On Sunday night, the 56th annual NBA All-Star Game was played in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Western Conference squad routed its rivals to the East, 153-132, behind 31 points from MVP Kobe Bryant.
Wait. Hold on just a second. Before I go any further, I would like you, dear reader, to ask yourself one question. And please, answer truthfully.
Do you care?
Statistically speaking, odds are that your answer is no. According to the Nielsen ratings, All-Star Game viewership has dropped every single year since the game switched from network television over to cable, moving from NBC to TNT after 2002. Last year, the game's rating hit a record low of 4.3, notching the league's showcase just a tad below your average airing of Wheel of Fortune.
This may come as hard to believe. After all, this is the NBA - if nothing else, the Association is marketable because of its star power. Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Carmelo ... these are the guys that make pro basketball what it is today. People pay to see the big names on the big stage, and so theoretically, Sunday night's game should have been one of the biggest nights of the year in sports.
But it wasn't. Not by a long shot. Not only were last year's NBA Finals games rated higher, but both conference final series were as well. Is it possible that America wants to see more than just 24 stars showing off? Is there perhaps a slight chance that what the people want is - God forbid - actual basketball?
Because that's not what we get when we tune in to watch the All-Star Game. What we do get is a glorified combination of three-point shootout and dunk contest. Seemingly every possession ends in one of two ways: either the "defenders" will stand there apathetically watching as Kobe, LeBron or Carmelo cruise to the hoop for an easy bucket, or, on a rare occasion when someone actually tries to play defense, one of the aforementioned ballhogs will heave up a three.
This isn't basketball. Basketball is a team sport - this is a lazy, sleazy, trashy display of individual performances. They should play this thing in Vegas every year; it doesn't belong anywhere else.
I'm thinking and hoping that we're entering a new era in the NBA. Rather than relying on the superstars to drive the league, the Association should return to focusing on team basketball. The league's best teams - Dallas, Phoenix, and Detroit to name a few - all buy into this principle. Even though Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Richard Hamilton are great players; they aren't ballhogs. They know how to make the players around them better, unlike certain other NBA stars (here's looking at you, Kobe).
The Suns, for example, share the ball better than any team in the league. They have the NBA's second-best record, and yet their leading scorer, Amare Stoudemire, is 23rd in the league in scoring. There's not a single Sun scoring 20 points per game, and yet Nash, comfortably rested in 27th with 19.3 points a contest, is the frontrunner to win yet another MVP.
So here's my point. It's fairly clear why the All-Star Game is a joke these days: it completely contradicts everything for which the modern NBA stands. Team basketball means nothing, and star power is everything. It's barely even a game anymore - it's a Vegas sideshow. I mean, come on, what kind of real NBA game is decided 153-132?
As hard as it is to believe in a country whose No. 1 show is American Idol, the general public just isn't as lowbrow as it once was. (Yes, I'm aware that I just alienated 30 million people with that sentence, and no, I don't care.)
The bottom line is that this problem is never going to change, because as long as the All-Star Game continues to be irrelevant, the players are going to continue goofing off for 48 minutes. So, brace yourself for what I'm about to say. I never thought I'd say it.
Perhaps Bud Selig got it right.
Baseball seems to be the one sport holding an All-Star Game that actually makes people care. The NHL (yes, it has an all-star game, but I don't blame you if you never noticed) saw its ratings drop 76 percent this year from its last showcase in 2004. The Pro Bowl consistently flops every February, probably because everyone is tired of watching football by Super Bowl's end. Major League Baseball, meanwhile, is attracting more viewers than all three games combined.
I hate to say it, but that may be a result of Commissioner Selig's policy of giving the winning league home-field advantage for the World Series.
You can argue that that rule is stupid, because there's no reason the Tigers should benefit when Michael Young gets a game-winning hit off of Trevor Hoffman. But it's a double-edged sword. While the "this time it counts" rule may be illogical, it also serves a purpose: it makes people care. And after Sunday night's debacle, I've started to wonder what it would be like to watch an NBA All-Star Game that actually mattered.
I don't know why I bother, because I seriously doubt that it'll ever happen. But hey, I can dare to dream. And dream, I will. I'm dreaming of a world with a lot less Kobe, and a lot more Steve Nash. It's a happy dream.
