Last Weekend, we saw what many believe to be another lackluster NBA All Star Weekend. Many fans believe this year’s contest to be another bust. But is that true?
By: James Calidonna
The All Star Weekend has been a fan favorite for many years, as NBA fans get to potentially see their favorite professional players in events like the 3 point contest, The All Star game, and the Slam Dunk contest. However, some feel the quality of these contests have diminished in recent years.
Many fans took to social media to express their opinions of the first event, the 3 point contest.
The majority of fans disapproved.
With current Golden State Warrior and arguably the greatest shooter of all time, Wardell Stephen Curry II, currently injured, fans were only able to watch Damian Lilliard, Jayson Tatum, Tyler Herro, and Kevin Huerter. Besides Lilliard, all contestants
in the contest underperformed.
Lilliard consistently shot 26 through both rounds, but was not enough to take away from the horrible performance of other players.
3 out of 8 players did not even score above 20 points, and one of those players only scored 8.
Many believe that these contests have fallen far from their predecessors. I feel that the All Star Weekend has diminished significantly in the past years. Many people share the same opinion of me in that the level of competitiveness as well as the overall star power within the competition is nowhere near the level of the contests held in the 90’s/early 2000’s.
From Michael Jordan’s free throw dunk in ‘88 to Blake Griffin’s KIA car dunk in 2011, the NBA dunk contest has had its fair share of pagentry.
This year, we had the likes of Trey Murphy and Mac McClung.
If it were not for what turned out to be an incredible performance by McClung, the night could have been somewhat of a disappointment.
Mcclung, gaining his popularity originally from his acrobatic play style in high school, was able to pull off a performance for the ages that will be remembered.
McClung was able to amp up the crowd and keep the energy high with his athletic dunks as he scored a perfect score of 50 for 3 out of his 4 dunks. The last dunk sealed the deal for McClung as he performed a 540 degree dunk for his last dunk of the night to win the contest.
Responses from the event are…mixed.
Some are saying this year’s All Star Weekend was the best they’ve had in years and others are saying the NBA is falling deeper and deeper into an inescapable hole. The NBA needs to combat this response with something that would get the fans back into a groove for next year.
But what is it?
All we can hope for is that next year, there will be an All Star Weekend we can all be proud of.