NBA All Star Weekend... Can We Make It Better?

Now just so you know know... This is coming from a huge NBA fan... But All Star Weekend is becoming boring to me. In the picture above, Nate Robinson smiles widely with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (who wouldn't?) after winning his 3rd straight Slam Dunk Contest. Seeing those ladies might have been the hilight for me... Probably was for Nate even WITH the contest win... But the whole weekend, the Dunk Contest especially, has become tedious for me. Why?? You cannot re-invent the wheel. Why was it succesful in years past? One... the novelty of it all. You were seeing dunks and moves that you hadn't seen before. Secondly... there were BIG TIME stars competing. Who can forget (if you were alive to see it) Julius "Dr. J" Erving taking off from the foul line. Or that great battle between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins in Chicago... And in more recent memory Vince Carter. Fast Forward to today... If Nate Robinson weren't a Knick, would we care? Besides Nate I'm watching Gerald Wallace and DeMar DeRozan do dunks that I've seen on a Tuesday in a Bobcats-Raptors game. Its all been done. It's tough to come up with new stuff. I don't even know how to change it. Maybe do away with it.

The Skills competition... I get it... I like the idea behind it. Let's see if these high priced athletes can perform the fundamentals of the game... But in the end how exciting is it minus Kevin Harlan screaming at the top of his lungs trying to "sell it?" That's so comical to me. Not really exciting if you ask me. They have a bunch of other events including HORSE and Shooting Stars... Yawn! The Celebrity game on the Friday of the All Star weekend is worth a couple of laughs but when it comes down to it.. do you want to see Dr. Oz playing against Mark Cuban? If you do, stop reading this immediately and proceed to an insane asylum. The Rookie game is like the All Star game for toddlers. First and second year players take the floor... and you might get a look at some of the rising stars... But like the main event, there's no defense played in that game. I still love the 3-point shooting contest. Can't really mess with that. It's my favorite event. Probably because it's the only event that I might have a shot at competing at.

Now to the All Star game itself. I do like it. The greatest stars take the court and they usually put on a show. But I do think they try way too hard to make the hilight reel. Then if the game is tight in the final minutes, they get more serious. Last night the East won 141-139 in front of a record crowd of 108,713 in Cowboys stadium. Dwyane Wade had 28 points, 11 assists and was named MVP. But most years, the All Star game is just what it is, an exhibition. I'm not picking on the NBA. I'm not really a fan of any of the All Star games. But this is the sport that I love the most so I want it to be the best. This is really a question because I really don't have an answer. How do we make this better? One obvious answer is a little "D" in the All-Star Game. But beyond that, what? James?