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How to: Revamp the NBA All-Star Game
(By Andrew Gonsalves ... I want full credit for this idea if it gets picked up)
I think the Point Guard "Skills Challenge" should be integrated into the actual All-Star game. The Skills Challenge is a simple obstacle course where 4 top point guards weave through stationary posts, perform 3 accurate passes, and chip in 2 easy layups. It is horribly simple. It usually takes place on Saturday, before the 3-point Shootout and the Slam Dunk Contest. The event, as it is now, is boring and simple. Its a bland contest that pits a dynamic player against a static course. The only way to showcase a point guard's talent and make it marketable is in an actual game. What better way to revamp a dull, meaningless game than to amp up certain aspects of it to ensure that fans will find more than just a 7'6" Chinese center lumbering up and down the court like he has something better to do?
Being a Lakers fan, I watched this year's game for about 5 minutes before turning off my TV. Once Kobe sat, there was nothing left for me. By the way, what did the NBA have to gain by requiring Kobe Bryant to open the game and dribble a couple times before sitting for the rest of the game? The play was sloppy and uncoordinated. The West looked like they didn't even attend their practice. I'm sure, from the end result, the competition picked up later, but I didn't feel like suffering any longer to find out. When Jason Kidd banked the ball off the backboard for a trailer to slam in and the move went unobserved by his teammates, I knew I wasn't getting my money's worth.
As it is now, the All-Star game is just an exhibition. There is nothing special about it except that there's a chance your favorite player is in it. To me, it's not sacred enough to tweak a little, and thus I propose this simple modification: integrate the Skills Challenge into the All-Star game. With the players on notice that they are competing for a supplemental prize and the fans on notice that their favorite play maker will be gunning for the Sports Center Top 10 ON PURPOSE, I think we'll all have a much better time watching the game.
Due to today's league environment where players can't be convinced to compete unless it means rings, spicing up the All-Star game will at least convince them to play with a little more flair and perhaps make it just as fun as a street-baller exhibition. The winner of the Skills award will be the player who displays the widest array of play making skills; from threading the needle, to no-look faking out, to ankle-breaking misdirection, to hard-nosed dives into the lane. If I knew that kind of play would be taking place in the All-Star game instead of the best players in the league playing the worst kind of basketball, I would definitely watch.
Who is with me?
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