When Jordan and I decided to write this column earlier this year, we envisioned writing about Dartmouth Athletics each and every week. This week, we did hit somewhat of a stumbling block, as I was sick (sweet, senior year Winter Carnival) and did not get to watch any of the sporting events this weekend.
Likewise, Jordan continued his five-week streak of not coming up with a viable topic idea, and here I sit, two hours past the due date of my article, without anything to write about.
So I suggested to Jordan that we sell out and write about professional sports just for one week. Here it goes.
In light of the NBA All-Star game, we decided to debate which professional sports league has the best all-star weekend. The National Football League can be immediately thrown out because no one watches or cares about the Pro Bowl. There are several problems with the Pro Bowl, but the single biggest one is the fact that football is a violent sport in which there are scores of injuries each week during the season. An all-star contest should not be played if there is significant risk of injury to the participants. In the NFL, the players play the Pro Bowl at half speed (if that) and the game, frankly, stinks.
The National Hockey League has problems very similar to the NFL, in that hockey is a essentially physical sport that cannot be translated to a lighthearted all-star game. The NHL has done a good job "beefing up" its all-star weekend with the skills competition, in which all of the best players (Olvechkin, Crosby, etc.) actually participate. The bottom line is that the NHL All-Star Game is not a real hockey game because the players are playing to avoid injury, as opposed to playing to win the game.
The process of elimination leaves Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association as having the two best all-star weekends in professional sports. I understand that there are several factors that would lead Jordan to pick Major League Baseball over the NBA (tradition, the Home Run Derby, tradition and most importantly, tradition), but the NBA has provided better entertainment.
Please don't get me wrong -- Major League Baseball is our national pastime and was the first professional league to have an all-star game.
The days of Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle battling for league supremacy, however, are over. With the dawn of inter-league play, there is no real rivalry between the leagues, and that fact that Bud Selig tries to make the All-Star Game "meaningful" by giving home field advantage in the World Series to the winning league is laughable.
The novelty of the MLB All-Star Game wears off about three innings into the game (if not the night before at the Home Run Derby). The game, as we saw last year, only becomes exciting if it drags on and on into extra innings, and then it is only fun because the fans can't wait to see how long the game can go before Selig kisses his sister again and stops the contest.
The National Basketball Association, on the other hand, has a much better handle on what an all-star game should be about. The Slam Dunk Contest and Three Point Challenge are fun to watch, along with the newly fashioned skills competition and H-O-R-S-E game.
I'm sure Jordan is going to argue that the dunk contest is not as good as it could be because of the fact that none of the truly elite players participate, but LeBron James has already talked about how he is going to participate in the contest next year. Plus, the Dunk Contest and Three-Point Challenge each have histories of their own. Who could forget the 5'8" Spud Webb's 360-degree contest-clinching slam, or Larry Bird's famous line in 1986, "Who's playing for second place?" before the three-point contest.
As for the game itself, I will be the first to agree that neither team plays defense for most of the game, but sometimes this is just what fans want to see (especially in an all-star game). Sure, it would be fun to see Kobe try to lock down LeBron, but that is what the NBA Finals have in store. In the All-Star Game, the NBA gives the fans a chance to see Chris Paul throw behind-the-back alley-oops to Kevin Durant.
What makes the NBA All-star game truly special is the very nature of basketball. Basketball is a social game. Trash talking and friendly banter are the norm on playgrounds all over the country.
One has to look no further than President Obama to see evidence of how the social aspects of basketball can help shape relationships. In the case of the NBA All-star game, this relationship is that of the fans to the players. By letting the fans have a behind-the-scenes look at its players, the league creates a social relationship with its fans -- a relationship that no other league fosters.
In the last little space I have left to use, I would like to promise our readers that next week Jordan and I will get back to the original purpose of this column: debating Dartmouth athletics.
