“Am I an All-Star? No. Doesn’t mean I can’t be in the future. You never know. There’s been guys like Kyle Lowry, guys who been in the league for six or seven years and they go somewhere and it clicks. No one thought D’Angelo Russell was going to be who he was this year, and then he goes to Brooklyn and turns into an All-Star. “I’ll never count myself out, but in terms of accepting who you are, I’m fine with that. I love where I’m at. I was 19 years old. I thought I knew everything and things don’t work, which is the first time in my life it didn’t work. Even at Duke it was easy for me, I was better than everybody. I come here, and I didn’t play well.
All-Star Rumors
Speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Friday, Silver raised the idea of replacing the All-Star Game with a midseason or preseason tournament in which teams would compete for a separate championship, like they do in European soccer. Or groups of teams could compete in mini-tournaments in Asia or Europe. “The All-Star Game didn’t work,” he said, calling it “an afterthought” of the weekend, despite changes such as a player draft that was made public for the first time. “I get it. We put an earring on a pig.’
Silver raised the idea of replacing the All-Star Game with a midseason or preseason tournament in which teams would compete for a separate championship, like they do in European soccer. Or groups of teams could compete in mini-tournaments in Asia or Europe. The problem, Silver said, is how to make these other events meaningful. “The All-Star Game didn’t work,” he said, calling it “an afterthought” of the weekend despite changes like tinkering with the rosters through a player draft that was made public for the first time. “I get it. We put an earring on a pig.”
Will we see an NBA all-star game in the near future overseas? Mark Tatum: It’s a good question. I would never say never. I would say nothing is planned in the foreseeable future. We actually have our All-Star games planned out pretty far out. There’s such demand, certainly overseas, but there’s demand from our NBA teams to host the All-Star game as well.
NBA All-Star players, fans, media, and other visitors filled up more hotel rooms than any other event in Charlotte history. Officials said more than 95 percent of the hotel rooms in uptown were booked over the weekend.
Van Gundy coached in the 2000 All-Star game, his Eastern Conference team falling to Phil Jackson and the Western Conference 137-126. There was no shortage of alley-oops tried in that game, though Tim Duncan, Alonzo Mourning and Shaquille O’Neal spent plenty of time defending the rim against those lobs as well. “I would name All-Stars, I would have All-Star weekend, they have all these things, introduce them … the players are great, they should be applauded,” Van Gundy said this week, while preparing to coach USA Basketball’s team picked for the final two games of qualifying for this summer’s FIBA World Cup in China. “But to take this game and shoot 160 3s, it’s an embarrassment. It’s an embarrassment.”
Players, including James and National Basketball Players Association President Chris Paul, along with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver all said after the 192-182 game two years ago that the All-Star game had to be more competitive. “Let’s just say it: They don’t want to play,” Van Gundy said. “Adam said, ‘It’s got to be fixed.’ There’s nothing fixed.”
