Dub Hub, Daily Warriors Links for 2/20/23: 2023 All-Star Game called the ‘worst basketball game ever played’

Good Morning Dub Nation,

The NBA held their annual All-Star Weekend festivities highlighted by Sunday night’s 72nd NBA All-Star Game. Team Giannis beat Team LeBron 184-175 with Boston Celtics superstar forward Jayson Tatum winning the MVP after finishing the night with an All-Star record 55 points.

While the live draft held an hour before the matchup by team captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo was an entertaining addition to this year’s format, the quality and effort of the actual game itself had fans, players, and coaches questioning if changes needed to be made in order to fix the once highly anticipated league event.

The biggest issue remains the lack of competitiveness in the game itself. Although nobody is expecting players to risk hurting themselves by treating this like a regular game, the “lay-up line effort” and the abundant chucking of half court threes made last night’s game difficult to watch for even the most hardcore NBA fans, including former Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut.

To be fair, injuries played a big factor in the quality of this year’s game. Golden State point guard Stephen Curry is always capable of putting on a show, but he couldn’t participate this year as he recovers from his lower leg injury. Other superstars like the Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant and the New Orleans Pelicans’ Zion Williamson were also out due to injury, while team captains Antetokounmpo and James were pulled during the game for precautionary injury reasons.

The All-Star Game used to be competitive but has slowly drifted away from that in recent years. If the NBA wants to continue marketing the event as “the best pickup game in the world”, they will have to put in some major work to revamp it into something that works out for everyone.

Here are the rest of today’s stories:

In case you missed it from Golden State of Mind:

• Draymond Green grills Ja Morant at All-Star Game
• Gui Santos represented at G League Next Up Game
• 2023 NBA All-Star Weekend schedule of events
• ESPN releases the latest version of their MVP straw poll
• Should the Warriors target Kevin Love in the buyout market?

Other Warriors News:

• A decade later: How David Lee’s historic All-Star selection ushered in the Warriors dynasty (Mercury News)
• Warriors committed to win now for rest of Steph Curry’s title window (San Francisco Chronicles)
• Charles Barkley calls Warriors ‘cooked’ in epic Draymond back-and-forth (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Steph Curry congratulates Damian Lillard on winning 2023 NBA 3-point contest (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Warriors hype man earns NBA All-Star honor: Here’s why his booming voice matters (The Athletic)

NBA News:

• The Bounce: Please fix All-Star Weekend (The Athletic)
• NBA All-Star Saturday night: Mac McClung shines in dunk contest (The Athletic)
• Russell Westbrook plans to sign with LA Clippers, agent says (ESPN)
• Adam Silver, NBPA chief say new CBA ‘absolutely a priority’ (ESPN)
• Report: Kevin Love plans to sign with Heat for remainder of season (NBA)