The NBA has finally hit upon an All-Star Game format that works.
This year’s All-Star Game featured the top two vote receivers — LeBron James and Stephen Curry — serving as captains of separate teams. The two chose their teams in a draft, and the sides competed against each other on Sunday, rather than the more traditional Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference format. The new style led to a competitive, exciting finish where guys were serious about winning.
Though a good portion of the game featured lots of offensive highlights and less defense, the end got serious. Guys buckled down on defense. They wanted reviews for out of bounds plays. Their inner-competitors came out.
After the game, Russell Westbrook, who was on the victorious Team LeBron, said that was the case.
“We got stops when we needed to. We wanted to win. We wanted to take pride. We wanted to win,” Westbrook told TNT’s Kristen Ledlow.
“It was fun and exciting to go up against guys from the same conference. It was a fun, exciting game.”
LeBron won MVP of the game and said that he and Curry took it upon themselves to elevate the level of competition.
“Myself and Steph decided that we had to change the landscape of how the All-Star Game is played. The last couple of years, the game wasn’t as competitive as we would have liked,” James said in an interview with TNT’s Ernie Johnson.
“It was great from both sides.”
James also said that defense was an emphasis in this one, and he was right.
All the comments from the participants hit on that theme.
Kyrie Irving on the new format: "We all took it kind of personal. We wanted to be competitive."
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) February 19, 2018
Russell Westbrook said he could definitely feel a change in the game the last couple of minutes. Paul George on if this was the most competitive All-Star Game he’s been in: “Absolutely.”
— Erik Horne (@ErikHorneOK) February 19, 2018
It was nice to finally have an All-Star Game that was watchable.
