By Jordan Long
The NBA All-Star Game is on March 7th. Usually this is the time players can have rest for those who aren’t playing in it. For Others it is an honor to play in it or be part of the weekend. This year not so much. It will still have the Slam Dunk and 3-Point contest. The 3-Point will be before the game while the Slam Dunk is at halftime. The problem is, there really shouldn’t be an All-Star Game this year.
The NBA off-season was shorter this year than any other in NBA history. The L.A. Lakers off-season was 72 days before the NBA agreed to play again on December 22nd. The only other year that comes close was in 2018 when the off-season was 127 days which was still normal.
72 days isn’t that long. The Lakers went from playing in the NBA Championship to playing in regular season games in a short time. Usually, in a normal year, the Lakers would have at least 4 months to be ready for the season. It seemed the NBA wanted to begin the season as fast as possible which they did.
The All-Star Game makes little sense this year. First of all, these athletes didn’t have much time off from playing if they were in the bubble last year which can take a toll on their body. The second reason they shouldn’t play it is some of these athletes will play in Tokyo assuming the Olympics will be played in the pandemic. Those are supposed to start on July 26th and ends on August 8th. The NBA playoffs start on May 22nd. If the NBA finals go to a game 7, that could be on July 22nd. If a player is on a team that makes the NBA playoffs and is selected for Tokyo, that is still a lot of basketball on their legs.
The final justification for not having the All-Star Game is COVID. It has been a year unlike any other. Teams have already needed to stop their season for a few games because of COVID if they were exposed. The NBA is asking all these participants to fly from all over the country to be in one spot to play a meaningless game spelling trouble with COVID. It may end up with them being exposed to COVID and shutting down some games post All-Star Break.
The NBA didn’t have to schedule an All-Star Game. They know this is entertainment for the fans even though they can’t be there and will watch it on TV. The NBA should have decided to let these players have a break from basketball. It wouldn’t have been that difficult to give them a week off before resuming the second half of the year. The NBA is hoping the NBA All-Star Game is going to be a celebration of the game like it has always been even in a pandemic.
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