The NBA All-Star should be abolished. There’s no going back.
The best All-Star game was in 1992. Sure you had Magic making his comeback, but you also had Jordan and Bird and Patrick Ewing, and basically the entire Dream Team who would go on to win the Olympic Gold medal in Barcelona later that year. It truly was the beginning of the NBA Golden Age.
They played some defense, because to not to play defense was boring, you’re only playing half the game. You wouldn’t go bowling and play without pins, you’d be playing half the game. They played basketball.
But today, it has become totally unacceptable to play defense. It’s as though to play defense would indicate that you didn’t have as much to lose, for risk of injury. Of course no one in 1992 or any other All Star game has ever gotten seriously injured.
A quick google search will show the only injury of any notoriety happened 20 years later, when Dwayne Wade broke Kobe Bryant’s nose in what would be the first and only flagrant foul in NBA history.
The NBA All-Star is not going anywhere, but the easiest solution would be to do away with any gimmicks and simply let guys play basketball.
There’s no doubt just as the All-Stars of yesterday knew how to play, have fun and put on a show for the fans without getting injured, the current generation of All-Stars would have no problem doing the same.
