Hey Now You're an All-Star... But No One's Watching

With the NBA All-Star game quickly approaching I noticed that I wasn't as excited as I used to be growing up. The dunk contest isn't really the spectacle it once was, the three point contest was never that exciting, the skills competition is pointless and the game itself is more or less a non-competitive excuse for athletes to run up and down the court showing off their dunks and three point ability anyway. That being said, it's still probably the most exciting all-star weekend of all the major sports, but thats not saying much at all. I'd like to rank the 4 major sports in their attempts at capturing some fun while displaying the best talents.

4. The NFL

They just don't get it. Something is always missing and that something is a reason to watch. There are no skills competitions and therefore no ways to showcase off some of the talents in the NFL. The game isn't that physical and it shouldn't be, but then again what's the point? Why play a game of football no one takes seriously? Especially if no one is watching.

Improvement Idea

Skills competitions! Who wouldn't like to watch Tom Brady and Peyton Manning battle others in an accuracy competition? Or Jay Cutler and Michael Vick bombing the ball as far as they can? Then we could see speed competitions between the people claiming they're the fastest, maybe a little Devin Hester vs. Chris Johnson action? Anyways the point is anything not a game would add to the Pro Bowl weekend and you'd think with the NFL's audience size, something would happen.

3. The NHL

They did a better job this year adding to some of the luster and fun by having the teams pick players in a different style and having some fun with skills competitions. The only issue with the NHL is the fact that it doesn't have as big an audience as the other sports so even if it does attempt to make some fresh changes it can't ever reach the top.

Improvement Idea

Keep it the way it is. Just get more viewers.

2. MLB

Major League Baseball almost gets it. The home-run derby has lost most of its flash and there are no skills competitions besides that, but the one thing they do right in the majors...they make the game worth something. Home-field advantage in the World Series, which could be worth a lot when it comes down to that game 7. This is why baseball gets to be number 2 on this list despite only having a home-run derby.*

Improvement Idea

Maybe a fastball competition or something to do with the pitchers? Or maybe a speed competition? I mean I know baseball players are fragile, but isn't that supposed to change after the steroids are gone?

1. The NBA

This is the most exciting All-Star weekend in major sports. Almost by default. It has flash, popularity and celebrity appeal. The skills competitions are still fun though we'd all still rather see Lebron vs. Dwight rather than Gerald Green vs anyone. The 3-point contest is also the perfect platform for players that won't ever do anything else to have a little bit of glory like Voshon Lenard and superstars to show off like Larry Bird. The game itself can be fun at times and basketball combines physicality and taking it easy enough that it still can be fun at junctures.

Improvement Idea

Make the stars always do the competitions. I want to see superstars dunk! This year we are getting a taste since Blake Griffin is in it, but then he faces no household names, how boring.

These changes will likely never occur but just thinking about some of the possibilities makes you wonder why things aren't different. These athletes get paid a lot of money! More than some people will make in consecutive lifetimes, so they can put on one extra show a year.

* I did not forget about the Future's Game... Just quite frankly who cares?

The NBA is Full of Sallies...

Professional basketball is a contact sport. Can someone please tell the refs this immediately, before they ruin the NBA playoffs. Obviously basketball is not on the level of football, hockey or rugby, but if you have played the game you know it gets physical and if you grew up watching the NBA you've witnessed how physical it can be. Playoff basketball was the modern day equivalent of titans battling one another in epic clashes of athleticism, skill and brute force. Legendary battles like Celtics versus the Sixers or Lakers in the 80's or Bulls versus the Knicks or Pacers in the 90's were staples of competitiveness. These games were incredible to watch during the regular season, but were completely on a different level come playoff time and there was never any question what a foul was back then because you would know it when you saw one.

Sadly those days are forgotten and are now replaced by the longest tenured trend in the NBA, the ticky-tack foul. If you just began watching the NBA this year, you'd think the entire NBA was full of overpaid she-males. Players like Rasheed Wallace and Dwight Howard actually have reasons to complain. If they so much as sweat on someone, they could be charged with a foul. It's truly sad when there have been at least a hundred moments when I've thought after watching an NBA game, did that team really lose or did the refs blow it? Granted on the great scheme of things an NBA referee can only do so much, but sometimes thats a lot more than they should. Players can't battle for rebounds now or stand up in the lane to defend a driver. If that player has momentum you had better get out of the way or a foul will be called, especially if that player is a star... *cough* *cough* Lebron James *cough*.

Even more surprising than all of this is the fact that the Cleveland "superstar" averages less fouls than any other starter in NBA history, in a foul happy league at that...Go figure...but that's for another time.

So as NBA fans what are supposed to do? The answer for that...nothing. We are stuck with this watered down league until David Stern is finally finished and even then who knows what would happen. All we need is one more player to be injured from a non-call and we will probably have games decided by free-throw contests instead of teams actually playing each other.

It's not like I am condoning injuring one another or desiring the league to be more like AND1 streetball, I'm just asking if the refs can swallow the whistle more often. Let the men be men and play the game the way it's supposed to be played.

Jordan, Kukoc, Harper, Longley, Kemp?? The Trade That Could Have Been...

In 1994 the NBA looked very strange. The game had lost a very familiar face in superstar Michael Jordan and this meant one thing for the rest of the league, time for a new champion. The Chicago Bulls had won the last three championships and before "Air" Jordan's retirement they looked fully capable of continuing their winning ways throughout the greater part of the decade.

Jordan did retire though and the Bulls would become ordinary. They still had some very good players, but they were unsure if the pieces would be able to lead to another championship without Jordan as the anchor.

A trade was proposed during the off-season of 1994. A trade that would have dramatically changed the way the Bulls played and could have severly affected their chances of winning the 3 more championships from 96'-98' when Jordan came back. The Seattle Supersonics were looking to add a superstar and at the time were having some contractual issues with their own star so a possible swap was in order. The Supersonics wanted to trade Shawn Kemp for Scottie Pippen. The deal was done in principle, but the Seattle General Manager backed out at the last moment.

If this deal had gone through, things would have been extremely different for the Bulls when Jordan came back. Pippen, one of the NBA's fifty greatest players, might have been the piece that pushed Seattle over the edge. Considering Seattle did make the NBA finals in 1996, though they did lose to the Bulls. How far would the Bulls have gone without the Pippen and Jordan combo. 72 wins would have been highly unlikely. Kemp was a good player in his prime, but was never the player Scottie Pippen was. That being said, Toni Kukoc would have become a starter instead of the 6th man and the lineup of Harper,Jordan,Kukoc, Kemp and Longley would have been very high scoring.

The concept of Pippen not with the Bulls is unfathomable and Shawn Kemp playing alongside Jordan would have been very interesting. Obviously this deal could have changed a lot in both franchises futures, but luckily it never went through and the Bulls went on the have the greatest season in NBA history