All-Star Weekend 2023

[Superbone]

Kinda like Derrick Jones Jr with us as well. I believe he had zero nba dunks before he competed in the dunk contest.

Yeah, but look at him now. A success story.

[carey]

I didn't get to see them live but those dunks are super impressive. Right up there with the Zach Lavine/Aaron Gordon dunks a few years back. I don't know if the kid has any other skills but he's a hell of a dunker.

[specialsauce]

Regardless of how I feel about any of it, I didn't tune in for a single minute of it. Would probably be fun to attend.

Exactly. Nobody’s tuning in to watch randoms dunk. Rather get some household names in it or cancel the thing.

[SunsRIt]

Regardless of how I feel about any of it, I didn't tune in for a single minute of it. Would probably be fun to attend.

Exactly. Nobody’s tuning in to watch randoms dunk. Rather get some household names in it or cancel the thing.

I guess I’m nobody then because I watched it. With my wife.

[Superbone]

Regardless of how I feel about any of it, I didn't tune in for a single minute of it. Would probably be fun to attend.

Exactly. Nobody’s tuning in to watch randoms dunk. Rather get some household names in it or cancel the thing.

I guess I’m nobody then because I watched it. With my wife.

I'm with you! I just want to be impressed and awed. I don't care about their popularity. Besides, most of the guys in the contest play little in actual games anyway.

[specialsauce]

Regardless of how I feel about any of it, I didn't tune in for a single minute of it. Would probably be fun to attend.

Exactly. Nobody’s tuning in to watch randoms dunk. Rather get some household names in it or cancel the thing.

I guess I’m nobody then because I watched it. With my wife.

My wiiiiiiiiife

[Mori Chu]

The dunks are great. But as the announcers said, the 76ers literally signed him to a two-way contract a week before the contest. He's barely an NBA player, arguably not even one. This is almost literally just grabbing people off the street and putting them into the slam dunk contest.

I'm not necessarily attacking the league for letting Mac compete. I'm more bemoaning how far the All-Star Weekend has fallen. I think of the days of Larry Bird going in the locker room before the 3-point contest saying, "Which one of you guys is coming in second?" I think of MJ's tongue out in '86 as he dunks from the FT line. I'm thinking of Vince Carter dunking in 2000. These contests used to mean more. Now they're almost a joke.

[Split T]

They’ve lost their luster. Players don’t care because there’s nothing to gain. Fans don’t really care if you won the dunk contest, it doesn’t elevate your status as a player.

[SunsRIt]

Players don’t care because they generally can’t compete with the professional/YouTube dunkers. Those guys do nothing but dunk and practice new stuff all the time. That is their craft. NBA players need to practice their craft and dunking isn’t a high priority for them.

I’ve known who Mac Mclung is for years because he has a highlight dunk reel from high school going forward.

[Superbone]

The dunks are great. But as the announcers said, the 76ers literally signed him to a two-way contract a week before the contest. He's barely an NBA player, arguably not even one. This is almost literally just grabbing people off the street and putting them into the slam dunk contest.

I'm not necessarily attacking the league for letting Mac compete. I'm more bemoaning how far the All-Star Weekend has fallen. I think of the days of Larry Bird going in the locker room before the 3-point contest saying, "Which one of you guys is coming in second?" I think of MJ's tongue out in '86 as he dunks from the FT line. I'm thinking of Vince Carter dunking in 2000. These contests used to mean more. Now they're almost a joke.

I'd love to live on your street. Wow! Everybody can dunk like Mac?! Amazing! That is incredible! I bet you could sell a massive amount of tickets to your neighborhood games. It would be like a real life NBA Jam. I just can't get over it. Literally, huh? Wow. Just, wow.

[Shabazz]

I enjoyed watching Mac dunk. I'd rather watch fringe NBA guys dunk like that than stars do lame, mediocre dunks. It's kind of moot because if the stars won't agree to do it, they're not just going to cancel the event. Much like the game itself, it's mostly for kids and advertising dollars. No one needs to watch if it's not entertaining them. I barely watched the ASG this year.

[ShelC]

Good breakdown here...lowest Saturday and Sunday night TV ratings in All-Star history, still beat out other cable programming in its timeslot. Surprisingly, the Celebrity game was the most watched of the three nights. I wouldn't have thought anyone watched that.

[specialsauce]

#ItoldYaSo

[In2ition]

I watched about a minute of the game and then turned it off. It was complete trash. I would rather have watched some random pickup game at Lifetime Fitness. At least, they will be giving more effort.

[TOO]

How can you get lower ratings than flag football pro bowl stuff? Yeesh.

[Split T]

Football has ridiculous viewership…can’t really compare basketball to it

[Mori Chu]

It really was a bad game, and a bad All-Star Weekend. The players just goof around and don't try. The best/right players aren't in the other events like 3pt/dunk contest. The events are all bloated and full of bad musical acts and hammy commentating from the network announcers. The whole thing is a big joke and isn't very entertaining. And it's so stretched out, there are maybe a few hours of good content stretched over 3 entire days, it just seems tedious to try to watch it. It falls victim to that problem where you basically just want the 1-minute clip of the best dunks and you want to see maybe the best 1-2 guys shooting their 3-pointers, and that's it. Not worth watching 5 hours of coverage when you can just wait for the Tik-tok version.

[Shabazz]

It really was a bad game, and a bad All-Star Weekend. The players just goof around and don't try. The best/right players aren't in the other events like 3pt/dunk contest. The events are all bloated and full of bad musical acts and hammy commentating from the network announcers. The whole thing is a big joke and isn't very entertaining. And it's so stretched out, there are maybe a few hours of good content stretched over 3 entire days, it just seems tedious to try to watch it. It falls victim to that problem where you basically just want the 1-minute clip of the best dunks and you want to see maybe the best 1-2 guys shooting their 3-pointers, and that's it. Not worth watching 5 hours of coverage when you can just wait for the Tik-tok version.

I could have also done without all the Karl Malone glorification. Ick.

[TOO]

It really was a bad game, and a bad All-Star Weekend. The players just goof around and don't try. The best/right players aren't in the other events like 3pt/dunk contest. The events are all bloated and full of bad musical acts and hammy commentating from the network announcers. The whole thing is a big joke and isn't very entertaining. And it's so stretched out, there are maybe a few hours of good content stretched over 3 entire days, it just seems tedious to try to watch it. It falls victim to that problem where you basically just want the 1-minute clip of the best dunks and you want to see maybe the best 1-2 guys shooting their 3-pointers, and that's it. Not worth watching 5 hours of coverage when you can just wait for the Tik-tok version.

I could have also done without all the Karl Malone glorification. Ick.

They did what now?

I guess the other option would've been Stockton but he's so far gone he's waiving at Kyrie from space.