All-Star Games and the People That DO Love Them

I just got done working 12.5 hours at my radio internship and I’m pretty wiped right now. This is just a disclaimer for what you are about to read. Please take that into consideration when you read this. In this time that I was out working today I only missed one thing and that’s NBA All-Star Saturday Night. Prior to this resurgence by the Celtics, this was the only night of the year where I really paid continuous attention to the NBA (or any attention at all really.)

With my schedule tomorrow, it’s allows for me to watch the actual All-Star game it self. I don’t care if I ever watch another NBA All-Star game it’s that simple and really another all-star game period. Until recently when the Red Sox have started getting more than 2 players in the MLB version and the winner gets home field advantage in the World Series (which has proved very beneficial to the Red Sox as well) I could care less about any of the all-star games.

Out of the 3 other major sports (besides Baseball) the only “Gathering of the Greats” that is appointment television for me is the NHL All-Star game. For whatever the reason the most floundering sports league is the most entertaining midseason classic and do you want to know why? Because it highlights the aspect of the sport that people want to see the most, goals. It’s hard to hit home runs in all-star games, because pitching is still good. Nobody hits hard the NFL Pro-Bowl and touch downs get scored all the time.

The reason the NBA All-Star game is perhaps the most boring of them all (the only one who might raise their hand to this is the aforementioned Pro-Bowl) is because nobody is amazed by a professional player hitting an open 3-pointer or dunking the ball completely uncontested. If I wanted to watch either of those things happen, I would just watch the Slam Dunk and 3-Point Competitions the night before and as an added bonus I would get to listen to Charles Barkley’s commentary during it.

There have been great moments in the NBA All-Star game, but the only one that I can really remember from my lifetime is Magic Johnson’s game winning tri-duel against Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas. The title of this column makes you think it’s going to be a self help group when I guess I did just that. Because nobody loves All-Star games annually, perhaps specific ones from time to time only. What I really realized from this column is I’m bumming more than I thought about missing Charles Barkley on All-Star Saturday Night.

If only I had him in my 5.

Oh well, maybe next year.

~Sterling Pingree