This time around, the players actually cared, at least for a good portion of the game. Yes, I am talking about the NBA All-Star Game, an event that generally profiles more as a practice session with less defense than a seriously competitive affair.
But on Sunday night, in the 2020 iteration of the contest, Team LeBron defeated Team Giannis by a score of 157-155 on a free throw from Anthony Davis (a little anticlimactic, but whatever) in what was certainly one of the more entertaining All-Star Games we have ever seen. Kawhi Leonard took home the first-ever Kobe Bryant All-Star Game MVP award.
Was it perfect? No. No All-Star Game ever will be. But it was a heck of a lot better than most of the other matchups from previous years where the players clearly wanted to avoid injuries and fans stopped pretending to care after the first quarter.
This time around, you had guys taking charges (charges in an All-Star Game?!) and legitimately defending, which was certainly a welcome change.
The new rules certainly helped, where the scored gets wiped out after the first and second quarters before finally being revealed in its entirety at the start of the fourth.
And here's the real kicker: the final frame isn't timed. Instead, a target score is set by adding 24 points to the team with the higher score in honor of Kobe, giving the game the so-called “Elam Ending.”
In this instance, Team Giannis was up 133-124 heading into the fourth period, so 157 was set as game point.
That definitely made for a more interesting finish, as Team LeBron had to hold Team Giannis to 23 points or less while also scoring 33.
It's certainly a strange tweak, as it is something that basketball fans are absolutely not accustomed to, but it worked out pretty well and actually made people pay attention.
For years, fans have been wishing that the All-Star Game was more engaging, because let's face it: While it's probably the best All-Star event in sports (which isn't saying much given that one of the main competitors is the Pro Bowl), the NBA All-Star Game has always been more about who makes the rosters rather than the actual result.
The league tried to make things a bit more intriguing back in 2016 when it implemented captains (hence “Team LeBron” and “Team Giannis”) rather than just going with the standard East vs. West model. That didn't work.
But now, the NBA may finally have something here.
I'm not sure if the novelty of it all will wear off or not. Maybe people were just excited about this (well, relatively speaking) because it was the first year of the changes. Maybe everyone will go back to not caring in 2021 or 2022 once this becomes more of a regular thing.
Or, perhaps this was exactly the shot in the arm that the All-Star Game needed, and it certainly helped matters that Aaron Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr. put on one heck of a show in the Slam Dunk Contest the night before.
Hopefully, All-Star Weekend in 2021 can live up to what was truly an entertaining event and almost certainly one of the best we have seen in quite some time in 2020.
Follow Us
Subscribe