Although we are only in mid-February, commissioner of the American league. Have you finally found a formula to regain interest in the party after a decade in free fall? It’s early to say, but right off the bat the quality of the entertainment this Sunday convinced the public, players and analysts. “It has been a step forward in the competitive department, and I think we have given the fans what they deserved,” celebrated Kevin Durant, 16-time All Star. The trial of the hearings will soon arrive, with the asterisk of having coincided in prime-time with the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
On a sporting level, on Sunday the Stars team led by one of the biggest local promises of the competition, Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, won. The new United States against the World format rekindled the flame of competitiveness among the biggest stars of world basketball. It also showed that the local young people wanted to show their chest not only against their international rivals – who have won their honor in the MVP voting since 2019 – but also demonstrate their worth and merits before the veterans, Kevin Durant and company. Against them, by a resounding 47-21 in the grand final of the third different format introduced in four years, they were crowned in the ostentatious Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Obviously, the event is still a party. It always has been. But the four 12-minute ‘matches’ between the three small groups of stars were interesting in a way this event has not been in a long time. There were moments of genuine defense, countless blocks and several mischievous steals. Heading to the final match, there was at least one shot to tie or win the duel in each of the games played. It had been at least five years since there had been so much sweat in the big festive event on the calendar, and the greatest merit went not to the MVP with ‘Jordanesque’ touches, but to the 22-year-old Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, the real spark of the whole shebang and the future face of the league.
If the players want, the All-Star Game and All Star weekend can be as attractive as it was in the days of Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and company. Silver had it very clear as soon as he finished the racket. “Thank you for competing hard on the track tonight, we all appreciate it,” agreed the head of the competition, congratulating all participants. Just two years ago, his message was cold and full of irony. “You have scored more points than anyone else. Well… congratulations,” he then said to the winners of that edition, when scoring records were broken due to the lack of defensive intensity of both teams.
Beset by pressing problems throughout the final years of his mandate, Silver removed a stone from his shoe last night. A relative relief, and there is still a lot left to shake off. One of them is the scandal of illegal betting and fixing with players involved, investigated by the FBI. Also the melon of where professionals invest. Giannis Antetokounmpo, for example, just put money into a gaming platform.
During his annual appearance at the All Star, there was a barrage of questions without convincing answers: what to do with ‘tanking’, the practice where franchises lose on purpose to be better placed when it comes to fishing in the Draft for the next pearl of the league; What will happen to the scandal over; what to say about the appearance of some members of the league in the ; what about the involvement of the owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, Robert Pera, in the sale to Russia of technology used in the Ukrainian war; and finally, what he intends with the controversial and still diffuse assault on the European basketball market, which seems taken from Donald Trump’s manual in Greenland.
