I, at this point, don't even know if there is a solution to make All-Star better, unless you're
going to tell these players, hey, we'll pay you a million dollars if you win the dunk contest.
That might have to be the number to get some of these bigger guys to compete.
What's up, you guys? I'm Rachel Namita, and welcome to the Courtside Club, where we give
you a courtside view of all things that are going on in the world of sports and entertainment.
We are back today in my home studio, but this weekend, I was actually at NBA All-Star. So
that's what I wanted to talk about today, because there's a ton of dialogue going on
online right now. And I actually got the firsthand experience of what NBA All-Star was like this
year. And I'm going to tell you guys this right now, NBA All-Star is dead. It was one of the
worst All-Stars I think I have ever been.
And like I told you guys in my video last week, I don't even stay for the games on Sunday anymore,
because I've been going to All-Star for the past eight years. And normally, the game on Sunday
is one of the worst events of the week, because nobody plays competitively. And this year,
they exceeded my expectations on how poorly and how low the
competition is going to be. And so I'm going to tell you guys this right now, NBA All-Star is
dead. And like I told you guys in my video last week, I don't even stay for the games on Sunday anymore,
competition level was in this game. So I was there for All-Star Saturday night. And it was
different because this is the first All-Star that I've been to where they put any of the events in
the football stadium, like the atmosphere for whatever reason. And we can talk about the reason
just the energy just felt really, really low for Saturday night. Whereas I feel like Saturday night
normally is the best night of All-Star. Everybody's looking forward to the three point contest.
Everybody's looking forward to the three point contest. And I'm going to tell you guys this
and I feel like for the past few years, the, the energy just hasn't been there. And this year
to me and the eight All-Stars that I've been to was the lowest energy of all, but let's get to
the dunk contest dunking, something that everybody loves, something that everybody always wants to
talk about a contest that I'm always looking forward to. We have two G league players,
a rookie and Jalen Brown in the dunk contest. And this is no disrespect to anyone. Obviously we
wanted to see Mac back in the dunk contest because he put on such a show last year, but
Jalen Brown, I will say this is maybe, um, against the grain in my opinion here,
but major props to Jalen Brown for showing up. He's not somebody that you think of as being this
like crazy end game dunker. You don't, I don't know. Tell me if I'm wrong. I don't think of
Jalen Brown as like a dunking guy.
But he showed up, he's an NBA vet. He showed up and did his best. Were his dunks good? No.
Did he deserve to be in the final two? I also don't think so, but it was, it was NBA vet verse
NBA G league player in Mac McClung, who of all the people Mac McClung put on the best show.
And he didn't even perform as well as he did last year. Stephen A. Smith went on first,
and, uh, said that LeBron James is directly responsible for ruining the slam dunk contest.
Refusing to participate was the beginning and the spark plug of its demise period.
There is no one who can dispute that. So let's look at this clip.
The slam dunk contest. I got the stat here, Shannon,
because when we're talking about the slam dunk contest from 1985 to 1997,
five of the 13 slam dunk contests,
were won by future hall of famous Jordan twice. Dominique Wilkins twice.
Colby wants Michael Jordan participated in the contest three times.
Dominique Wilkins five times, five, every, every high jumper, every Skywalker,
every above the rim talent salivated for the opportunity to compete in the slam dunk contest.
It stopped when LeBron James said, I'm not doing it.
And from that point forward,
the stars who followed didn't feel compelled to prioritize a slam dunk contest.
The tradition that was set by others preceding LeBron James.
We watched LeBron James.
And then, you know what he did, Shannon, to rub it in, to rub it in.
He do it on the layup lines before games.
You went to the games and you had people with the cameras clicking and going crazy
because they saw LeBron James using a layup line pregame as his own slam dunk performance.
And he did it on purpose.
So what I'm saying to you is when we look at the demise of the slam dunk from an historical perspective,
there is no one who knows basketball who will refute what I'm saying.
There is no one who would do it.
LeBron James refusing to participate in the slam dunk contest was the beginning and the spark plug of its demise.
There's no one who can dispute that.
I think Stephen A makes a fantastic point.
And I think that that's just the undertone of all-star now is none of these
guys want to be there.
And it's so very clear.
You look at the dunk contest that we had a couple of days ago and Mac and
I forget who even it was.
They're recreating Dominique Wilkins dunks that he did in the dunk contest
we are going to have no dunks to recreate.
Unless you want to go back to Aaron Gordon and Zach Levine,
because that was the best dunk contest that we've had in recent times.
There's going to be no legends that you're recreating.
Are you going to recreate Mac McClung's dunks and no disrespect to him
because he seems like a humble guy who was really hungry and unfortunately
just isn't good enough at this very point in his career to be a star on an
but he comes out there and competes.
I'm I've gone so back and forth with like saying that I,
I see both sides.
I see why the guys who are all stars want to take it easy and don't want to
every other guy in the league is getting a break during this time.
I've seen that side,
I think almost to a fault because what we saw at NBA all-star this weekend is
There's another clip from Kobe and fast forward to,
years ago where he's talking about guys play harder at pickup runs at UCLA
than they do in the all-star game.
Like how much injury are you risking by playing defense at 60,
what we saw on Sunday was defense at 20% possibly.
And then laughing as you're like on delaying,
letting a guy run by you and dunk.
And how many guys also,
when they had the opportunity,
to dunk in the Sunday night game.
And I know I'm going all over the place right now.
They had an opportunity to dunk in the game and just didn't,
they just rim grazed or did a little layup.
Luca was doing it.
Joker was doing it.
I forget who it was.
One player got denied at the rim because they just weren't warmed up and
didn't really care.
for dunk contest for the Sunday night,
which used to be like those two big ticket things that everybody wanted to
I at this point don't even know if there is a solution.
To make all-star better,
unless you're going to tell these players,
we'll pay you a million dollars.
If you win the dunk contest,
like that might have to be the number to get some of these bigger guys to
Cause I don't know if it's ego.
I don't know if they're too scared to embarrass themselves if they don't win
and they feel like they have to live up to a certain thing.
Injury is not it.
You're not going to get,
you're not going to get injured dunking.
I guess I've turned the tide of feeling bad for NBA all-stars because,
what all-star used to be was for the fans all-stars not coming back to
I don't even know when probably not in the next 20 years.
There's a lot of basketball fans in Indianapolis who are really excited about
Even Adam presenting the trophy after the game,
he said something like,
you guys scored the most points.
Like he was visibly disappointed with how little effort was shown on the
court East and West combined for 168 three point attempts.
There was one play where Luca took two dribbles.
It was in the middle of the quarter and shot from the free throw line on the
other end of the basket.
Like on the other end of the court past half court.
It was really bad.
there's been so much conversation about it.
I don't know if it's something where the NBA realizes this,
this is a problem.
So they are going to just lean more into,
let's put all our energy and effort into the in-season tournament because we
can make that exciting or let's focus on the play in tournament during
playoffs and all-star become something that just slowly fades away.
It's just sad to me because I do remember as a kid,
all-star being one of the biggest nights in sports.
It was like comparable,
maybe not to the super bowl,
that thing that you would get so excited for.
That was like almost the biggest night in the NBA season.
The biggest weekend in the NBA season was all-star weekend.
And we were really excited to see all these players get together,
play against one another,
the one-on-one matchups that you would never get during regular season,
Kobe and Mike going up against each other.
And to see that fire die and to see,
also the players not seem to care at all.
Anthony Edwards said,
I don't think nobody wants to come here and compete.
He's one of the young stars in the league that a lot of people think is going
to be like this next generation of NBA superstars.
And he's saying it straight to the media.
It feels like a break to me.
I don't really want to compete.
So I guess kudos for being honest.
it's for the fans.
And I think by showing,
just such a lack of care about this weekend and showing that to the fans,
it's not going to be good for the NBA as a whole.
really sad to see.
There's one more tweet that kind of sums up everything.
All joking aside,
the NBA has an issue with events.
The season's too long.
Regular season games don't feel special,
which is very true.
The regular season is suffering heavily.
And on the one night where they can showcase the actual product to casual fans
and the general public,
it's going to be a big deal.
It's going to be a big deal.
And it's going to be a big deal for the general public.
This is what gets delivered.
this is the stage where we can show,
this is what the NBA is all about.
And you have a bunch of superstars who look,
look like they just feel so entitled that they don't have to be here.
They can play however they want to.
And this is coming from a place of somebody who actually loves the NBA and
wants to see it succeed.
And I work so much with the NBA and I've been following it for however many
this is criticism and,
and complaints that I'm giving.
And I feel like a lot of sports media people are chiming in.
It's coming from a place because we actually love the game and we love the
And it's sad to see where it's going,
that there has to be a $500,000 prize in the in-season tournament for guys to
come out and play hard.
They don't play for their,
the pride of their team or themselves anymore.
They're only playing for whatever that next check is,
so many rules about,
certain superstars.
The fact that we had to make rules about sitting guys is because people were
just sitting out when they didn't feel like playing.
So it's the integrity of the game.
And I don't know where all it stems from.
As I was watching the all-star game this past weekend,
it had me thinking about the next generation of superstars that we're going
to have in the NBA,
because with LeBron retiring soon,
with Steph getting older,
this wave of superstars is about to be out.
And the NBA is in a weird spot.
Like we talked about with the all-star game,
it doesn't seem to be much leadership.
The mentality of the NBA seems to be different.
There doesn't seem to be as much defense being played.
There's no rivalries that we see in the NBA right now.
There's not much player to player,
like head to head rivalries that we see.
It seems like everybody is friends.
whether they're playing against each other or with each other in the all-star
But one clip that was circulating online from NBA all-star from a while back
was Kobe talking about what he thought about the NBA all-star game.
And I want to show you this clip in comparison as to what LeBron said when he
was asked about the all-star game.
I think the all-star game in general needs a little revamping because it used
to be competitive.
It used to be competitive.
fans want to see the best pick-up game in the world.
That's what this is.
They don't want to see you running up and down and dunking and doing all this crazy.
Like they want to see what happens when you get this collection of best basketball players
on the planet and they play and they go head up against each other.
I mean, you guys play harder at a pick-up game in UCLA.
And ain't billions of people watching.
You know what I'm saying?
The all-star game needs a little changing.
I always loved competing in them.
I didn't lose many of them.
You know, me and CP used to talk all the time.
Nah, you was one of the ones.
You took it serious.
Yeah, we went in.
Like, I don't think me and CP, when we played together in the all-star game, I don't think
we've ever lost a game.
And we used to look at each other and say, okay.
They don't want to play.
We going to play.
Let's go get them.
So then let's see in comparison as to what LeBron said about the all-star game.
Is this what players want though?
Is this what you think my fans want too?
I mean, I think it's something we need to figure out.
You know, I don't know.
Where's the median?
Because this is what a lot of the games are starting to look like now too.
You know, we wanted to, you know, get more, you know, more pace into the game.
We want to get more shots.
We want the game to be more free flowing.
We stopped letting the game be freedom of movement, a lot of freedom of movement now.
And that's what a lot of our games is in the regular season now.
It let us tighten up in the postseason.
So it's a good thing.
deeper dive into a conversation how we can show up this game obviously from a
player's perspective you know it's fun to get up and down but at the end of the
day our competitive nature don't like just being able to just have free-flowing
scoring like that so I think the good thing that came out of tonight is none
of the players were injured and everybody came out unscathed or how they were before the game started so it's a deeper conversation.
So I guess to me with with these two responses to essentially the same question
Kobe talks about how he wants to be competitive and he wants to win and LeBron said the best part
about the game is that nobody got injured and so for better or for worse you can see where the
mindsets are with Kobe being the era before LeBron where I feel like everybody talked about Kobe
passing that torch to LeBron and being the the
face of the game.
The face of the NBA being that that one superstar Mike passing it to Kobe with LeBron's mindset being
like that oh I'm just glad nobody got hurt we want a free-flowing offense and obviously we
tighten it up during playoffs he's essentially saying like yeah we don't play as hard as we do
during playoffs which I think is a general thing that NBA players do but in recent years it has
gotten to a point where it's like I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know
I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know
level of not appreciating regular season games or not having taking them as seriously as as pretty
much anything else until you get into playoffs and beyond it was interesting to me because I don't
know what the NBA is going to look like when LeBron goes who is that next face of the league
these guys were also asked who they would.
Pass the torch to LeBron and Steph both were asked both of them mentioned
Shea Gildas Alexander and Anthony Edwards Anthony Edwards is another player who talked about all-star
just being a break for him and it doesn't need to be that competitive and mind you I'm not saying
that these guys have to put all of their eggs into the all-star basket but it does say something
about their mindset just in general and their competitive nature because you have guys like
Kobe who are just dogs no matter when they're on the court.
They're going to go out there and win that's all they want they can't help but be competitive in
those moments they're not thinking about oh let's make sure nobody gets injured like that's for the
celebrity game that's for people like me who are playing like let's just not get injured and have
a free-flowing offense and let everybody touch the ball and let everybody shoot that shouldn't
be the mentality of a professional basketball player and I think just having that mentality
trickles down to the rest of the NBA so who is that guy.
Who comes out here and has the killer mentality that fans love goes out there with a fire every
single night brings his a-game doesn't want to be friendly with every other guy who's playing on the
team opposite him the Joker Nikola Jokic has been MVP for however many seasons however he makes it
very clear in his interviews also that he just can't wait to get back to his horses and no shame
to the guy that's who he is.
And he's a great basketball player and he comes out there and competes but that's also not somebody
when we think of that Mamba mentality or we think of Jordan and the reason people still put Michael
Jordan as a go above LeBron is because of his mentality so where does the NBA go from here does
it go somewhere where you know the average score in an NBA game is 150 to 140 like where they're
averaging 150 points a game because no one's going to be able to score in an NBA game.
Nobody's really playing defense like that and and there's a lot more fouls called because you don't
want to injure players and it just goes in that direction it's something that us as fans get used
to and we we get used to them not really competing or or until playoffs or during the in-season
tournament or is there somebody who's going to take that torch and really like bring basketball
back to the game that I feel like a lot of us love.
I will say that I think in all of the games that I've played in the NBA I've played in the NBA and I've
played in the NBA and I've played in the NBA and I've played in the NBA and I've played in the NBA
in order to figure out who our next superstar is I think one of these younger guys needs to win
multiple championships if Shea Gilgis Alexander is the guy OKC needs to win back to back
or they need to win three in five years or maybe it's Jason Tatum maybe the Celtics kind of push
back into that narrative as being one of these iconic teams that and live up to their past maybe
it's Jason Tatum maybe it's Jason Tatum maybe it's Jason Tatum maybe it's Jason Tatum maybe it's
Jason Tatum leading them to the finals and winning back to back but I think one of these
younger guys has to win two to three championships in order to get that respect and for us to be like
OK NBA is in a good spot like this is our leader so who is that next guy to take the torch and how
do they do that is it Anthony Edwards who seems to be a dog on the court although he doesn't
give a rip about all-star clearly but can does he have that killer mentality to take his
team and win some championships does John Morant have that mentality I know he's gone in into some
trouble in the past but can he turn that around because I think he's one of those guys is one of
the most exciting players in the NBA right now obviously it's going through injuries right now
and he had a suspension because the trouble that he was getting in but can he turn it around
and be one of the faces of the NBA when our superstars leave
I don't know the answer to that and there has been a lot of catering to players
with just rule changes and how they're protecting them that has made the game less physical
but again I'm saying all of this even you know in this video today from somebody who was such a big
fan of basketball and a big fan of the NBA and I don't think that the NBA is going in the direction
that we wanted to go and it's not it just feels like the integrity of the game it just isn't
as special LeBron he also recently said that
he's not sure if he's going to do a farewell tour because he doesn't do well with praise
which I thought was really funny somebody tweeted my guy you literally have the chosen
one tattooed across your chest I absolutely think that LeBron will do a farewell farewell tour and
it will be such a scene and I think it will be great for the NBA and it will bring a lot of
excitement but when LeBron leaves we're gonna have a couple years to kind of get to know him
figure out what are we focusing on now because even so much media um the the NBA everybody is
is focusing on like LeBron has still been the head of headlines for the past 20 years of the NBA
I don't know what's next but I I would bet money that he does a farewell tour
absolutely there's no way that he doesn't there's no way that he's just like after
one of his his last games of the
season just like yeah I'm retiring that's it but yeah you guys let me know in the comments who you
think is going to be this next generation of NBA superstars and if you think that there's anything
that the NBA could be doing better to get back to the the homegrown competitive killer instinct
basketball that we all know and love and we've seen it in spurts over the years but in general
the NBA just isn't at that point right now like what do you think that the league could do better
what do you think players could do better let me know
the decades-long feud that has been going on between Carmelo Anthony and coach George Carl
is continuing on in 2024 and recently Carmelo went on his podcast to talk about it a bit
um so let's let's take a look at what Carmelo had to say oh we was gonna have issues the first day
he got the job he got the job a couple days before we played Milwaukee Bucks so the whole thing was
I'm not coaching no game my first game I wanted to be against Milwaukee Bucks
cool go back home they you over over there I I know the business I know the game at the you
know I really don't know the game when he came to the team I'm 21 now all I know I got a big
name coach coming George Carl coach Milwaukee coach Seattle Gary Payton you know I mean all
all of that we get to Milwaukee after after shoot around call me to his room and tell me
hey man like I think you overrated like you have a lot of work yo that's crazy first sentence
look at this look at this I don't even want to look at you
no no no no George Carl watch your fucking mouth man
no he started he started that
Like the deepest of narrative.
But I'm gonna get to that point.
The first shoot around, he come to me and say like,
look, man, I think you overrated.
We have a lot of work to do.
I know I ain't, you know what I mean?
I know I got a lot of work.
I got a long way to go in this league.
You just got here.
You just got here.
Like you don't need to ask no questions.
I'm like, who's who?
Individual meetings with every player
to introduce yourself.
You ain't do none of that yet.
Told me I was overrated.
So yeah, you remind me of,
I see your role on this team.
You're more like Detlef Schrempf.
Nah, get the fuck off.
No, this is where it is born.
Nigga, say that now, bro.
Nah, nah, nah, nah, you have to forget it.
First of all, I don't know who Detlef Schrempf is.
But George Karl clipped this video and tweeted,
hey, Carmelo Anthony, let's not do this.
You're telling stories that are 20 years old.
Let's move forward.
And you were overrated and you wish your game
was as efficient as Detlef's.
Which is actually, to me, this is just hilarious.
This is one of the comments says, bit ironic.
You wrote a whole book not so long ago
with stories that took personal shots at Melo, Kenyon Martin,
Another person commented, zero rings, zero championships,
zero retired vet players that like you.
One tenure getting blessed enough to coach Melo.
Numbers don't add up, unfortunately.
I personally, I'm one of those Carmelo enthusiasts.
I don't think that Carmelo was overrated.
I think that Carmelo is one of the best scorers
And listen, not all scorers are gonna be
championship winners.
You got Allen Iverson.
There are guys who are iconic Hall of Fame level players
who don't add up to winning championships.
And I think Carmelo is one of those guys.
Maybe I also have a personal bias
because I've worked with Carmelo multiple times
and he seems just like a good human being.
So I even think like him telling this story on the podcast,
like to me didn't even seem like he was shading him that much.
They were laughing about it,
but George Carl still seems to have a bit of beef.
No, beef is originalаст little
what was the thing that made folders freak out?
I've always gotten teased about working hard with Jesus
people like to say,
I'm an artist back in my childhood,
after his BS this week, I'm unsure again. What do you think? Should Carmelo Anthony be honored for
his best years, which were with me in Denver or not? And he did a poll and 46% of you guys voted
yes, that he should be honored in Denver for his best years. And then after that, he tweeted again
and he said, I'm willing to chop it up and hash things out on your show. Mellow are you? And he
tagged him. And then he posted a photo of like a throwback, super throwback Carmelo Anthony
in another gauge Jersey, which also, by the way, Carmelo Anthony was the first NBA Jersey that I
owned actually. Cause I used to watch him at Oak Hill as well. When like him and LeBron had that
crazy game, he remember, well, I remember it was like a big part of my childhood when they went up
against each other in high school. And I was a huge fan of Carmelo in high school as well, because
you know, he was a huge fan of Carmelo in high school. And I was a huge fan of Carmelo in high
school. And I remember that like LeBron Mello era is just like my golden years of watching
basketball. I will say though, I would love if he really is reaching out and saying that he wants to
chat with Mello on a podcast. I think these two should absolutely do it. I think that would be
great for NBA media, but you guys let me know is Carmelo overrated. Should his Jersey be retired
in Denver? Should he be honored in Denver as well as in New York, even though he doesn't have any
rings. And I think with that, you guys, that's all we have.
We're courtside club today. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure that you thumbs up this
video and subscribe because we have new videos every single week. And I hope that by next week's
video, my voice will be a little bit better because I will be finally over whatever this
sickness is that I have. I have a bit more energy for you guys, but thank you so much
for watching per usual, and we will see you next time. Bye.