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| Friday, February 7 Updated: April 15, 10:14 AM ET How to improve All-Star Weekend ESPN.com |
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Editor's note: How can All-Star Weekend be fixed? That question was presented to ESPN.com's NBA experts and here's what the Fab Five had to say.
1. Make the dunk contest worth people's while. The Commish has done a great job of getting corporate sponsors inside the L's tent. Now it's time for him to lean on them a little. Have each of the league's top five sponsors put up $500,000 each. Have one of the shoe companies (rotate it if you like) match that $2.5 mil. Then put the stash at center court. Winner take all. You think Vince and T-Mac and Kobe might show up with $5 mil at stake? You think you might get some buzz going? 2. One-on-one. Have eight guys go at it, four games between them of one-on-one up to seven, win by two. But I'd have a twist. I would match up extremes and opposites. For example, would it be fun to see Earl Boykins go up against, say, Shawn Bradley? Or Q Richardson against D Miles? Or Oak against Tyrone Hill? This would also be a way to get some other guys involved in the weekend that fall short of All-Star status but are still having strong seasons. 3. Make the 3-point contest the final event. It's the only event that has real drama. Vote: Aldridge's best idea?
2. Add Dunk Contest for Mascots, no limit on trampolines or catapults or 20-foot-high ladders. 3. Instead of free throws, any foul in the All-Star Game would result in the player fouled being awarded the ball and 10 seconds to go one-on-one with his opposite number from the top of the key. Other eight players stand outside the 3-point arc. Play resumes off the make or miss. 4. A $1 million prize. Winners take all. Vote: Bucher's best idea?
To make it a true All-Star Game, these are my recommendations: 1. Stipulate a minimum number of games (half the number of games played by his team) in which a player must appear to be eligible for selection? 2. If the NBA wants to continue to include its fans in the voting process, let their selections go into a pool of players to be considered along with those chosen by a vote of the league coaches. The 12 players (by position) in each conference receiving the most votes by the coaches would comprise the playing squads. Then the starting players would be selected by the respective coaches of the current year's All-Star Game. Under those stipulations, Vince Carter would have time to stay home to rehab his injuries and Yao Ming would probably be included on the West squad, but Shaquille O'Neal would be its starting center. Then, let the game begin. 3. For All-Star Saturday:
Vote: Ramsay's best idea?
Most of all, though, I want to see two things. I want to see this all made fun again somehow. Sad reality is, most players dread All-Star Weekend. They don't want to deal with the circus atmosphere and the media crush that grows bigger every year and the fact that they've got to work overtime while their teammates are recharging without supervision. Everyone wants to get picked for this game, but generally only the first-timers are geeked to go, which tells me that the NBA needs to be polling its players for ideas on how to fix All-Star Weekend. Until they're into it again, it'll be tough to make the public yearn for a whole weekend of events. If we continue on our current path, we'll be following the suggestion I got from one wise-cracking Western Conference team official: "Cancel it." A key element of all of the above: I want to see the dunk contest saved and restored to its proper glory. I'm sick of hearing that every dunk has been done. I'm weary of reading the well-worn excuse that the game's great dunkers don't want to sign up for fear of being typecast as dunkers. Look. The Long Distance Shootout offers the same basic premise, year after bleeding year, but it's always a treat. It never loses luster. Why? Because there's never a shortage of worthy participants and there's always a measure of drama in a good duel. I'm convinced that the dunk contest would be a must-see happening again if you had all the big names, even if some of the dunks were repeats, just by virtue of the tough comp. You're telling me you wouldn't want to see Kobe, Vince, T-Mac, Franchise, Matrix Marion, Ricky Ricky, JRich and Des Mason all throwing down in the same event? With only former dunk champions judging? You're telling me that crew couldn't come up with something you've never seen before? The problem is money. Every year we see a sponsor putting up $1 million for some fan who's iffy to hit the rim from the 3-point line. It's an opportunity of a lifetime for the fan who's shooting the Million Dollar Shot, but why isn't that money being invested in something that would entertain everyone? True, it would probably take closer to $5 mil to get all or some of those guys back in the dunk contest, but it's worth investigating. Go sponsor to sponsor until you have a big take, winner-take-all, and lure the big names back. That's what's missing from All-Star Saturday. The game itself is fine; some All-Star Games will be good and some won't and it's a coin flip you accept going in. But it's time to borrow from the NHL's book -- since they pinched the Saturday concept from us anyway -- and put together a skills competition that includes everyone, not just four guys. Something built around the stars who are playing in the Sunday extravaganza. There's nothing wrong with a Rookies vs. Sophomores game or a Long Distance Shootout, but the Saturday deal has to feature more of Sunday's All-Stars to make it meaningful, like the hockey version. Shaquille O'Neal is always telling us that Phil Jackson doesn't let him show off his dribble-and-dish game. Concoct an event that will let Shaq handle. Something that allows us to see who throws the longest chest pass and who ranks as the best ambidextrous shooter. Something fun. Vote: Stein's best idea?
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If you were me -- and you wish you were in your heart of hearts, don't you -- you've been bored by All-Star Weekend the past few years. Nothing against 2-Ball, but this isn't what's drawn eyeballs to the February Extravaganza. We want to see 3-pointers and dunks. But ever since MJ got a homer call in Chicago in the '88 dunk contest over 'Nique, nobody's really wanted to throw down. But it can be that way again. Three adjustments/changes will again make All-Star weekend the event we once loved.
1. Scratch Eastern vs. Western Conference competition and go with U.S. vs. Rest of the World. Guaranteed fierce competition over bragging rights. Yugo fans alone would make the typical NBA cellphone-talking suits shout their loyalty or duck for cover.
Isn't it time that the best players are selected for the All-Star Game again? Or should the name be changed to The Fans' Most Popular Players Game?
I have beaucoup suggestions. I want to see a trick-shot competition, if not exactly a straight-up game of H-O-R-S-E. I want to see a contest consisting strictly of half-court shots or longer, because NBA guys can actually make them with regularity -- they can bank 'em, swish 'em and keep moving back to see who really has range. I want to see a mascot slam-dunk contest. I want to see coaches, say Jerry Sloan and Don Nelson, in a free-throw shooting contest. I want to see Elliott, Legler and Wingo vs. Chuckster, Jet and Ernie -- with Walton and Ainge, too, actually. I want to see the real All-Stars playing one-on-one or two-on-two or three-on-three, with the winners keeping the court.
The NBA All Star game is the greatest 72 hours in the world of sport. The only way to make it better would be to have it on ESPN.
