Good Morning, Stumpers!

 If somebody asked me about some of the best basketball I’ve watched in the last 24 months, there’s a lot to choose from, but I think I would go with the Olympics. There’s something different about playing for national pride! The higher-ups in the league office must have thought the same thing, because we’re going to a USA vs The World format for the All-Star Game! Has the potential to be epic! Happy Wednesday, everybody!

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Stump Story / Glue Of The Day

🌍️ USA vs The World

All-Star games in professional sports have really lost their fastball. The NFL has moved away from the Pro Bowl game itself altogether because of how unserious it was. The highlights of NBA All-Star weekend usually are the 3-point and Dunk contests. Yesterday, Adam Silver made an announcement that could change this for the better.

On February 15th, there will be a new format of the All-Star game. The league has been tinkering with this for almost a decade now. After moving away from the classic East vs West format, it went to a captain’s draft. This was filled with many LeBron vs (fill in the blank) drafts. We had LeBron vs Curry, LeBron vs Durant, and LeBron vs Giannis.

The trouble with the game has recently become: How do we get the players to really care? It’s rare to see a game that includes intense defense for the first three and a half quarters. Maybe late in the fourth if it’s a close game, but up until that point…nothing.

The question, though, is why would they care?

They aren’t winning anything extra for this game; it really is just an extra injury risk. Not too long ago, the MLB All-Star game would decide who got home-field advantage in the World Series. Now those are some serious stakes. I understand why they moved away from that format, but if you want people to care and really try, you have to do something like that.

The only other time we tend to see the athletes care is when they are playing for something bigger than themselves:

Their country.

For a while now, people have suggested a USA vs The World format, and that’s exactly what we’re going to get.

There will be 2 USA Teams and 1 World Team. And they will face off in a round-robin style tournament. The 2 teams with the best record will move on to the Finals and play in the All-Star Game Championship.

It’s an interesting idea for sure, and one that has the NBA world buzzing. Each team will have 8 members, so it still remains to be seen how accurate the All-Stars will be. Will there be snubs? Will there be guys who make it who are questionable? We will see. I’m still trying to figure out if this will solve the problem. I think it will be a little more intense for sure, but I don’t know if it completely solves the problem.

One thing is for sure, it’s a step in the right direction, and the initial player response seems to be very positive! Good stuff, Adam Silver!

Of! The! Day’s!

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