NBA All Star 2013: Ways to Improve Competition on Saturday Night

Last night was one of the few times I’ve sat and watched the Saturday night part of All Star Weekend for the NBA.  I was watching and realized there are some things I would change about that evening because overall, I wasn’t that impressed and I wasn’t too excited by it.  I think that first you need to get the big stars of the NBA involved.  I know there’s the clamor to get Lebron James in the Dunk Contest, and I would think he should do it as well.  But last night, who was the biggest star there?  Tony Parker in that skills competition, which I know needs to be improved.  The Dunk Contest featured Jeremy Evans, Terrence Ross, Gerald Green, and Kenneth Faried?  Oh yea, Eric Bledsoe and James White were part of it too?  So who’s the big name there?  Blake Griffin can’t go for another title. I understand getting some newer guys out there, but after that night, when do we hear from them again?  It’s all about Lebron, Kobe, Melo, Wade, Chris Paul, and such as they were shown more times than the actual guys in the competitions.

Also, I think it should be back to the individuals challenging each other.  I didn’t like that team idea at all, and all that scoring was hard to follow.  The NBA is all about a love fest between players anyways, so why not have the guys really go out and challenge each other?  I think the NBA will hopefully do away with the East and West idea as that can happen in the actual All Star game.  There needs to be more of a competition on this Saturday night, and here are my ways to improve it.

Shooting Stars

I think it’s a fine idea to have some teams of three players, a current star, a former star, and a WNBA player.  But I would make it more of a game of HORSE, where each person takes  a shot, and then that next team goes for that shot or takes their own.  I don’t like this idea of seeing people shot a halfcourt shot and waste all this time on that.  Let’s make it a big exciting and challenging by introducing some different shots.  You set a time limit, and then if the teams are tied, it’s one shot for each, and see who makes that.

Skills Challenge

Did the guys really care about this at all?  I think Damien Lilliard who won the competition went hard at it, but Tony Parker looked like he could have been anywhere else.  Even Jeremy Lin looked very disinterested in this.  For this, I think the idea of the skills challenge is fine. But what about this?  At the end, they have to make a basket on one of those carnival basketball goals, where you win the big stuffed animal.  I would hope that these guys can make a layup, so why not add some excitement and sizzle to it with a real challenge at the end?

Three Point Contest

I don’t think much needs to improved upon here if anything.  If you were to change something, what about the idea that you can have someone passing you the ball so you can fully get into your shooting form.  For a guy like Paul George, that would probably help him out.  I think that’s why Reggie Miller was never a great contestant here, since his form is all about getting into that form, and not the more set shot form that is what this contest is made for.

Slam Dunk Contest

First off, are fans really open to vote on the finalist before their first dunk evens happens?  I would definitely change that to where we wait till after that first final dunk and then fans can start voting.  Why are they voting even before the dunks?  Another way to improve this is to have a limit of dunks, say 5 attempts in 2 minutes.  So whichever comes first, the five attempts or two minutes is what you have to work with.  People complain about too many missed dunks, so put the cap on it, and you won’t have to worry about that as much.  I like the fan voting idea, but I would say why not just do it from the beginning?

 What would you improve upon?  Do any of the competitions need to be done away with?