Maybe some things just can't be fixed

Random thoughts from a Saturday night/Sunday morning.

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I don’t know what they can do to jazz up that Saturday night – nor do I know how it might have played out on television – but, man, something has to happen.

Even in the arena there really wasn’t a buzz, the girl/guy old/guy thing never creates to much excitement because fans are just setting in; didn’t seem to be an awful lot of extra effort in the punt/pass/kick contest and the three-point shooting thing capture some attention, but not much.

The dunk contest?

Wow.

Been there, done that, bored the first time, more bored the second.

Best dunk, for sure, was the Evans one where he caught the two ball and dunked them both; hadn’t seen that before.

Everything else?

Yawn.

P. Diddy as a prop? Guy stealing DeRozan’s dunk from a year ago with the pass off the side of the backboard? A motorcyle rather than a car?

Wow.

It was hilarious at the end when Derrick Williams was capping the night with two minutes of dunking futility – and that is a very, very long time of dunking futility, by the way.

As soon as the buzzer went to end the hijinks the fans started to flee like someone had pulled the fire alarm. Don’t blame them.

How do you fix the night? I have no clue, sadly; one suggestion in the hospitality suite was to make some of the competitions more team-oriented, have two three-point shooters from a team, make the dribble-pass-shoot thing a relay instead of guard-against-guard.

That might make some kind of sense but the dunk contest? I’m not entirely sure it can be saved. Sometimes things just run their course.

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I have now seen Flo Rida perform live.

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One of the coolest things of the night was Anthony Morrow doing the three-point shooting thing wearing a throwback tribute jersey of Drazen Petrovic, the former Nets great killed in a car accident.

At least this time, the majority of the people in the building got it, unlike a couple of years ago when Rudy Ferdandez was robbed in the dunk contest wearing a throwback jersey as a tribute to Fernando Martin, the first Spanish NBAer, who also died in a car crash.

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Just got a release that says the TV ratings in the States for Saturday night were the second-highest in the 27 years of the event and got one yesterday that said the kids game Friday drew the biggest ratings ever.

If that’s not a sign the apocalypse is upon us, I don’t know what is.

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You get to these things and they generally run buses from the media hotel to the arena and the volunteers who handle it are generally helpful and well-meaning.

But there’s always a glitch. Or two.

About 20 of us are on the first bus to the arena yesterday and the guy marshalling the drivers and passengers comes on and makes sure we’re all going to the Amway Center and not the Jam Session, which is about six or seven miles out of the way.

Yes, we let him know. We are.

Driver gets on, we start the journey and no one’s paying much attention because it’s a mind-numbing trek down traffic-jammed I-4. Well, no one’s paying much attention until the driver starts heading for the convention centre and the Jam Session when we all start mentioning the faux pas in somewhat loud voices.

Driver seems stunned that we’re going to the arena, ends up taking back roads back to the highway and a trip that took 25 minutes at the end of the night ended up taking 65 on the way there.

Oh, and we get to the security checkpoint on a small road about half a mile from the arena and the heavily-armed officers are somewhat upset. Seems the security seal on the luggage had been broken and all of a sudden the cops are quite upset, telling the volunteers to get away from the bus – while we’re still sitting on it! – and bringing out the bomb-sniffing dog to check things out.

There was no bomb, of course, but the fact they let us sit there like dopes while telling the others to stand back was a tad disconcerting.

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I’m sure there were all kinds of famous people at the arena last night, wish I knew who they were.

We’re walking from the really good baseline seat I had to the back after the, um, competitions and there’s a great hullabaloo as people want their picture taken with this one young lad.

“That somebody” I ask the Friend Of A Certain Vintage who’s walking with me.

“No idea,” he says.

Guess the pop culture knowledge isn’t quite up to snuff.

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I’ve got the West tonight.

How about you?

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Oh, and don’t forget we’ll have an IGBT going tonight. Tip-off is allegedly just after 7:30; I’m guessing closer to 8 p.m. but I’ll be in place shortly after 7. See you then, right?

Of course, I’ll understand if you all only stick around for a half so you can get to bed early for a good night’s sleep. After all, tomorrow is NHL Trade Deadline Day, isn’t it?

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Comments

[jc]

not sure if this is an aberration of the compressed schedule, but has the all-star game gone head to head with the Oscars before? Is that a wise move?

[doug]

Rose just signed a huge endorsement deal with Adidas, so why don't competing shoe companies field teams in the skills competition....players would compete as they'd have no choice and compete with a reason....just a thought, although I am against commercialization why not as it is what it is....

[RyanK]

Don't know how you can get this idea to the proper authorities, Doug, but I think they need to have the dunk contest every 3 or 4 years rather than every year. People proclaim it dead every other year anyways, you'd be much more likely to recruit higher-end talent and you could put more time into recruiting because guys might genuinely want to appear in it if it seems like a more prestigious event.

Another thought is tell Kenny to quiet down and really work on better ways to build hype. When the crowd gets into it (think after HWSNBN's first dunk) the energy in there actually translates through the TV so if you can have a short performance by an energetic music artist or precede it with something more exciting to build an energy level, it would be far less deflating.

Finally, 2 minutes of dunks can be killer because if one guy takes his most of his time, the crowd is completely flat and the next guy's got an uphill battle to get them back into it. Make it 2 or 3 attempts and that's it (if you can't do the dunk, don't do it) but keep it timed too so people aren't carried away..

While I don't like prop dunks and all that stuff, they do tend to come with some level of energy to bring to the crowd - maybe give each dunker a PR consultant to advise them on what type of shtick to do/avoid.

Short of forcing top-end guys to compete there's not a whole lot else to do.
I trust you'll get this to the proper authorities and I await my cheque in the mail. :-)

[Tim H.]

"If that’s not a sign the apocalypse is upon us, I don’t know what is."
Either that, or a sign of what a wasteland modern television is (with the exception of Big Bang Theory - which beat out Idol last week - and Modern Family).

[D-Mac Ottawa]

I haven't watched the Friday or Saturday All Star stuff for a few years now. Vince kind of set the bar... How about replacing the dunk thing with a game of H-O-R-S-E, only shorten it to N-B-A or S-O-L... Draw 4 names from a hat with 30 names in it (one from each team) a week or two before All Star weekend. You can bring whatever you've got, including dunks... but no props. Turn it into a charity event and maybe you've got something worthwhile.
You hearing any deadline rumours down there, Doug?
Cheers. Go Raps!

[Hao]

In my opinion, the dunk contest was pretty fun. They try to bring out some creativity out of it. Last night, I was watching with friends and they barely see basketball before but liked it in the end. I agree that they should change up a bit but it takes time and effort. Maybe bring out the old veteran dunkers like Lebron and Wade and Carter. Still, not every dunk contest is going to be an exciting and awesome adventure movie.

[m]

It's a snowy winter weekend here in Alberta and I hate having no basketball to watch on TV.

[Brianloney]

The whole weekend is an insult to intelligence and hoops.

Im on the NBA site - it doesnt even say where the game is...

[KD]

I saw bits and pieces of AS Saturday night. I happen to come across Allan Houston shooting, i thought for a second it was 1994 again. The guys still got an amazing shot!

[KenL]

My suggestion for the dunk contest........90 seconds to dunk. For every miss you get one point taken off the maximum allowable total points. 30 points 1st attempt......27 2nd....24 3rd and so on. Would make each round interesting and also make sure that someone that tries 3,4,5 times to get one dunk gets penalized. I like the dunk contest but watching multiple attempts sucks the energy out it.

[sportschick]

Very strange having the All Star game go up against the Oscars. Boo.

I didn't watch any of the 'festivities' last night. They should drop the dunk contest. They dropped it in the past, didn't they? I think it was brought back for HWSNBN. Time to retire it again. I don't have any better ideas, though.

[Don in Thunder Bay]

http://travel.ca.msn.com/rio-carnival-2012-in-pictures-20#image=1

Leandro Barbosa is no dummy. Carnivale is on this weekend in Rio. I'm sure he has seen enough allstar games to know where he would rather be. No wonder he made a beeline for the plane at the end of the Detroit game.

Love your blog, Doug. I read every day. Keep up the good work. Kudos to your irregulars as well. They are awesome.