Finally, and All-Star Game worth watching

I’m not a huge fan of All-Star games, I’ll be perfectly honest. I watched the Pro Bowl, and I enjoyed it simply because it was a game of football to watch. But it’s sloppy football, only salvaged by the fact that most of my favorite players were all playing in the same game (and that my Fantasy Football team filled out about half of the rosters!). The MLB All-Star game is even worse. In fact, even with the added weight of awarding home-field advantage to the side that wins for the World Series, it still is a sleeper of a game. I like what the NHL has done in recent years (well, not last year, but…) with the North America vs. the World teams. This seems to have added some flare and competitive spirit to the game. But few people care about NHL Hockey, as sad or wrong as that may be.

And then there’s the NBA All-Star Game. There’s something different about this one. Besides featuring most of the best players in the game, the NBA All Star game has the added benefit of it being a basketball game. Deep, I know… What I mean by that is that basketball, unlike any other sport has showmanship as a very intrinsic part of its appeal. This is the sole reason the And 1 Tour is so successful. It isn’t GOOD basketball, but it’s FUN basketball. The combination of dunks, fancy passes and one-on-one matchups not only make basketball great, but also make it possible for a game of basketball to be watched and enjoyed, even when the end result is insignificant.

It’s hard to watch a baseball game, or a football game, or a hockey game and not care about who wins. You probably really enjoy watching a monster homerun, a great one-timer or watching a 50 yard pass being thrown and caught by the best quarterbacks and receivers in the world, respectively. But while All-Star games in each of these sports may feature more of these things than your average, or even good game, the difference is not significant. You add a small amount of enjoyment (from the higher frequency of spectacular plays), but you take away a large amount of what makes the games great (the result).

The NBA All-Star game takes away the significance of the result (although by the fourth quarter players are usually playing to win, but that’s actually when the game becomes less entertaining), but it brings more than enough else to the table to make it worth watching, even memorable. I remember watching Eddie Jones be robbed of an All-Star Game MVP Award after he displace amazing around-the-back passes, alley-oop feeds and his own array of spectacular dunks: only to watch Glen Rice (what happened to your career Glen?) get the award for breaking the record for most points in a quarter. It wasn’t that Glen Rice’s accomplishment wasn’t amazing (he put on a great shooting display), but Eddie Jones’ performance was the epitome of what the All-Star game is about; showmanship. His passes, steals and dunks made the fans feel they got their money’s worth.

Who doesn’t remember Tracy McGrady’s off the backboard to himself “alley-oop” dunk a few years ago? And who can forget Vince Carter mirroring and even topping it with a similar, but even more spectacular version of the same dunk the next year. Who can forget a young Kobe Bryant waiving off a pick from Karl Malone while being guarded by Jordan. What about the time Jordan caught a missed free-throw, in mid air and immediately dunked it, all in one fluid motion. Or how about when Isiah Thomas froze Jordan out of the All-Star game, refusing to get him the ball as he ran the offense. How can we forget Jordan’s last All-Star game. He played a terrible game in most regards, as his team force-fed him the ball in the second half (even missing and easy dunk at one point). But then, he slowly started to heat up, hitting some classic turn-around jumpers that reminded us, if even for only a second, how great he had once been, and why a part of us was glad he had come back. In the end his efforts came up short, and we remembered why we were also sad to seem him back. We were sad because we could remember how great Jordan had been, and how his flair for the spectacular had made him great not just in the regular season, but at events like the All-Star game.

Now quick, try to remember at least one memorable event from any of the other All-Star games? The only one that comes to mind for me is Todd Helton hitting a walk-off homer, which I believe came in extra-innings. The fact of the matter is that there was nothing really spectacular about that home run, which didn’t clear the fences by very much. The only reason we remember it at all is because it was the first year the MLB All-Star Game’s decided which League would get home-field in the Series. All-Star games are about the great plays and the great players making them, not outcomes. That’s why I’ll tune into the NBA’s for reasons other than going through withdrawal from a sport in its off-season. Just remember while you’re playing to forget what the score is, and remember the plays and the players who made them.