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Tim Bontemps
San Francisco-after that the NBA stars game last year made a collective facial plant in Indianapolis, the NBA met with its players, including one of its standard carriers in Stephen Curry, to discover what I could do to do for Improve the showcase of half of the mid -season league.
The result was a reinvented format, a curry himself played a role in creation, which converted a 48 -minute game between two teams into three shorter games with four teams, which culminated with the MVP Curry and the Escos Equipos Equipo Shaq Chuck in the championship.
Therefore, it was appropriate that, in a weekend that ended up being so on celebrating Curry’s legendary career with the Golden State Warriors as anything else, it was Curry who was asked if the format he helped create had worked , and what, and what, and what, and, and what, and what, and what, and what exactly should this event be seen?
“We needed to change,” Curry said, referring to last year’s game that had almost 400 combined points. “We needed a new life, new juice in the game, something unexpected …
“The way people consume basketball is different. It will not look how it used to do it. But it can still be fun for everyone. I had fun. Our team had fun. That is all that matters.”
Curry had a lot of fun when he buried a half -court shot during the last Sunday night, and immediately made his way to the other end of the court to find the rapper and his partner icon in the Bay area, Misth Fab to celebrate.
In general, there were less completely lethargic play moments on the court than the previous editions and even multiple notable defensive plays, including the blocks on the edge of Jaren Jackson Jr. and Victor Wembanyama.
But at the end of the night, in what has become a tradition of how these stars weekends have gone to the NBA in recent years, there were far from a consensus about how the night was held and where they should Go from here.
“I think we should focus on other things that are not there,” said Denver Nuggets Nikola Jokic center. “I think it will always be so, so we must accept it.”
All the discussion Around the star game in recent seasons could be distilled in a brief interaction that the most valuable player in the league had with journalists on Saturday during their availability of media.
When Jokic was asked about Charles Barkley who first chose him as part of the Draft “Inside The NBA” of TNT for the three star lists of eight men earlier this month, Jokic smiled and said: “I think I’m not built For this game, for this type of game. “
Minutes later, Jokic was asked what he meant.
“I think it’s not a question for me, friend,” he said, another smile was formed on his face while talking. “If you want my opinion, I can’t give you because I think it’s not going to be pleasant.”
If Jokic, an MVP three times that averages a triple double while shooting about 60% from the field and 45% from the range of 3 points, isn’t it an adjustment for the All-Star game, then?
That is precisely what the NBA set out to try to change this mini three -game tournaments, and each game is played with an objective score of 40 points.
0:21
The victory of the Tatum’s Dunk Seals Star Game for the Shaq team
Jayson Tatum hits the immersion while the SHAQ team wins the 2025 star game.
Sunday’s games were relatively competitive, more than in the last seasons at least, which date back to the last truly competitive: the 2020 stars game in Chicago, which occurred a few weeks after the death of Kobe Bryant and played with a advantage of which the member of the Hall of Fame would have been proud.
And although tonight it did not look like that, the consensus was that the event had improved.
“I think it was a good step in the right direction to revitalize the game somehow,” said Curry, “and then play with him again next year.”
“I think we are starting to see the weekend All-Star and the competitive nature in the game starting to enter again,” Kevin Durant said. “I think it was solid tonight … I felt that the boys were trying to play hard.”
At the same time, however, much basketball was not played. On Sunday night he presented several extended breaks in the action. Among them, a shooting competition after the first game that involved the guard of the Milwaukee Bucks stars, Damian Lillard. And then there was the ceremony celebrating TNT’s 40 -year relationship with the NBA that is coming to an end after this season, a 20 -minute break that none of the players seemed to know.
“I think the most difficult part [was when] They stopped the game to make the presentation while we were halfway, “said Celtics Star Jays Tatum.” It was difficult to return to the game after that. “
The inclusion of the winners of Rising Stars Challenge, an own tournament with the first and second year players that took place on Friday night, as part of the star game on Sunday night caused their own round of criticism. Warriors Draymond Green player, participating in the transmission of the TNT event, declared that the new format was a “zero” on a scale of 1 to 10, and that “stinks.”
For the Chuck team, which beat the ascent team to open the night, there was more than an hour among the games.
“It was a bit difficult,” said Donovan Mitchell about the way the night took place. “I think at first you have energy, adrenaline, you go and then you feel for 30-45 minutes. That was difficult, to be honest with you. It is a work in progress.”
Now that this The All-Star weekend is over, and the game is changing to the new sand of the clippers in Inglewood, California, next year, the approach will inevitably change to the only question that arises from these festivities:
What will happen to the game of stars now?
As usual, there were many possible answers. Curry was not the only one who praised the new format; The Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, Curry’s coach in the game, thought it also worked.
“I liked it,” Atkinson said. “It’s much better. It wasn’t a tray drill.”
His great emerging star man, Evan Mobley, liked it.
“Honestly, it was quite fun,” Mobley said. “I feel it was a little more competitive. I feel that if the game were a little closer, it would probably be even more competitive, but it was a different game. But I feel that as you move on, I think it will be something good for the league “
Others, however, did not agree.
Both Tyler Herro and Darius Garland, for the first and second time, respectively, said they felt that the game had ended almost before it began and would prefer to return to the traditional this-west format.
“But who am I to say?” Garland told ESPN with a smile. “I am an All-Star twice, so I have nothing to say in that.”
0:17
Jokic-Wemby Connect for an outstanding alley
Nikola Jokic throws him to Victor Wembanyama, who ends with a powerful overturned.
However, one thing practically all agreed, it was that when NBC takes the witness next year and begins to show this event as part of the new television format, there must be much less stopping in the action.
“I feel that fans want to see us playing more,” said Young, “instead of just some small shows between breaks.”
Another topic that emerged repeatedly during the weekend was the idea of having a “US team. While the sources said there was not a direct NBA directive on how the teams would be recruited by Barkley and their fellow TNT Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith analysts, ideas were discussed on how the stars were divided. The fact that one of the teams, Chuck’s global stars, included seven international players was emblematic of ESO.
A movement to such format could create more problems. The star game presents only 24 players, creating many arguments about which stars are being despised and left out of the competition. Going to 12 international players and 12 Americans would only exacerbate those problems and put aside more deserving candidates than those who were already at home.
But that did not prevent some, including Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo, to support the idea.
“I would love that,” Antetokounmpo said before the game, in which he did not play due to a calf injury. “I think that would be the most interesting and exciting format. I would love that. Surely, I would proud that.”
“My opinion is that it has more purpose,” Wembanyama said Saturday. “There is more pride. More bets.”
In the future, the hopes of the NBA of greater pride and bets in this event will rest in Wembanyama and its 4 -inch picture. With LeBron James watching his 20 consecutive discomforts at the end of Start Start on Saturday due to the discomfort of the feet and ankle that forced him to sit the game, began the Wembanyama’s own streak of the All-Star.
And, after declaring that he would play the game with a purpose, he came out and did exactly that, including a sequence in the first game where he had a posterior overturned, a block and then began a quick break in another overturned, this time by Alperen Sengun.
“He took it seriously,” Curry said. “He was playing hard. He showed his unique skills set in all areas.
“You make the game what you want, and everyone has the option to do it.”
