An All*Star Farce

All*Star Games are always a tricky balance for the leagues and the players.  They're a marquee event on the schedule, and teams are eager to host them.  Whenever somebody builds a new stadium or arena, you can bet that an All*Star Game will be played at that venue pretty soon after it opens.  And, while the players seem to enjoy the idea of being selected as an All*Star, getting them to take the game seriously enough to be competitive is a different issue entirely.

That lack of competitiveness came to a head Sunday night in the NBA All*Star Game, where almost 400 total points were scored and the East broke 200.  Defense has always been optional in All*Star Games, but this took it to an extreme.  It was nothing more than dunks and open threes.  Even Commissioner Adam Silver couldn't hide his disgust with what he witnessed.  During the awards ceremony, he said (in a very sarcastic tone), "To the Eastern Conference All*Stars, you scored the most points.  Well, congratulations."

What's ironic is that the NBA made changes to the All*Star Game this year, hoping it would make the game more competitive.  After six years of players drafting their own teams (a change that was made because the West scored 196 and 192 in back-to-back years prior to that) and four of using the "Elam ending" with a target score during an untimed fourth quarter, the NBA reverted back to the traditional East vs. West format this season.  It obviously did NOT lead to the desired result.

The NHL, meanwhile, went the other way.  They've tinkered with their All*Star format the most over the years, and was the first to go to the "player draft" format in 2011.  When the NHL realigned into four divisions for the 2015-16 season, they dropped the player draft for a four-team three-on-three tournament between the four divisions, with the winners of the final splitting $1 million.  This season, they kept the four-team three-on-three tournament, but instead of doing it by division, they went back to the player draft and had four captains choose their own teams.

Not only that, the NHL changed up the Skills Competition this season.  That was the element of their All*Star Weekend they felt needed an overhaul, so it was completely revamped with input from the players (mainly Oilers star Connor McDavid).  Instead of having it as a series of individual events, each having its own winner, and having every All*Star compete in at least one, this season, it was only 12 players competing for points, with just one overall winner (who turned out to be McDavid) taking home $1 million.

I'd say they had mixed results.  Both semifinals went to a shootout, and the final pitted the teams captained by McDavid and Auston Matthews.  So, with the All*Star Game itself, it seems like they got what they were looking for.  As for the Skills Competition, though, Nikita Kucherov was one of the participants and he looked like he would've preferred to be doing anything else, drawing boos from the entire arena for his obvious lack of effort.  McDavid's Skills Competition victory also seemed a bit predetermined, seeing as McDavid is the one who suggested the changes.

Then there's the Pro Bowl, which has been the bane of Roger Goodell's existence since he became Commissioner.  Although, I must say, some of the "problems" with the Pro Bowl were directly caused by Goodell.  He's the one who chose to move the game out of Hawaii after 30 years, and he's the one who decided it would move from the week after the Super Bowl to the week before, guaranteeing that players from the two best teams in the league wouldn't be able to participate.

With the Pro Bowl, it's always been tricky because there are so many injury replacements to begin with, then you had guys pulling out for other reasons.  And football's a pretty violent game, so it makes sense that players wouldn't want to risk injury by going all-out in a postseason exhibition game.  But once the game basically turned into a glorified pillow fight, Goodell threatened to eliminate the Pro Bowl entirely.

After pushback from the NFLPA, Goodell backed off that stance, so instead, they completely revamped it.  Instead of a single tackle football game, they turned it into the "Pro Bowl Games," a series of skills competitions capped by a flag football championship game.  Goodell loved it and the players seemed to embrace it, so it looks like the Pro Bowl Games are here to stay.

Baseball, meanwhile, is the sport that most lends itself to the All*Star format.  It's pitcher vs. hitter, and everyone gets their individual chance to shine.  But even that hasn't stopped MLB from tinkering with the All*Star Game.  For a while, after the 2002 game in Milwaukee finished in a tie, they tied the All*Star Game to the World Series, giving the winning league home field advantage.  Then, after the 2016 Cubs had to win Games 6 & 7 on the road despite having the better record (because the AL won the All*Star Game), they dropped that element and the All*Star Game went back to being strictly an exhibition in 2017.

One other change MLB has made to the All*Star Game we haven't seen yet, but almost certainly will eventually.  The All*Star Game can no longer go into extra innings.  Now, if the score is tied after nine, it'll go to a Home Run Derby.  Hopefully, that never happens.  Because it's as dumb as the automatic runner on second!  (For the record, I have no issue with the shootout in hockey.)

It would be unfair to lump the four All*Star Games together and say that lack of competitiveness is a problem across the board.  It's also a fairly recent phenomenon.  For a long time, it was always a source of pride to win the All*Star Game and say you're the best league/conference.  The intensity is certainly no longer the same, and the amount of effort the players put in varies by sport.

Ultimately, though, the onus is on the players to do something about it.  Because no one wants to do away with the All*Star Game, and none of the leagues will ever do it even if the players did (when the NFL tried, the players fought to keep the Pro Bowl).  The All*Star Game generates too much money for the league and the host city, and it's one of the events fans look forward to the most each season.

Players would be wise to remember that.  The All*Star Game is for the fans.  They're the ones paying exorbitant ticket prices to see all of the game's best players in the same place at the same time.  No one's asking for playoff intensity.  But some effort would be nice.  Because Sunday night's embarrassing display wasn't a showcase.  It was a mockery.  And the fans deserve better.