NBA All-Star Weekend Recap

First off, the 2023 Kia Skills Challenge took place on Saturday night. This is the second year of the new format of the Skills Challenge, which made it a team-based challenge instead of one involving individual competitors. The three teams in this year’s edition were Team Jazz, which included Walker Kessler, Jordan Clarkson, and Colin Sexton, Team Rooks, which featured Jabari Smith Jr., Paolo Banchero, and Jaden Ivey, and Team Antetokoumpo, which was comprised of Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo, and Jrue Holiday, who replaced the injured Giannis Antetokounmpo. The challenge had three rounds. The first round was a relay round, the second round was a passing round, and the third was a shooting round, with the teams being able to earn a certain amount of challenge points based on their performance. The team finishing with the most total points would win the challenge. Team Rooks won the relay round, but Team Jazz won the passing round and the shooting round to earn the most total points and win the Skills Challenge. 

The next event on Saturday night was the 2023 Starry 3-Point Contest. The participants of this contest were Tyrese Haliburton, Tyler Herro, Buddy Hield, Kevin Huerter, Damian Lillard, Lauri Markanen, Julius Randle, and Jayson Tatum. The contest featured two rounds, with the top three point scorers from the first round making the finals. Haliburton lead the field with 31 points in the first round, Lillard finished second with 26 points, and Hield finished third with 23 points. Then, in the finals, Lillard got the win, beating Hield by one point, 26-25. 

           The final event of Saturday night was the AT&T Slam Dunk contest, one of the most exciting events of All-Star weekend. This year’s edition of the contest featured Kenyon Martin Jr. of the Houston Rockets, Trey Murphy III of the New Orleans Pelicans, Jericho Sims of the New York Knicks, and Mac McClung, who became the first G League player to be in the Dunk Contest. McClung was an undrafted free agent out of college and has only played four games in the NBA, spending the rest of his time in the G League. He is currently on a two-way contract for the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA and the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA G League. McClung wowed the audience with some spectacular dunks, earning perfect scores on all but one of his four dunks to win the contest. In the finals, he faced off against Trey Murphy III, where McClung, who is only 6’2” by the way, won the contest with a brilliant 360-degree plus dunk, in which he spun over 360 degrees before dunking the ball. It was a great performance from McClung that will certainly boost his name recognition and popularity in the NBA. 

Moving forward, on Sunday night, the final event of All-Star weekend occurred, which was the 2023 NBA All-Star Game. This year’s edition of the All-Star game was unique in that it was the first All-Star game to have the draft occur right before the game, with the two captains, Lebron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo, picking their teams minutes before the start of the game. Team Giannis defeated Team Lebron 184-175 in the game, with Jayson Tatum scoring 55 points and winning the NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant MVP Award. The game featured a lot of scoring through drives to the basket, dunks, and deep three-pointers, with very little defense being played. After the game, there were criticisms over the lack of effort and competitive play from many of the players, with Michael Malone, coach of the Denver Nuggets and of Team Lebron for the All-Star game, calling it “the worst basketball game ever played.”  

The NBA has always struggled with getting players to give effort during the All-Star game, with the game most years being very similar to what occurred this season. There have been a few exceptions, most notably in 2020, when players on both teams showed a level of effort and competitive desire to win that is rare for an All-Star game, but mostly, there is a lot of offense and scoring with little defense or desire to win. It remains to be seen if the NBA will be able to make the All-Star game more competitive. A suggestion I have is to make the game Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference again and have the winning conference get a home-court advantage in the NBA Finals. This would certainly give the game very high stakes, as having home court in the finals is a huge advantage, so any player whose team is a finals contender will play very hard in hopes of winning home court for their team, should they make the NBA Finals.