SAN FRANCISCO — The verdicts had been blended, as can be anticipated.
The NBA’s All-Star Sport mini-tournament is now full, Shaq’s OGs getting the win within the four-team, three-game occasion the place the primary squad to attain 40 factors in every sport obtained the victory.
Some gamers favored it. Some did not. Some appeared ambivalent. It was entertaining and had moments the place issues turned aggressive, although it tended to lean towards extra of the identical highlight-reel-type play that has been the norm in All-Star Video games for years.
“I feel it was a superb step in the proper route to reinvigorate the sport not directly,” All-Star MVP Stephen Curry of the host Golden State Warriors mentioned. “And then you definately tinker with it once more subsequent 12 months and see what modifications you can also make. I do not need to evaluate it to every other period as a result of the world has modified, life is completely different, the way in which folks eat basketball is completely different. So, it isn’t going to appear to be it used to. But it surely nonetheless might be enjoyable for everyone.”
The league went to the match after years of asking gamers to take the All-Star Sport extra critically. Final 12 months’s 211-186 sport in Indianapolis was the final straw for the league, and the match started taking form.
There have been some numbers suggesting a bit extra defence was performed final 12 months. The 2024 All-Star Sport noticed the groups shoot 56 per cent from the sphere, in comparison with 50 per cent this 12 months. And there have been three blocked pictures, whole, in final 12 months’s 48-minute sport; this 12 months’s sport had three blocks within the first three minutes of the primary semifinal.
“I feel it’s attention-grabbing. It’s completely different,” New York’s Jalen Brunson mentioned after his workforce — Kenny’s Younger Stars — misplaced within the semifinal spherical. “The video games are sort of quick. I just like the format. It’s one thing new, one thing distinctive. Possibly rating to 50, possibly. But it surely’s attention-grabbing, one thing new like that. You by no means actually know what to anticipate, but it surely was all proper.”
Your entire concept has been met with skepticism from the outset, first for the notion of turning the sport right into a match with an eight-man roster after which for the extra element of getting 24 All-Stars, as typical, however including the Rising Stars occasion winner — a workforce with no All-Stars, no less than not any chosen by followers, media or coaches — into the competitors.
Boston’s Jayson Tatum, who scored 15 factors to assist Shaq’s OGs within the closing, mentioned he wasn’t certain about whether or not the Rising Stars ought to have been a part of the occasion.
“Clearly blissful for these guys,” Tatum mentioned. “However there’s something to be mentioned, it’s sort of a giant deal to be an All-Star and play Sunday night time. Some guys get snubbed and different guys need to work actually, actually arduous to make the All-Star Sport. Enjoying on Sunday night time is particular, and it at all times has been. I’m not saying that that was the proper or improper determination.
“Trial run, I suppose,” he added. “They’ll proceed to make tweaks or no matter.”
It was uncommon, for sure. Miami guard Tyler Herro, the league’s new 3-point shootout champion, performed eight minutes in his All-Star debut. He did not even want a towel when he left the ground for the night time.
“It was a brief, fast burst, actually,” Herro mentioned. “Broke like not even a half-sweat.”
The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards could not play due to accidents. James mentioned earlier than the video games that he was inquisitive about how it will all end up. Edwards did not appear to look after the entire notion. Mainly, if he’ll play arduous, he’ll do it with one thing at stake.
“I’ve by no means been an All-Star Sport sort of man, to love take it critical and go on the market and attempt to guard any person and get a cease,” Edwards mentioned. “I’ve by no means been that sort of man. I simply put it aside for the Timberwolves season, just about.”
San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama made his stance clear for the previous couple of weeks after getting picked. He was going to play arduous, and did — even attempting to lock down Kyrie Irving, one of many sport’s premier ballhandlers, out on the wing throughout one possession within the closing.
“It felt like there have been excessive stakes within the sport,” Wembanyama mentioned. “It was higher than anticipated. I feel the format labored rather well.”
And social media did not appear to care for a way the title sport was stopped to pay tribute to TNT and its 4 a long time of NBA broadcasting, with some saying they’d have most popular that portion happen between video games.
The sport stopped with the OGs main the World Stars 11-1, and no basketball was performed for 18 minutes. By way of precise on-court time, if the ultimate was timed, there was simply shy of 12 minutes — an actual NBA quarter — truly performed.
Scores will come out within the subsequent day or so and that may inform a much bigger story of the match — whether or not followers watched and in the event that they favored all of it.
“I don’t know the way it seemed on TV,” Curry mentioned. “However I believed it was a step in the proper route.”
