Dunks! Skills! Threes! OR Some NEW Suggestions To Liven Up All Star Saturday

It’s All Star Saturday Night. It sounds like a ton of fun, if by All Star Saturday Night you mean “Pillaging $20,000 worth of fine wine in three hours, with NBA Stars, their SOs and I guess, their agents.”

The other events will happen too.

First, there is the Skills competition, which is odd and sometimes interesting.

Next, we have the three point shootout. Steph Curry versus Seth Curry versus Panang Curry. My sleeper candidate to win it all is Buddy Hield, aka Buddy Love.

The Finale features the Dunk Contest. The NBA seems unable to settle on a format that everyone will concede is “Fun”. The contest is now four contestants. This will likely make it quicker, if not better. There seemed to be a couple of fun contests recently, but now the goal appears to be to change the format once a year. So even if one was fun, it won’t be repeated.

Rockets are conspicuous by their absence, but Eric Gordon and Pat Beverley won the skills competition for the Rockets.

You might be surprised to learn that I have some suggestions to spice up All Star Saturday.

1 on 1 to 15, win by two. Yep, just like your driveway, only this is an eight player bracket, and has a ref. You can’t tell me that NBA guys wouldn’t try in this one.

Pro-Am H-O-R-S-E - I’m totally serious. It would combine the dunk contest with the skills contest with a trick shot contest. The addition of celebrities, and maybe really talented local high school kids would add a real rooting interest. You can only do one dunk per game.

NBA Skins - like Horse, but NBA guys bet each other money on a set of shots. The money goes to charity.

AMA (Ask Me Anything) Adam Silver, Commissioner Emeritus David Stern. 10 questions. 3 from players. 4 from the press. 3 from the crowd (no shills, please). Yep, ask the lords of the NBA anything at all, in front of a huge arena.

NBA Card Sharks - Yes, if you’ll watch fat guys with terrible facial hair wearing hoodies, headphones, and sunglasses, inside a casino, play cards, you’ll almost certainly watch NBA guys playing cards. Again, the event will use their money as a buy in, but for the charity of their choice. Suggested games: Poker (Texas Hold ‘em. Seven Card Stud, Spades, Bourre (Booray).