course for the team’s lowest since 2018-19. Miami is 28th in 3-point percentage (33.4 percent) after leading the league in 2022.
Love is shooting 35.4 percent from deep this season, including nearly 40 percent between October and December. He hasn’t played since a scoreless outing on Jan. 24.
Since 2014, the 2016 champion leads all bigs with 141 playoff 3-pointers despite not logging a postseason minute in nearly five years.
Restructure?
Saturday night’s also not alright
All-Star Weekend’s Skills Challenge has always struggled with generating maximum effort, but this current format just doesn’t make sense. Are they going to thrust the Antetokounmpos into it every year until all of the Plumlees are available? Why do we have three teams instead of eight individuals doing this – why? To highlight the host city?
It’s now become some mangled mashup of the old Shooting Stars Competition and what was the Skills Challenge. This event was better when four guards competed against each other and four big men squared off in their own field. Then, the best guard and the best big would square off for bragging rights. We were a proper hoops country.
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Maybe they could add a one-on-one, King of the Court tournament? Could they make it more like the NHL and NFL skills challenges? Everyone loves trick shots. Who wouldn’t enjoy a cooking competition?
The 3-point Contest is fine, although I wish guys were pitted against one another head-to-head style. Maybe more of a tournament format where we go from eight to four to two contestants by the round. Shoutout to Damian Lillard for finally winning it and then retiring from it. That’s a heady play.
What Worked
The dunk contest was never dead
The internet, in its infinite impatience, loves to declare a time of death on the yearly showcase. If the field does not have Vince Carter wowing the world or Zach LaVine vs. Aaron Gordon, we love to pretend it’s not good enough for our consumption.
Is the dunk contest always a banger? No. There are plenty of down years. But is it dead? Absolutely not. Narcoleptic, maybe. It falls asleep at inopportune times – naps get the best of everyone. But often enough, we get someone inventive enough to inject creative adrenaline into the contest.
Mac McClung, because he’s a viable dunk contest participant, was shoehorned into the challenge with a two-way deal to get him on a roster this week – maybe to revive the contest? Maybe because guys like Ja Morant and other high-flying stars keep slinking away from participating?
Regardless, McClung was exactly what the contest needed: a galvanizing shot of energy. He set the tone with a ridiculous first dunk. As if jumping over two adults in a trenchcoat wasn’t enough, he tapped the ball off the glass before the finish.
McClung, obviously, turns some heads for how he looks (young, small for an NBA player, white, etc.), but he truly knew how to use those things to his advantage and put on a show with punctuating dunks.
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The winner also drew solid competition from Trey Murphy III, whose creativity and athleticism in this contest will be slept on. Go attempt this dunk without jumping. Just mimic how Murphy moves the ball with that quickness. You hurt your back, didn’t you?
I don’t think McClung’s showing was an all-time performance, but he was phenomenal. We know Brent Barry appreciated it.
Bounce Passes
The Basketbuds podcast crew and I break down All-Star Weekend.
This week’s Power Rankings have a few key leaps and some team-by-team quarter analysis.
Jon Krawczynski says the Wolves need more than their point guard swap to fix things.
You can’t stop Julius Randle from taking threes. Fred Katz says the Knicks are cool with it.
Pacers rookie Andrew Nembhard has a beautiful mind for basketball.
Jason Jones has a fantastic story on Raymond Lewis, an L.A. legend who missed out on the NBA.
Christian Clark says everything has changed for the Pelicans’ training staff … except results.
JD Davison is becoming a top G League playmaker. The next Mac McClung!
Sam Amick shares several key All-Star takeaways.
Screen Game
No nights off.
Main Screen: Bill Russell: Legend (Netflix). Learn more about the greatest winner in sports. The man had more pro and college championship rings than fingers.
Second Screen: Basketball Stories: Shaq, The Rookie Season (9 p.m. NBA TV). In his debut NBA season, Shaq was the first rookie All-Star starter since MJ. The Diesel and Charles Barkley will share stories about an utterly dominant year.
Binge of the Night: Shrinking (Apple TV+). I’m five episodes into this series with Jason Segel, Jessica Williams and Harrison Ford as therapists – it’s excellent and comes from the makers of Ted Lasso. Need I say more?
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(Photo: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
