Decline of the All-Star game
By Mike Kaufmann
It comes every February and always receives far more attention than it deserves. And somehow, every February it seems to disappoint me even more.
No, I'm not talking about Valentine's Day. I'm talking about the NBA All-Star game.
Seriously, has anybody noticed what an utter disappointment the exhibition of basketball's best players has become? If you missed out, it was basically a collection of poorly thrown alley-oops, missed dunks and porous defense.
What happened to the days of yore when players actually cared about the result? ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons wrote about an All-Star game 20 years ago that was full of passion and pride, where nobody backed down. Guys wanted the honor of being the best.
Now? Contracts are so high that guys just don't want to get hurt. Sure, they recognize it's an honor to be selected to the game, but in reality it's more about partying in whatever location the game happens to be held -- and also about not stepping on anyone else's toes.
There are a few guys who tried to play hard -- Jermaine O'Neal comes to mind as a guy who routinely tried to play defense -- but for the most part what I saw was no better than a competitive intramural game, except for the extreme athleticism from the participants.
But the NBA isn't the only culprit. There's no checking in the NHL All-Star game, no blitzing at the NFL's Pro Bowl --Ã call me crazy, but what's the point of having these games?
The MLB tried to make the All-Star game matter by giving home-field advantage in the World Series to the winning league. Nice attempt, but guys aren't exactly barreling into catchers at home plateà --think Pete Rose and Ray Fosse.
My solution is to get rid of All-Star games all together. While it's nice to see a collection of the game's best talent assembled all in one place, when they don't care enough to play hard, it's pointless.
Fans might notice, but wouldn't it be better to just hold the games during the off-season as charity events, rather than as competitive exhibitions?
Then fans can still see the incredible collection of talent wihout being duped into believing that the players actually care about the game.
If pro athletes were more concerned about pride rather than paychecks, this wouldn't be a problem.
But let's just do the fans a favor and get rid of these ridiculous games altogether.
Contact Mike Kaufmann at (408) 551-1918 or mlkaufmann@scu.edu.