dwight howard

Changes in order to raise intensity of lackluster game

By Ross Siler
The Salt Lake Tribune

NEW ORLEANS - For the past week or so, Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard has been getting his fill of the classic All-Star Games on NBA TV. There’s just something about the games from the Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan era that can’t be matched.

“I try to catch all of them,” said Howard, who will start for the Eastern Conference tonight in what will be his second All-Star Game. “The intensity and how the game is being played, it’s just crazy.”

The question is if future generations will be able to say the same, given the current state of the game. At its best, the game picks up in the second half and is competitive in the fourth quarter. At its worst, the game borders on forgettable and unwatchable.

Was there anything memorable about last year’s game except that it was played in Las Vegas and Kobe Bryant was MVP? The Western Conference won 153-132 in a game less entertaining than Charles Barkley’s footrace against referee Dick Bavetta.

Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni said Bryant was a deserved MVP for one reason: “He played hard every minute.” Detroit guard Chauncey Billups was particularly dismayed afterward.

“I didn’t like it at all,” Billups told ESPN.com. “I loved being here. I loved being a part of it, but I don’t like it at all. We need something to make the guys play a little harder, to compete against one another.”

The game, after all, is the reason why the weekend exists, as much as it has been eclipsed by the parties and the celebrities and the embrace of all things hip-hop. The burden of raising the competitiveness of the game in recent years has fallen almost exclusively to Bryant.

“What I do is I just try to get after it,” Bryant said. “When I play, you know, I play. I don’t just go out there and go through the motions. I like competing, I like playing both ends of the floor. If that elevates the rest of the game, I’m happy.”

But Bryant is expected to play only a few minutes tonight as he nurses an injured right pinkie. So what can be done in the future to save the All-Star Game?

The simplest change would be switching from the Eastern Conference/Western Conference format to a game pitting U.S. or North American players against those from the rest of the world. It’s a change the NHL made for five years beginning in 1998 before switching back.

There are four international players in this year’s game - Yao Ming (China), Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), Steve Nash (Canada) and Tim Duncan (U.S. Virgin Islands) - and a roster easily could be filled out with the likes of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Pau Gasol.

It would make sense for a league focusing more and more attention on markets in China and Europe, with the potential of playing a future All-Star Game overseas. Yet Nowitzki is opposed to the change, fearing that it would make the game - of all things - too competitive.

“I don’t think that’s what the All-Star Game is about,” Nowitzki said. “The All-Star Game is about having fun and about showing the fans a good time. The chances of somebody getting hurt in a competitive game like that are just way too high.”

A related change could come in pitting the league’s best young players against its veterans. There are eight players in tonight’s game who’ve been in the league five years or fewer, including LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade.

“That sounds pretty cool, but I think you’ll be leaving out a lot of veteran guys,” said Portland’s Brandon Roy, a first-time All-Star who is in his second season.

The NBA also could - and perhaps should - increase the prize money involved. The winning players tonight will receive $35,000 and the losers $15,000. It might as well be pocket change considering the average salary of this year’s All-Stars is $13.3 million.

To put it in real-word terms, if the All-Stars were making $50,000 a year, they’d stand to earn $131.57 for winning tonight’s game. That leads to a question: What if the NBA gave every player on the winning team $1 million and the losers nothing?

“You wouldn’t see guys playing [only] the last five, six minutes of the game,” Detroit guard Richard Hamilton said. “The game would be competitive from the beginning.”

Jazz forward Carlos Boozer added: “If a situation like that came up, I think from tip to finish, it’d be very competitive.”

James said the league should “give away a Maybach, a Phantom, some jet hours, a house. Everybody loves a free Maybach, a free Benz or Rolls-Royce. We’ll play hard for that.” Your average Maybach sedan, incidentally, lists from $335,500 to $426,000.

NBA senior vice president Brian McIntyre said “anything’s feasible” as far as the money that could be offered, but questioned whether that was the true motivation of players. New Orleans coach Byron Scott added that $35,000 was as good as any amount.

“These guys want to win games for 5 bucks,” said Scott, who will coach the West. “If you see them on buses, on trips, they’re playing cards, there can be $10 involved, they want to win.

Their competitive nature just comes out.

“So it’s not so much about how much money is involved for the winning team or the losing team. It’s just the competitive part. And they’re going to mess around for a half or so, but when the game is tight and it’s winning time, they start playing.”

There’s one other idea: What if Scott and East coach Doc Rivers just picked players playground-style before the game? It would give Scott the chance to support his regularly stated belief that Bryant is the NBA’s best player by picking him first.

It would lead to no shortage of debate - Would James be the No. 2 pick? Would you take Howard or Amare Stoudemire? What about Chris Paul or Nash? - and entertainment. “That would be funny,” Scott said, repeating the words and laughing. “That would be unusual. That would be pretty good.”

Billups appreciated the suggestion as well. If all fans want to see are dunks and highlight plays, why not turn it into a full-fledged playground game?

“That’d be competitive,” he said. “On the playground and in the hot gyms, nobody wants to lose because you’ve got to sit that next game out. That’d be sweet.”

rsiler@sltrib.com

Con:
No coach wants to deal with the controversy . . . even if it would be fun.