NBA All Star Game

By Trashtalk Superstar

The 2008 NBA All Star Game was played tonight. Drive and Dish's Trashtalk Superstar was suffering from a bad headache and was fast asleep when the game originally aired. Fortunately, TNT rebroadcast the game after 10:00 PM.

I'm glad that I didn't miss this game.

This year's All Star Game was exciting and fun to watch again -- unlike last year's game. Drive and Dish readers may recall the awful dreck that was the 2007 NBA All Star Game. The 2007 All Star Game was probably the worst All Star game of all time (which may have had something to do with the fact that the game was played in Las Vegas, and players probably weren't exactly 100% rested and motivated to play by game time).

But tonight, the NBA All Stars went out and put on a fast paced display of offensive skills and slick passing -- exactly what the All Star Game is supposed to be all about.

The NBA All Star Game is one of my favorite sporting events of the year. If I were an NBA player, I'd salivate at the opportunity to play in that game, since it allows players to have fun, forget about playing defense and put on a display of skills/clever passing. The NBA All Star Game is basketball played the way that every basketball player fantasizes about playing (if only once), but knows that he could never get away with playing during the season because no coach would ever allow it. Thus, the NBA All Star Game represents the mythical "perfect run" that basketball players dream about, as it's an up and down the court showcase of skills and fancy passing, played in a pressure free atmosphere.

And where Major League Baseball's All Star Game and the NFL'S Pro Bowl have fallen off in popularity and significance, the NBA All Star Game is still interesting and fun to watch. Although the game isn't as spectacular as it was in the NBA's Dr.J/Magic Johnson/Larry Bird/Charles Barkley/Clyde Drexler/Patrick Ewing days, or the Michael Jordan "golden era," it remains a showcase for the league's stars to go out and put on a show. NBA regular season games are often tedious, with their slow paced, isolation centered offensive sets and aggressive, physical defense. But the NBA All Star Game, by contrast, is a wide open, up tempo, loose affair in which players try to show off what they can really do (but could never get away with doing in a real game).

LeBron James was named MVP of the All Star Game. But several other players stood out as well. Steve Nash and Jason Kidd always drop jaws in the All Star Game, with their fancy passing and unparalleled court vision. Both players impressed again tonight.
And Chris Paul showed that he's got all the tools of an elite NBA point guard too.

Celtics Paul Pierce and Ray Allen looked great. So did Denver's Carmello Anthony. Big Dwight Howard, who plays in relative anonymity in Orlando, got the chance to introduce himself to a national audience. He showed that he's quickly becoming one of the most dominant big men in the league.

The NBA All Star game will probably never regain the luster that it had in the Michael Jordan era. Jordan always put on a show, gave 100% from tip off to the final buzzer, did his best to win the All Star MVP, and turned up the intensity in the fourth quarter in an attempt to win the game.

But tonight's game was fun again. And, like Jordan used to do, the players actually did dial up the intensity in the fourth quarter and actually did try to win the game.

After an awful 2007, The NBA All Star Game is back.