The NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night Showcase needs changes, and I am here to help

Yet another NBA All-Star weekend has come and gone. Team LeBron took home a 5th straight win behind 50 points and 16 3-pointers made from Steph Curry, along with a game-winning fadeaway from LeBron. The actual game and the Sunday events honoring the NBA’s 75th anniversary were memorable and iconic. However, what occurred the night before reminded us all of a glaring problem in the weekend’s events that I will try to help solve. This problem being the Saturday night contests that include the skills challenge, 3 point contest, and dunk contest. 

We’ll start with the skills challenge. This year, rather than having individual players compete, 3 teams were made. Team Cavs from the host city Cleveland featuring Evan Mobley, Darius Garland, and Jarret Allen; Team Rooks made up of rookies Josh Giddey, Scottie Barnes, and Cade Cunningham; and a team made up of the 3 Antetokounmpo brothers. While the concept and team idea weren’t bad on paper, it just was not it. This is mainly due to the fact that people do not want the skills challenge anymore. It’s basic and does not have much flair to it, given it’s only meant to show off players’ basic fundamentals, which is nice but not made for the bright lights. However, there is a perfect replacement: a tournament. The NBA can set up a 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 tournament of multiple teams. Just like on the playground, games can be scored by 1’s and 2’s to 12, or 2’s and 3’s to 21. To make sure some stars are involved, money to first place can be thrown in. Players can pick their own teams beforehand and enter them. It would create great entertainment and showcase the isolation, street ball-like skills of players. 

As for the 3 point contest, what you can do to up it is limited. But, there are some shakeups. As the NBA game has evolved, we’ve seen off-the-dribble deep 3’s become more popular. Maybe instead of shooting from a rack the entire competition, off-the-dribble stepbacks, fades, and pull-ups can be added with points worth increasing based on degree of difficulty. Imagine Luka Doncic and James Harden having a stepback contest from 30 feet to determine a winner. It would be endless entertainment. 

Now, for the one most difficult to fix: the dunk contest. The dunk contest has had some iconic moments from legendary participants such as Dr. J, Dominique Wilkins, Kobe, MJ, Zach Lavine, Aaron Gordon, and so many more. Yet in recent years there have been multiple problems that have come up. One, lack of headliner names. Two, lack of creativity/dunks left to do. Three, the format. As for getting headliner names, money talks. Add a pot of up to a million dollars for the players and/or charity as they have done for the actual All-Star Game itself and I guarantee at least 1-2 superstars take the bait. As for creativity, I mean there is a limit to how many dunks are possible. But maybe have professional dunkers assist or “coach” the players and give them ideas? This would also help promote street ball and other types of hoopers. Lastly, change the format. Simply add a timer or count every time the player jumps as an attempt. We watched Jalen Green jump 15 times for 10 minutes with no result. That kills the buzz and loses you viewers. Taking these measures can help make sure ASG Saturday is much better. 

So, there are some creative ways to spice up NBA ASG Saturday Night. While I understand there are things holding players back from participating such as possible injury risk and fatigue, the NBA has become very lazy and hasn’t taken many measures to make Saturday a better night. Hopefully next year, we see these ideas or something similar made a reality.