By Flint Wheeler
The NFL made some interesting changes to their respective Pro-Bowl weekend. Although watching Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice select who their back up left tackle was going to be was worse than a
honey-do-list on Sunday morning after a lengthy Saturday night.
The truth of the matter is that for how much people care about whether or not players become All Stars, the actual All-Star Games themselves are usually terrible. No one plays defense. No one wants to get hurt.
No matter the sport, the All-Star game is usually a boring, half-hearted affair that no one cares about. Baseball tried to add meaning to the game by using it to decide World Series homefield advantage, and now the game is exactly the same except managers keep a few pitchers in the bullpen in case it goes to
extra innings. What’s worse is that now some dumb exhibition game in the middle of the year decides World Series homefield advantage.
The NBA All-Star Game is broken. Here’s how to fix it.
1. How about don’t play it at all…
Just don’t do it. The league should name the best 5, or best 11 from each conference, whatever it is, and that’s it. They’re the All-Stars. We don’t need a game. Athletes can get the recognition they deserve,
and fans don’t have to sit through a meaningless exhibition in which everyone’s going at half speed.
2. More skills competition vs. Athletes/Fans
The Slam Dunk contest, while a little stale in recent years, is still a better event than the NBA All-Star Game. The Home Run Derby is a far superior event to the MLB All-Star Game. Maybe the worst idea of them all, but it’s all about entertainment and seeing 50 cent dunked on would (some might say unfortunately) sell tickets and hit all the major highlight reels on every network.
3. Mic up all the players
The All-Star Game’s best moments are when fans get to see the athletes off the big stage, laughing, having fun, and interacting with each other. The simple way to do that — Mic everyone up. If you’re worried about cursing, run it on a delay.
4. Bring in actors/comedians/musicians to spice things up
All-Star Games have traditionally not been fun to watch. You know what WAS fun to watch? MTV’s Rock N’ Jock. The games invited athletes and celebrities together to play half-hearted exhibition games, and it was fun and funny because some of the celebrities would take it super seriously. Everyone else made jokes. It worked because everyone was mic’ed up, and, when the Rock n’ Jock was at its heyday, they actually brought charismatic and funny people on who were comfortable on camera. Every once in a while a celebrity would come on and actually be good, and the reactions of the athletes to the guy going hard was incredible. Again, the game is a silly exhibition game to begin with, so why not make it a silly exhibition game played by attractive people who are comfortable being mic’ed up on camera? Picture this: Kevin Hart and LeBron James are feverishly competing against Leonardo DiCaprio and Kevin Durant in a contest to see who can make the most half-court shots in two minutes. Would you flip channels? How could you?!
5. If you really must play the All-Star game, make it interesting If leagues aren’t going to get rid of the All-Star game because of tradition or whatever, there’s only one way to make sure that the players are trying hard — cash. Offer a cash reward to the winners. Each game has a $1 million purse that the winning team gets to split. Will the leagues ever do this? Of course not. But man, those guys wouldn’t be going as half-hearted on defense if they knew there was some decent dough on the line.
Flint Wheeler
Financial Services Professional
Visit www.FlintWheeler.Com
