The NBA All-Star Game is dies and is the fault of the players
Bruno Altieri gives us his perspective on the status of NBA’s All-Star Game … And in his opinion, the attitude of the players has to change.
The All-Star Game is in intensive therapy. He has been problems for years, and the innovation proposed by Adam Silver, with four teams driven by opinion leaders (Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Candace Parker), with the particularity that the victory is defined by whom he arrives First to 40 points, it had the same result as the previous years: a fiasco.
Bored. Soporific. Irremediable. LeBron James going down at the last moment due to an ankle injury. Anthony Edwards and a “cold” that left him out. Competitiveness, except in the game of the Rising Stars who wanted to show themselves to the Shaq’s Ogs, but with an infinitely lower level than it would correspond to a game of the stars, it was again a paper.
Silver continues to think that the improvement is around and not on the court. For more lights that are placed in the kitchen, for more label and luxurious table, if there is no main dish there will be no happy diners. In this, your responsibility fits. But The main fault belongs to the players: do things to the little trot, to reluctant, is what this event is killing. Why do they think people want to pay to see that? In which fantasy world is the most important to pull half court or turn the ball without opposition to compete?
Slam Dunk Contest had a competitor at the height of the circumstances: Mac McClung. Each of his flights to the hoop was fantastic. An incredible jump power and do not take merit to triumph. Of course, McClung, three times winner in a row of the tournament, cannot step on a NBA court as a franchise player beyond his pirouettes. In fact, he earned more money in this than in what he perceived throughout the season. Ah, I don’t know if they knew: this is the NBA All-Star. The other decent competitor was Stephon Castle. The others did not even train for the occasion. Didn’t they think the thing improved if the participants were elite? Is these players who Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant or Anthony Edwards compete? The problem, again, is to think about the lights and not the competition. In the rivalries that do not exist today. It is the only thing that motorizes the emotion of sport. What can save the NBA.
On the birthday of Michael Jordan, I must say that the way of behaving in the main match of the All-Star of the best league in the world is disrespectful to the game. A dishonor to sport that Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and many others practiced. It is not about money or show: it is a matter of integrity. I’m very sorry, but love is not taught. It feels first and then practiced.
I repeat what I said at the beginning: Silver has its part. We will not take responsibility. But try things, one after another, because the natural does not work. This is not against west. I don’t know what Americans would be like international, but I estimate, seeing Sunday, which would be the same. You will see, the players to shine in the eyes of the world was ever served in the silver tray. They pay them as never before. They treat them as celebrities. And nothing changes. The message to the new generations is frightening: it doesn’t matter to win.
I don’t know exactly when this began to happen. Under what parameters the players began to understand the game of stars as a weekend of rest. How long does there have to be hooks for athletes to do what should be done? Why do you have to give the winner’s local advantage or keep going around to give prizes to see if people are motivated? You have to do it because it is what corresponds. It is never for what. It is why. Respect for history is everything. That said, the organization has its problems, but what fails is the genesis of competitiveness. That today is really activated in playoffs, but you have to see how much public will be present, wanting, for when we step on April.
Load Management, triple, excess matches, too much time in each room, excess advertising in dead times, etc. Will the constant complaint be finished? How long for excuses? Life is much simpler than what is raised.
You have to smell blood and bite, as with Jordan. As was the case with Kobe. As the Detroit Pistons won. You have to finish once and for all with the whims and excesses of the glass generation.
The wind, for years, can bend what is put in front. But be careful: there comes a time when everything, even what seemed indestructible, breaks.
