The NBA All-Star Weekend left me feeling like I do after eating at a school cafeteria: a little bit empty, and mostly disappointed. I went into the weekend pumped, not only to see local hero Kenneth Faried in the Rising Stars Challenge and Sprite Slam Dunk Contest, but also excited to watch the best players of the NBA put their skills on display all weekend.
The performance, however, simply was not up to what many fans expected. From strange music choices (Fall Out Boy and Phillip Phillips, really?) to a lack of competitive fire across the board, I initially feared that All-Star Weekend may have been headed the way of the NFL’s Pro Bowl: rapidly spiraling towards irrelevance.
When LeBron James and Blake Griffin, whom many would consider the two best dunkers in the game, opt out of the contest, something is wrong. The dunks that did get thrown down were impressive feats of amazing athleticism, yet no one was jumping over Kias and setting the Twitterverse aflame like Griffin did in 2011.
The 2013 dunk contest was not that of 1985, when Michael Jordan, Dr. J and Dominique Wilkins went head to head and wowed everyone. However, this is not the end of the contest as we have come to love it. Perhaps the problem isn’t with the contest itself, or with the absurdity of the weekend as a whole, but with fans’ expectations of those events.
The more I think about it, the more impressed by All-Star Weekend I am. The athletes that participated may not have given anywhere close to 100 percent, but what they did was truly incredible.
From the skills challenge, which some of the game’s best ball handlers breeze through, to the absurd shooting strokes of the game’s best three-point shooters (especially winner Kyrie Irving, who lit up the entire city of Houston), to bench players capable of throwing down dunks that had never even been contemplated mere years ago, to the overall impressiveness of the actual All-Star game, this weekend was pretty incredible.
These men are some of the best athletes in the world, and by offering different glimpses of these talents, the NBA has put together quite the spectacle. Despite interesting music choices and some poor showmanship, the talent on display is something that is unrivaled by any other weekend of the year, regardless of sport. For that, I am especially thankful.
So next year, rather than getting upset that Chris Paul won All-Star MVP with only 20 points and 15 assists, I’m going to go back and watch each one of those plays and allow myself to be impressed by how truly difficult these actions are.
I will watch each dunk in slow motion and realize just how long these players levitate and how incredibly forceful their dunks are. I will marvel at Paul dribbling through defenders’ legs and LeBron slamming home fast-break alley-oops. I will be a better fan next year and appreciate the greatness that is NBA All-Star Weekend.
