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Anthony Gharib, ESPN
The 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis will get underway on Friday with its annual movie star recreation.
Since its introduction in 2003, the sport has turn out to be a spotlight of All-Star Weekend, performed yearly besides 2021 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been two multi-time winners of the Most Invaluable Participant – Kevin Hart (4) and Terrell Owens (2) – together with different massive names who consistently take part within the occasion.
Though the movie star recreation discovered its place throughout All-Star Weekend, different occasions or concepts didn’t stick. The NBA has been experimenting with totally different codecs, guidelines and occasions in hopes of creating the weekend filled with basketball as aggressive and enjoyable as attainable.
Right here's a glance again at totally different concepts that added a distinct contact through the years, however didn't turn out to be a everlasting a part of NBA All-Star Weekend.
2014 NBA dunk contest
In 2014, the NBA had individuals compete on groups within the dunk contest: Jap Convention vs. Western Convention. Though there have been many stars within the occasion – Paul George, Damian Lillard and John Wall to call a number of – the occasion turned complicated.
It included a 90-second freestyle spherical the place every workforce's dunkers received to board as many instances as they needed. The outcome was a flurry of jams that made it tough for followers to correctly acknowledge them. The judges selected the successful workforce, who selected the one who dunked first or second within the battle spherical.
That remaining spherical included head-to-head matches. The primary workforce to win three rounds received the competitors. Workforce East was victorious. Not like earlier years, a single individual was not topped champion. As a substitute, followers voted Wall as “Dunker of the Night time.”
The NBA returned to its previous format in 2015.
The Legends recreation brings collectively the greats
A staple of All-Star Weekend within the Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties, the NBA introduced collectively a few of its greats for the “Legends Sport.”
The 24-minute showdown between the Jap and Western Conferences performed semi-seriously the place damage prevention was a precedence. However within the 1992 recreation, David Thompson and Norm Nixon have been each out because of accidents. Thompson suffered a ruptured patellar tendon, whereas Nixon suffered a ruptured quadricep tendon.
There have been additionally humorous moments. In that very same recreation, San Antonio Spurs legend George Gervin had 24 factors. Walt Frazier, Artis Gilmore, Bob Cousy and Pete Maravich have been amongst many to take part through the years.
The NBA known as him out of the sport after 1993.
NBA gamers take HORSE
The NBA carried out a favourite recreation for All-Star Weekend within the late 2000s: HORSE.
The competitors adopted conventional guidelines, however no hitting was allowed, and gamers had 24 seconds every to “create and imitate pictures”. The NBA additionally assigned a referee to the competitors to authenticate pictures.
Kevin Durant, OJ Mayo and Joe Johnson competed within the inaugural version in 2009. Durant received and confronted Rajon Rondo and Omri Casspi the next 12 months.
With Rondo on his remaining letter within the remaining spherical, Durant and Rondo traded 3-point baskets on the important thing, displaying the consistency – typically comical – of NBA stars. Durant received once more, and the NBA scrapped the occasion after 2010, as gamers opted for easy pictures as an alternative of artistic ones.
2002 NBA dunk contest
The 2002 dunk seemed a bit of totally different from right now's model. Within the first spherical, individuals should full a freestyle dunk, adopted by a dunk assisted by a accomplice. His remaining dunk of the primary spherical could be decided by spinning the “dunk wheel”, which included replicating a basic slam.
Sections on the dunk wheel embody: 1980, 1990, His Airness, Human Spotlight Reel, Dr. J and a thriller class. No matter class the wheel landed in, a video could be performed to indicate the precise dunk {that a} participant needed to replicate. The identical format adopted within the final spherical with a freestyle and a wheel dunk.
The wheel led to some memorable recreations as Jason Richardson received, nevertheless it didn't go precisely based on plan in some points. Steve Francis needed to do a dunk that required palming the ball, one thing he was unable to do.
“That's proper. These are the foundations,” Francis mentioned after his elimination. “Like when referees make calls, you may't complain.
All-Star Sport Draft
Launched in 2018, the All-Star Sport draft concerned the 2 gamers main every convention in votes serving as captains in a snake-style draft to find out rosters. Conferences have been eliminated as effectively. It was arguably one of many NBA's finest concepts. The inaugural venture was not televised, however the remainder was, creating some viral moments on stay TV.
LeBron James was a workforce captain throughout all six years of the draft, whereas Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry and Durant had their share of alternatives. Antetokounmpo has turn out to be recognized for all the time deciding on his teammate Khris Middleton together with his first choose of the reserves.
Though the draft added a distinct twist to the sport, it didn’t encourage extra aggressive motion on the courtroom. The NBA scrapped the draft after 2023, returning to the basic East vs. West format.
