NEW ORLEANS -- Kristaps Porzingis won the Skills competition, Eric Gordon was a flamethrower, the Big Easy was jumping, and the dunk contest ... well, let’s never talk about that again after this.
Here’s the Good, the Awesome, the Bad, and the Ugly from All-Star Saturday in New Orleans ...
THE GOOD: New Orleans
The Big Easy remains the undefeated GOAT of All-Star locations. The city just shines as a true reflection of the soul of the NBA and the spirit of the weekend. All-Star Weekend is, at its heart, a celebration, and no city celebrates with more joy than this city, even after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the economic catastrophe of 2008, and even a deadly tornado that ripped through lower-income neighborhoods last week, prompting two locals I talked with to argue about which disaster has been worse. The city still vibrates with energy and the NBA both feeds off that power and injects much-needed revenue and community service projects.
Schools are renovated, money is raised, kids are given opportunities to interact with stars and get valuable lessons. Sponsors put together spaces that not only showcase their brands, but tap into New Orleans’ deep well of cultural currency. The parties are everywhere and the music is popping along with the champagne. All this while the beginning of Mardi Gras begin to slide through the city as parades took over much of Saturday in the French Quarter. It should be a disaster of logistics, and yet, everyone kind of figures it out in New Orleans, and that kind of style is part of why the city was perfect as a replacement option for the league.
It’s the funny anecdote that lingers around the event: this was never was supposed to be here. Charlotte had the event up until last fall, when the North Carolina’s controversial HB2 law forced the league’s hand in moving the event to continue with their self-ascribed values of inclusion. So they chose the city where diversity is a constant, mixed in with the beads and the booze and the music.
But even on a shortened timeline, New Orleans pulled it off. It brings to mind the question, should New Orleans just host the All-Star Game every year?
Anthony Davis said he’d love it, that hosting it is a thrill and also personally convenient for him, but both Davis and James Harden expressed reservations on behalf of the players on the idea. Players all want to share the game, and move it from city to city within the league. But the NBA should still consider making New Orleans the event’s permanent home. It can handle the hotel needs, it can handle the influx of people, and it showcases not just the events, but the league’s surrounding culture, from art to hip hop.
New Orleans keeps facing challenges. New Orleans keeps rising to the occasion.
THE ALSO GOOD: Eric Gordon, 3-point champion
There’s something fitting that Gordon returned to New Orleans, where he spent four years after being traded from the Clippers and then re-signed against his will by restricted free agency rights from the Pelicans, and won the 3-point contest. Gordon never wanted to play in New Orleans, and could never get healthy.
But he’s thriving in Houston, and his shot has been liquid gold. His extra-frame victory over Kyrie Irving showed that the Gordon who used to be talked about as an elite guard is back. And the local fans can only wonder why he could never be that with the Pelicans.
THE BAD: All-Star Saturday Night brought to you by these zillion sponsors
The league wants to make money. I get that. That makes sense. But they have found ways to drive commercials into every event. Two guys go in the skills contest? COMMERCIAL BREAK. A guy goes through a 3-point rack? COMMERCIAL BREAK. Over and over. The musical guests and segments are necessary, but in part because of the drawn-out, forced nature of the event, and partly because of the crowd, which is priced out and made up mostly of corporate sponsors, the crowd was dead. There was no life to the event, no energy. That’s part of a trend over the last few years.
It needs to feel like the room is buzzing, and with players lazing through the skills competition, missing dunks, and lounging in chairs courtside, it feels like anything but that. It doesn’t have to be serious, this is the All-Star Weekend, after all. It just has to feel fun. And Saturday felt forced.
THE AWESOME: This. All of this.
This was a special moment. Seeing Reggie Miller taking off his jacket, seeing D.J. Khaled get out there, seeing all the legends, current and former, step up in that moment, that showed what the NBA is: a family. The NBA has not forgotten Craig Sager, and they never will. Moments like these show the best of what the NBA can be.
THE REALLY, SUPER, UNBELIEVABLY UGLY: That Dunk Contest
First off, props to GR3 or “Third,” as teammate Myles Turner called him on Twitter. He had some cool dunks, and Derrick Jones Jr. brought some good stuff, especially his first dunk.
But man, alive. That was a disaster.
That was “let’s never speak of it again,” bad.
DeAndre Jordan dunked over D.J. Khaled and had one of the stronger nights. Guys missed nearly every dunk they tried, brought out repetitive props -- Glen Robinson III won despite just doing the same “dunk over multiple people” dunk over and over -- and wandered into goofy props territory.
The saddest story of the night was Aaron Gordon, who clearly wasn’t healed from his ankle injury last week. A protracted attempt at dunking using a drone was horrible in not just one, but several ways.
- He didn’t grab the ball from the drone or dunk the drone. It dropped it, and he tried to dunk it.
- He didn’t even dunk it then, anyway.
- The whole thing was a plug for Intel. Here, listen, if you want to sponsor the dunk contest? Sponsor the dunk contest. Don’t come up these gimmicks. The fans loathe them.
- After each failed dunk, they had to reload the drone, creating more anxiety in the room. It was like “The Dinner Party” episode of the office, just teeth-shatteringly awkward.
Gordon failed, and then the rest of the contest followed with him. We’re sure to hear about how the dunk contest should be retired, even though Aaron Gordon’s dunk from last year would have won the event going away. (He should have just done that under-the-legs dunk over Stuff again.) The dunk contest is fine. This one was not. Better luck next year, fellas.
Now, seriously, let’s never talk about that night again.