Y! Sports writer, Adrian Wojnarowski, feels as though the NBA needs to have more incentives in place for its stars to participate in All-Star weekend.
He goes on to say that All-Star weekend is an embarrassment to the League since their stars have declined to participate in any of the festivities over the last few years other than the All-Star Game itself.
Hit the jump to view the video and hear my thoughts…
I personally agree and disagree at the same time… Should stars participate more? Yes, they should… it’s their job to play and promote the League in the best of light. Overall, it’s in the best interest of the player to make their ‘business’ as profitable as possible.
On the other hand, there should not be a need to entice a player or add any additional incentives to participate in the festivities for one reason… these guys are paid millions to play a game. How much more incentive do you need?!?
Way back when the NBA was in its ‘prime’, we had stars from across the nation come together for All-Star weekend to promote the sport and have fun. Part of the fun was getting to watch Dr. J, Dominique Wilkins, Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant and countless other Super Stars participate in the Dunk Contest, Skills Challenge and 3 Pt. Shootout. This showed the players’ love for the game and willingness to appease fans for a small 3 day stretch of time apart from the regular season and post season. Today’s players avoid these ‘games’ like the plague and act as if they are too good for such foolishness…
My personal opinion; All-Star weekend should be a requirement as it is your job to work in the NBA. If there were to be ANY incentive to participate, it should be a sum of money that would be allocated to a charity of your choosing.
What are your thoughts; is the All-Star game an ‘embarrassment’, are players too ‘big’ to have a little bit of fun for fans unless there is money involved?
I don’t feel as if it’s an embarrassment to us as fans but more so the players… it is an insult towards fans more than an embarrassment…
I think the title of this discussion should be changed to “Is the Slam Dunk Contest an embarrassment?” – and the answer would be yes.
In the Skills competition we had guys like Tony Parker, Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo, John Wall. This are all elite point guards and every other top point guard I’m sure has also participated in this competition (if this is because the winner gets to donate a scholarship from the sponsor to a young kid for his/her education, I do not know).
In the 3-Pt Contest we had KD and Kevin Love. That’s damn good too and to be honest Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Melo are all not that good shooters and I would actually be scratching my head if they participated.
That leaves us with the Slam Dunk Contest as our problem child. And there I think it’s simply because it is very (practice-) time, energy-consuming and dangerous (injury). Today’s stars simply don’t see an upside and neither do I. Maybe we need to cancel it and replace it with the Slam Dunk Showdown – that was dope.
Sorry for the long comment 🙂
Well it wasnt a true discussion, more my thoughts off of the original post made by yahoo sports but i understand what you are saying.
I still feel that LeBron or other super stars should have participated in the contest when they were younger. I wouldnt expect kobe to go and enter the contest now but he has already done so when he first entered the league so he did his part… These new players havent except for Howard.
Sekou Smith wrote a little something about the dunk contest. But some of the comments below the article are actually even good.
http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/02/26/sprite-slam-dunk-contest-needs-yet-another-tweak-or-two-or-three/?ls=iref:nbahpt1
One idea I had, was having a fan vote for who enters (like the all star ballot). To save some rusty and already proven players one could say that players above a certain age or after previous participation could only be put on the list by explicit wish.
Watching Chalmer and Jones shooting 3s= waste of time??? He went too far there. They’re three point shooters and that’s what they do best. If you’re a real bball fan, you will enjoy every moment of it. Don’t forget KD and Love were in the contest. However, I agree, the Slam Dunk contest sucked this year. Jeremy Evans’ dunks were some of the weakest, jump over Kevin Hart??? REALLY???
I totally agree! Why knock on the 3 pt shootout when shooters are always present during the event… And KD is a star so why knock that event. The Dunk comp was lackluster this yr, yet again, so thats where they need to get their act together.
all star game was great. the dunk contest is what they really need to remodel and put their elite stars to compete.
Exactly
the sprite amateur dunk contest was better!
Lmao!
Watching the All-Star game, Reggie Miller said “all the greats did it” referring to LeBron should be in dunk contest.
My point exactly
Like Lee7kenswi mentioned, there’s nothing to gain anymore for the elite players regarding participating in the dunkcontest. Not for James, not for Rose. Not for Durant. Maybe for someone like Westbrook.
If people really want to see a showdown of some sorts, then maybe an 1 on 1 competition could be a solution.
Or, to keep more people happy, a 2 on 2 competition. (No bone crushing picks allowed though 😉
That skill competition should at least be a team collaboration between the players and the young kids to conquer that course. That way we can root for the young kids too.
I agree with maybe Westbrook. Seeing him in the All Star Game confirmed to me that he would actually enjoy and perform very well in the Dunk Contest.
The 1-on-1 would be great. Especially if there wearing mics (all the trash talk included).
Dunno about the collab skill competition. If a kid messes up a lay-up on national tv and therefor loses his scholarship… that’s heart-crushing for a youngster.
I think they could play for home court advantage during the Finals, and make it mandatory to participate in the festivities. I mean nobody wants to see Chase Budinger no offense.
the all star game was pretty alright and the skills challenge was okay but what happen to the Dunk contest it was boring, none of the all stars participated and the Rookies who were dunking didn’t impress me at all and what the hell was up with the dunks I saw , they seemed boring. Lebron James or Blake griffin should have been on the dunk contest because they had big dunks this year that were pretty big and all over the media. Another thing that was wack is the energy meter on the rim, That wasn’t necessary at all. Is the NBA so in debt of the lockout that they cant even afford getting actual judges. This year was just an embarrassment and disappointing.
The players would never do one on one or even a game at all. These guys are so lazy. Look at the skills comp in the beginning its rediculous. The players are just standing around looking flashy. They say its “rest” time…3 days is not enough rest…injury??? What are the chances if getting injured in the dunk contest??? Has anybody been injured before? NBA players make me sick. Sooner or later they will have to cancel it because of this. Oh and Kevin Hart, Kenny Smith, and P Diddy kill yourselves already…this is not a promotion or commercial show…its a dunk contest.