3 winners, 2 losers from NBA All-Star weekend

SAN FRANCISCO — NBA All-Star weekend has come and gone, and with it, so has another weekend of the NBA really hoping players take things seriously before rolling out a subpar product that largely angers its fanbase.

This time, though, it actually wasn’t the players’ fault that the headline event — the All-Star game itself — was lackluster. It was the long-winded production that deprioritized the game itself.

This year, the league unveiled a brand-new format in which four teams faced off on All-Star Sunday in a winners-advance format — Kenny Smith’s Young Stars (a team headlined by players like Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards), Shaq’s OGs (Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and co), Chuck’s Global Stars (Nikola Jokic, SGA, and other international stars), and the winner of Friday’s Rising Stars challenge (the non All-Star team, comprised of Dalton Knecht, Amen Thompson, and other standout first and second-year players).

In the first of three Sunday games, the Global Stars defeated the Young Stars. The OGs subsequently eliminated the Rising Stars, before defeating the Global Stars to win it all.

But, the gameplay felt like the backstory to what ended up being a production nightmare — in more 3 hours, only 42 minutes of basketball were played. And, fans of guys like Jalen Brunson and Cade Cunningham ended up hearing and seeing a lot more from Kevin Hart than their favorite players.

Here are the weekend’s winners and losers.

Winner: Steph Curry

Playing in front of his hometown crowd in San Francisco, Curry was undoubtedly the event’s biggest winner. The 11-time NBA All-Star walked away with MVP honors and a mountain of praise from his colleagues, who raved about Curry’s character and impact on the game all weekend.

Curry received 12 of 14 All-Star MVP votes after combining for 20 points on six threes between the two games. He probably would have won MVP even if he had hit a few fewer shots — just considering how much energy he filled the building with — but did just enough to solidify the honors with his on-court play.

All weekend, NBA All-Stars gave Curry his flowers. Jaylen Brown, who went to college at UC Berkeley, said his experience deepened his understanding of just how much Curry means to the area.

“Even me spending time here in college and just seeing his influence and how it’s grown, he’s a Bay Area icon, Bay Area legend,” Brown said.

Curry gushed about the All-Star experience postgame.

“The hosting experience was unbelievable,” Curry said. “I’m not going to complain about being tired or exhausted. This is an honor and a blessing to be able to celebrate and share this beautiful Bay Area that’s been a part of my life for the last 16 years and the basketball history and culture that’s here and the amazing fans that are here and the impact that the game being here has had on both cities.”

Loser: Kevin Hart

There was simply no reason why Kevin Hart should have been emceeing Saturday night’s game. Hart heckled and very visibly annoyed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, inappropriately said that Shaq “dressed like a porn director” on a broadcast that was otherwise seemingly geared toward children, and clearly agitated the players on numerous occasions.

His interruptions and incessant heckling made taking the game seriously as a viewer even more difficult. As such, fans turned to social media to complain about Hart’s involvement in the game.

It’s not all Hart’s fault — this is ultimately what the comedian was invited to do at the All-Star game — but there’s no reason why the league should have had the product center around a comedian rather than the sport of basketball itself. If Adam Silver truly wanted the players to take the game seriously, this was not the way to do it.

Winner: The city of Oakland

Most of All-Star weekend’s events were held in San Francisco, with All-Star Saturday night and Sunday’s game both taking place at Chase Center. However, various events were held in Oakland’s Oracle Arena throughout the weekend, including Friday’s celebrity game and Saturday’s media availabilities and All-Star practices.

The vibe at Oracle was unmatched.

The Warriors moved from Oracle Arena to Chase Center in 2019, and the weekend offered locals an opportunity to watch the stars play in person for the first time in years.

The atmosphere in Oracle was incomparably more lively than at Chase Center, serving as a reminder of how legendary those Warriors crowds once were, and centering Oakland in the national conversation.

“Being in this arena gives me, like, nightmares,” said Clippers guard James Harden, reflecting on his tenure with the Houston Rockets. “Because I had to go against (Curry). It was like a real battle. We literally created teams just to beat the Warriors. And somehow, some way, they always … ended up in The Finals.”

Oakland would have been an even bigger winner if more substantial events were held at Oracle Arena, like Saturday’s Three-Point and Dunk Contest, or even the All-Star games themselves. Still, it was a great opportunity to start a dialogue about the city of Oakland

Loser: People who enjoy the game of basketball

Fans who simply wanted to tune in to watch some basketball were out of luck. The 3-hour event featured only 42 minutes of actual basketball — compared to 80 minutes of ads, a 9-minute Inside the NBA tribute, and various other time-fillers that had the players themselves scratching their heads.

The experience was especially disappointing for fans of players who were named to Team Kenny — the team of young stars who lost in the opening game. Team Kenny players competed for a total of 12 minutes, with no player getting more than 8 minutes of action. First-time All-Star Tyler Herro, for example, only got 5 minutes of run the entire night — so if you were a Miami Heat fan tuning in in hopes of watching your favorite player compete, you were pretty much out of luck.

The lengthy intermission in the middle of the third game — centered around celebrating Inside the NBA — was especially frustrating to players.

“The toughest part was they stopped the game to do the presentation,” Celtics forward Jayson Tatum said. “We sit down for 20 minutes, whatever it was, it’s kind of tough to get back into the game after that.”

It was hard to even notice, but for much of Sunday night, the basketball was more competitive than years prior. Unfortunately, it felt like an asterisk in a night marked by concerts and ad breaks.

Winner: Mac McClung

McClung beat Spurs rookie Stephon Castle in the dunk contest, completing a historic 3-peat in the event and waking up an otherwise quiet Case Center crowd.

McClung began his night of dunks by jumping over a car — not the hood of one — and secured the win with four perfect dunks.

The event still lacked star power, but McClung’s dunking prowess nonetheless energized the crowd and seemed to potentially inspire other stars to reconsider participating in future years.

Grizzlies star Ja Morant turned to social media on Saturday night to express his renewed desire to compete: “Mac might make me decide to dunk.”

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said the same but later joked his phone was hacked.

Whether or not McClung’s performance impacts the contest moving forward remains to be seen. In any case, McClung — a G-League star who has yet to break through in the NBA — reminded the world once again he’s one of the greatest to ever compete in the dunk contest.

“It’s just something I love doing,” McClung said. “I think that’s where my creativity comes [in]. It’s because I genuinely love this contest and I love to dunk.”