While many experts and TV personalities have chimed in and tried to interpret why the All-Star Game has become such a scoring fest to the point of non-competitiveness, Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant had a very simple answer.
“It’s Sunday. It’s Sunday. It’s Sunday,” Durant said on the Bill Simmons podcast. “The game is Sunday. We done did everything from Thursday, had a game, fly into New Orleans hit the ground running. And by Sunday, by the time Sunday – and you want to enjoy your break. By the time Sunday come, we’re like man, let’s just get this over with and get back to the second half of the season.”
While many people within the game claimed the NBA had to sweeten the pot to entice players to play the game like a regular, meaningful game — the reason behind it all could be exhaustion itself from all media responsibility.
Durant's point is a good one. Players are asked to fly out and immediately deal with shoots, commercials, media presentations, interviews with several networks, along with the team-based practices and sponsorship opportunities that are around every corner of the mid-February festivities.
The All-Star Game happens to be the last hurdle to clear in a seemingly never-ending series of commitments — an issue they don't often deal with in the regular season, given that everything is properly spaced out.
Maybe the NBA will take his words into consideration and find a way to ease the load on participating players in order to maximize their on-court product in the years to come.
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