By Marilyn Dubinski | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-02-18 01:10:31
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
有些项目表现尚可，但总体而言，这可能是史上最糟糕的全明星周末。
或许没有哪个美国体育联盟像NBA那样大力宣传其全明星赛事，但近年来，实际效果与宣传力度并不匹配。从球星们为了保存体力而退出，到比赛本身变成一场华而不实的投篮大赛，因为没人想受伤或认真防守，整个赛事已经沦为联盟赚钱的另一种手段。
我个人一直不太喜欢这些喧嚣的场面，也很少有动力去看，即使马刺队参与其中。尽管今年我在一个原本繁忙的周末里尽可能地投入了时间，但我看完斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)的出色表现后，并没有因此更有动力再次观看这场闹剧。所以，作为一个对全明星周末提不起兴趣，但还是“硬着头皮”看完了的球迷，我想分享一些我的观察和想法，关于NBA如何改进现状。
新秀挑战赛和三分球大赛是近乎完美的项目
也许我有点偏见，因为卡斯尔的光芒太过耀眼，但相对于今年的其他项目，新秀挑战赛实际上还算令人愉快。虽然早期也存在一些“防守是选修课”的情况，但你可以看出所有四支球队都想赢，并且打得很有活力，而这正是全明星正赛所缺乏的。卡斯尔展现了既能组织进攻，又能带领球队的能力，最终荣膺MVP；G联赛球员们也像一个渴望证明自己的团队一样在比赛；而且获胜者还能参加全明星正赛，这无疑增加了额外的动力。实际上只有一个问题，我们稍后会谈到。
至于三分球大赛，这几乎是不会出错的项目。虽然不是所有NBA最顶尖的射手都参加了，但比赛形式已经相当完美：球员必须完成所有投篮点位的投篮，并且某些球/投篮价值更高的分数。与其他项目不同，它节奏紧凑，没有长时间的停顿，也没有任何争议。对此我没有任何不满。
技巧挑战赛的争议
上面是表现不错的项目，接下来是需要改进的项目，首先是本周末最受关注（也与马刺队相关）的赛事：技巧挑战赛。这通常被认为是全明星周末最无聊的项目，所以当NBA增加了一条规则，试图加快比赛节奏——即每个投篮点位只允许三次尝试，而不是等待球员投进为止——维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)和克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul)试图利用这个漏洞，并受到了惩罚。
因为投进球没有任何奖励，所以文班亚马认为没有必要浪费时间做无用功，只是将球朝篮筐方向随意扔去，以便尽快完成。据报道，他事先向裁判询问了这种做法是否合法，并得到了肯定的答复——而且他有德雷蒙德·格林(Draymond Green)的亲眼见证可以证明这一点——但当裁判们亲眼看到时，他们改变了主意，取消了文班亚马和保罗的参赛资格。
我的犀利观点是：即使有投篮次数限制，也应该让投进的球有价值；未来应堵住这个漏洞；但不应因为球员做了你允许的事情，并利用了你的疏忽而惩罚他们。联盟本该直接说：“算了，那不是我们所期望的方式，再来一次”，让他们重赛。这完全是一次糟糕的公关，但至少它让这个全明星周末最无聊的项目受到了关注！
扣篮大赛：道具是好是坏？
同样地，我通常对这件事并不关心，直到今年因为斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)的参与让我产生了切身利益。和NBA世界的其他人一样，我看完后心情复杂。不可否认的是，三届冠军得主麦克·麦克朗(Mac McClung)是一位了不起的天才，但近年来，星光黯淡让这项赛事大打折扣，而导致球星们远离这项赛事的一个重要原因是道具的使用。他们不会为了赢得比赛而冒着受伤的风险，跳过汽车或站在悬浮滑板上的人。更不用说，他们没有时间在繁忙的NBA赛程中练习这些花哨的扣篮。
所有这些问题都在今年集中爆发，你看到了两位新秀和一位名不见经传的二年级球员，与一位光荣的G联赛球员同场竞技。马塔斯·布泽利斯(Matas Buzelis)和安德烈·杰克逊(Andre Jackson Jr.)的首轮表现都很糟糕，布泽利斯甚至第一次扣篮没有得分，而杰克逊在无法完成最初的想法后，不得不选择更简单的扣篮，这导致了卡斯尔与麦克朗在决赛中的对决。两人都令人印象深刻，但风格截然不同：卡斯尔展示了他原始的运动能力和技巧，扣篮自然流畅，而麦克朗的所有扣篮都离不开道具和噱头。这引发了各种各样的反应，从麦克朗是这项赛事的救星到卡斯尔应该获胜，因为他不需要道具就能得到50分，而且他是一位“真正的NBA球员”。（郑重声明，我不会称一名双向合同球员为“不是真正的NBA球员”。这是一种不必要的批评。）
一个潜在的解决方案是设置两个扣篮大赛类别：一个使用道具，一个不使用道具。甚至有些球星表示，他们现在更有动力参加不使用道具的比赛，以恢复这项赛事的声誉，所以也许麦克朗最终还是这项赛事的救星。无论你对这个话题持何种观点，有一点是肯定的：扣篮大赛绝不无聊，只要你忽略参赛者是谁，而是真正地观看比赛，它就能引发讨论，而这正是全明星周末所需要的。
这可能是史上最糟糕的全明星正赛
我们不会在这个话题上花费太多时间，因为我们都知道它长期以来一直存在缺陷，很大程度上是由于球员投入的精力不足。但可以肯定的是，采用新秀挑战赛的小型锦标赛形式并没有奏效。做出这一改变的初衷是好的，认为胜者晋级、败者淘汰的形式会激励球员们更加努力，但事实并非如此。大多数球员仍然以半速状态比赛，不愿防守，即使是将新秀挑战赛的冠军加入到比赛中，也没有增加额外的动力。
然而，导致这场赛事如此灾难的是另一个问题：更少的篮球比赛时间，却要填满相同的时间段。结果就是比赛之间有大量的空闲时间，用于热身（这是可以理解的），还有暂停期间。在第二场比赛的某个时刻，第一次暂停就持续了15分钟以上。这在新秀挑战赛中也存在一些问题，但远没有这么严重。这是不可持续的，满足电视合同的唯一解决方案可能是将其恢复为正常的篮球比赛。然后，联盟只能希望他们的新一代球星能够以文班亚马为榜样，再次承诺全力以赴。
点击查看原文：NBA All-Star Weekend is in desperate need of a revamp
NBA All-Star Weekend is in desperate need of a revamp
A few events went well, but overall, this may have been the worst All-Star weekend yet.
Perhaps no sport in America hypes its All-Star events up as much as the NBA, but in recent years, the results haven’t matched the hype. From star players backing out to preserve themselves, to the game itself becoming a glorified shootout because no one wants to get hurt or play defense, the whole event has become little more than just another way for the league to make money.
I’ve personally never been a huge fan of all the hoopla and have rarely been motivated to watch it, even when the Spurs are involved. Even though I did invest as much time as I could in an otherwise busy weekend this year, I certainly didn’t come away any more motivated to watch the charade again despite enjoying Stephon Castle’s big breakout. So as an unmotivated fan who “toughed out” All-Star weekend, I thought I’d go through some of my observations and thoughts regarding how the NBA could fix things.
Rising Stars and 3-point Contest are the closest events to flawless
Maybe I’m biased because Castle’s star shined so bright, but the Rising Stars Challenge was actually enjoyable relative to other events this year. While there was some of the defense-optional stuff going on early, you could tell all four teams wanted to win and played with some pep that just wasn’t there in the All-Star Game itself. Castle showed both the ability to facilitate and carry his team on his way to MVP, the G Leaguers played like a group with something to prove, and it didn’t hurt that there was the added motivation of the winner going to the All-Star game. There was really only one issue, which we will get to later.
As for the Three-point Contest, this is something you really can’t screw up. While not all of the NBA’s best shooters were out there, the format is about as good as it gets, with the player having to get through their racks and certain balls/shots being worth more points. Unlike other events, it keeps moving, there weren’t any long pauses, and there’s nothing controversial about it. No complaints here.
The Skills Challenge Controversy
So that was the good events, now on to the ones the need help, beginning with the one that generated the most news (and Spurs-related headlines) of the weekend: the Skills Challenge. This has often been considered the most boring event of All-Star Weekend, so when the the NBA added a rule that would try to hurry it along — allowing just three attempts from each shooting spot instead of waiting for players to convert — Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul tried to exploit a loophole and got punished.
Because there is no reward for making the shots, Wemby figured there was no point in wasting time going through the motions and just tossed the balls in the general direction of the basket to move on as quickly as possible. He reportedly inquired with officials about if this was legal beforehand and was told yes — and he has an eye witness in Draymond Green to prove it — but once the officials saw it live, they changed their minds and disqualified Wemby and CP3 from the event.
My hot take: make the shots worth something if made, even with the shot limits, and close the loophole going forward, but don’t punish the players for doing something you said they could do and exploiting an oversight on your part. The league should have just said, “Never mind, that wasn’t what we thought you meant, do it again,” and let them have a redo. It was a bad a look all around, but at least it brought attention to the most boring event of the weekend!
Slam Dunk Contest: are props good or bad?
Again, this is something I usually haven’t cared about until I had a vested interest with Castle participating this year, and like the rest of the NBA world, I left with mixed feelings. There is absolutely no denying that now three-time winner Mac McClung is an amazing talent, but the lack of star power has put a damper on the event in recent years, and a large part of what has pulled stars away from the event is the use of props. They aren’t going to risk injuring themselves jumping over cars or people on hoverboards if that’s what it takes to win. Not to mention, they don’t have time to practice such trick shots on a full NBA schedule.
All those issues came to a head this year, where you had two rookies and a little-known second-year player participating alongside a glorified G Leaguer. Matas Buzelis and Andre Jackson Jr. both had disastrous first rounds, with Buzelis not even scoring on his first dunk and Jackson having to settle for easier dunks after he couldn’t convert his original ideas, which led to a Castle vs. McClung face off in the finale. Both were impressive but entirely different, with Castle showing off his raw athleticism and skills with his natural dunks, while all of McClung’s dunks consisted of props and gimmicks. This led to a wide range of reactions, from McClung being the event’s savior to Castle should have won because he didn’t need props to score a 50 and is a “real NBA player”. (For the record, I won’t call a player on a two-way “not a real NBA player.” That’s an unnecessary critique.)
One potential solution is to have two dunk contest categories: one with and one without props. Some stars even said they are now more motivated to participate but without props to bring credit back to the event, so maybe McClung is its savior after all. No matter which direction you lean on this topic, one thing is for sure: the Slam Dunk Contest was anything but boring for anyone who looked past the participants and actually watched, and it had people talking, which is exactly what All-Star Weekend needs.
This may have been the worst All-Star Game yet
We won’t spend too much time on this topic since we know it’s been a flawed product for a while due in large part to effort levels, but suffice it to say, going to the mini-tournament format that the Rising Stars use did not work. The move was made with the right intentions, with the idea that a win-or-get-eliminated format would motivate players more, but that wasn’t the case. Most players were still playing at half speed and reluctant to defend, and even the addition of the Rising Stars champions to the event didn’t add any extra motivation.
However, it was a different issue that made the event such a disaster: less basketball to fill the same time slot. The result was a lot of dead time not only between games for warmup purposes (which is understandable), but also in timeouts. At one point in Game 2, over 15 minutes passed during the first timeout. This was a bit of an issue in the Rising Stars Challenge, but it wasn’t nearly this bad. This is unsustainable, and the only solution to satisfy TV contracts may be to take it back to a normal basketball game. Then, the league will just have to hope that its new generation of stars will follow Wemby’s lead and commit to giving 100% once again.
By Marilyn Dubinski, via Pounding The Rock