Davies: I love NBA All-Star weekend, but I just can't feel the game

You know, I always find it ironically amusing how much thegeneral NBA public gets upset over who does and doesn’t deserve tobe an All-Star. Because when the weekend comes itself, theincredible competitive spirit that each player performs with toearn that rare honor is completely absent by the time the ball tipson Sunday night.

This isn’t going to be an old-man-yells-at-a-cloud hit piece of"here's how the All-Star Game needs to be changed" or how thiscurrent generation of stars doesn’t carry the same gritty mentalityas the rough-and-tough decades. Those tropes are tired by myestimation to be quite honest. However, isn't it just a weebit concerning that we have this exact conversation year afteryear after year after year?

Let’s Keep it 94 (free plug!): The three-dayspectacle is meant to be a celebration of the greatness that thisleague has to offer and a pat on the back to the players who makeit so. It’s a show, a reason to take a break and not take things soseriously. Guys are laughing, and spending time with family andfriends and co-workers that have a sensational gift of talent.

(No matter how good or bad All-Star Saturday turns out to be, Iwill always crack a smile watching these guys dressed to the nineshuddled on the sidelines just having a blast.)

With that being said, I cannot truly feel the All-StarGame right now. There just isn’t that “must watch” factor thatcould absolutely destroy every other professional sport’s marqueeweekend if it wanted to, and it’s head-scratching as to why.

Our Nekias Duncan — who was on the ground for Basketball Newsthis weekend in Salt Lake City, shout out to him for that and hisamazing work all the time — tweeted something out that really gotme thinking.

To clarify, I mean in general with theAll-Star Game. Not just tonight.There’s a spectrum between giving playoff effort and risking injury(they shouldn’t do that) and what the first three quarters are.Like, 60-70% would be cool. It doesn’t have to be 5% lol

“It doesn’t have to be 5%.”

Nekias is on point with that message, and five percent may begenerous. There has to be a balance in this thing. You don’t wantthese guys to sustain any type of injuries, and you certainly don’twant a potential setback to cost their respective teams. But can’tthere be just a smidgen more “give an F” about the game? You don’thave to compete on every possession. How about once every 10instead of every 30? Is that a fair compromise?

I was watching the game with a friend of mine at home, and Ifeel like the biggest fans that support this event can’t even arguewith the typical NBA haters when you’re essentially watching a gameof HORSE for two hours. It just gives those detractors morefuel.

I’m all for a good parking lot shot — Damian Lillard, a tip ofthe cap to you because... holy hell — but when deep threes, mostlyuncontested and many bricked, make up the shot chart the entireway, it becomes old hat. By the way, some of these lanes weremore wide open than pregame shootaround layup lines beforeactual games.

It just seems as if that aura we’ve been searching for continuesto be missing.