President’s Day Weekend was a tale of two tournaments, and if the NBA walks away from their underwhelming All-Star performance with one lesson, it should be to take a page out of the NHL’s book with the 4 Nations Tournament.
It’s time for NBA All-Stars: USA vs. Everybody.
The NBA All-Star product has been sliding for years. The game itself has never really leant itself to meaningful play, resulting in participants chucking trick shots at half speed. Excepting Jaylen Brown, actual All-Stars have shied away from the dunk contest since Blake Griffin’s KIA leap in the early 2010s. The 3-point contest had some juice last year, when Steph Curry went against WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu. This year it amounted to footnote. Most galling of all, elder superstar LeBron James scratched his own participation last minute with a foot injury.
What are we doing here?
Hockey owned Saturday, owned the conversation Sunday, and will now own the entire week, thanks to the genuine rancor between USA and Canada. The geopolitical strife between neighbors is a complex and delicate issue…but it made for awesome hockey.
With great pride, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has exalted the NBA’s global presence. What may be seen by some as a bug in the modern superstar – that a predominantly American product is being led by foreign players – can actually be a feature in fixing the league’s All-Star issue.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander all lead MVP conversations year after year. Jayson Tatum makes his way in to third place, but other American superstars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Curry have long left the conversation. But if an all-American team had to face down four of the top faces of the league, from other countries, it could be a lot tougher for someone like James to tap out at the last minute.
At the risk of sounding like the sort of person who dons an American flag bikini, (waiting on that design from J.Crew), it would also behoove the league to give a little boost to its younger American stars. Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards should be more synonymous with the league right now. Tatum and Jaylen Brown have the championship credentials to grab attention, but otherwise, there’s still a sense that the NBA isn’t ready to let go of the “OGs” who won the tournament Sunday night (after a long ceremony for…a panel show?)
As previously noted, the league won’t belong to James, Curry, and Durant for much longer. The NBA risks watching stardom wander into the desert right after their All-Star product.
Leagues can’t manufacture the tempers that flared over USA-Canada in 4 Nations. And again, it’s a sensitive time. But the NBA’s revamped All-Star tournament showed the league is open to trying new ideas, even if this one wasn’t ultimately more successful than the previous format.
To make it even more interesting, land the game in Toronto.
Maybe have Drake in the crowd?