USA Basketball interim head coach and ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy has a plan to improve All-Star Weekend: Get rid of the All-Star Game altogether.
Van Gundy hasn't been short of peculiar ideas, from sippy cups for those drinking in the front row of NBA games to allowing a coach's challenge to prevent ejections for arguing against the officials.
Yet this is simply a man discouraged by the constant tinkering from Adam Silver in hopes to bring back the buzz the mid-February festivities once had in its heyday.
Van Gundy went as far as to say the current product is “a bastardization of the game that is beautiful to watch,” according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press:
“You can be a Division III player like myself and be All-Star MVP,” Van Gundy said. “All you have to do is drive in and shoot a layup.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo almost waltzed to that award, making 17-of-23 field goals en route to a 38-point night, one that would have made him the MVP if he wasn't on the losing team.
Van Gundy took notice of an All-Star Game high of 167 combined 3-point attempts, a game that looked like the sequel of the 3-Point Contest, with no defense around any of the long-range attempts:
“I would name All-Stars, I would have All-Star weekend, they have all these things, introduce them… the players are great, they should be applauded,” Van Gundy said this week, while preparing to coach USA Basketball’s team picked for the final two games of qualifying for this summer’s FIBA World Cup in China. “But to take this game and shoot 160 3s, it’s an embarrassment. It’s an embarrassment.”
The longtime NBA coach was very blunt with his last statement, noting whatever plans Silver had to fix the game with incentives of the playground-like All-Star Draft to entice competition just hasn't worked:
“Let’s just say it: They don’t want to play,” Van Gundy said. “Adam said, ‘It’s got to be fixed.’ There’s nothing fixed.”
Getting rid of the game is a long shot, but the NBA may look to tweak more things after seeing ratings dip for the game.
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