Last week, the Indiana Pacers hosted the NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis. The hosts rolled the red carpet for the players and fans to have a truly great time. And yes, there were some great positive highlights last weekend, as there were some ‘not-so-good’ lights. Here are some observations for the league, and we hope they continue to bring in more great ideas to make the All-Star weekend – and the league – more dynamic, more interesting and more fan-friendly.
The Panini Rising Stars competition was an interesting appetizer for the succeeding events. It brought in the promising rookies and sophomores in the league, plus the best of the G-League. The Pacers’ Ben Mathurin showed that he has the potential to be a future star, taking the MVP crown for the mini-competition.
There too was a Celebrity Game, bringing in basketball-playing stars from other fields. A wonderful friendly game. You probably wouldn’t be watching the game, unless you knew someone who was playing.
The Skills Competition was fun to watch, except that there was not much intensity in the competition. There was no competitive juice flowing among the players. Only the host Indiana team was there to give it the good old college try. They cared, and they wanted to win it bad for the hometown crowd. Maybe the NBA should scrap the Skills Competition if the players don’t want to give it an honest effort.
Mac McClung defended his AT&T Slam Dunk Contest crown, with a jump over the hulking Shaq O’Neal. The competition however, proved to be rather tame, with no big-names joining in to showcase their aerial acrobatics and techniques.
Damian Lillard won the Starry 3-Pt Contest for the second time. An exciting competition, with Trae Young and Karl-Anthony Towns giving Dame a run for his money. But it was Dame Time once again, as Damian became a back-to-back 3-point champ in dramatic fashion, edging Trae by converting the last shot on the last rack. This thriller was one of the more successful events in the All-Star Weekend.
But the highlight of the weekend would have to be the NBA vs WNBA 3-Pt Challenge, with Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu throwing 3-pt artillery bombs in a long-range showdown. It was a match pitting the NBA’s all-time 3-pt king versus the WNBA’s 3-pt shooting queen. This special event was a novel idea, and it could certainly serve to inspire young boys and girls to play the Steph and Sabrina way. In the end, it was Steph winning 29-26 over a game Sabrina. And it was fun to watch both of them cheering for each other despite the competition. The Steph-Sab showdown was perhaps the highlight of the weekend, and this was proven when it scored the most TV viewers in the entire 3-day program.
Finally, the 2024 State Farm All-Star Game. While the game featured so many of the current stars in the league, the game turned out to be another dud of a competition. There was no defense, no effort to compete at all. It was simply a glorified 3-point shooting/dunk contest, whichever it was they cared to showcase. And it sucked! Sorely. Damian Lillard made it a double victory for himself by taking the MVP and sinking 39 points, with the last one a heave from the halfcourt line. Apart from that, the game was a dozer.
Overall, Indiana played gracious host for this year’s edition of the All-Star Weekend. There were plenty of stuff for the fans to be happy about, from the proud basketball tradition of Indiana, to pre-game concerts to the different competitions offered. But it was the Steph-Sab Show that clearly dominated the weekend – and saved the day; as the main course, the All-Star Game, proved to be just another oversized round-robin affair for the all-stars.
Cover photo courtesy of Marca.com. Other photos courtesy of Golden State Of mind, Sports Illustrated, YouTube, Sporting News, EuroHoops, and The Manila Times.
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