Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had an excellent week and a better weekend ahead.
Remember all of that hand-wringing we were talking about last week about how terrible the NBA supposedly is these days? Well, it didn’t go anywhere.
It probably got worse after the league announced its new All-Star game format. The league is scrapping the traditional game and putting together a piecemeal tournament between three teams of All-Stars and the Rising Stars Challenge winners. It’s strange and kind of wonky, but it’s a reaction to everyone’s complaints that the All-Star game isn’t competitive.
So, considering that, you’d think that people might be satisfied with the league’s latest action. But they’re not. They hate it.
One of the people who hate it is none other than NBA All-Star Kevin Durant. He was asked about the new format and said “I absolutely hate it.”
“All-Star Game format changing, all the formats — terrible in my opinion. We should just go back to East-West. Just play a game,” Durant told reporters.
He’s not the only All-Star who has a problem with this. The All-Star of all the All-Stars does, too. After the Lakers’ Thursday night win over the Kings, LeBron James weighed in on the All-Star game and the general state of the NBA.
“Something had to change. … We’ve got to do something. Obviously, the last couple years have not been a great All-Star game on Sunday night. But it’s a bigger conversation — it’s not just the All-Star game. It’s the game in general. Our game is … It’s a lot of [expletive] threes being shot. So, it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star game.”
Yup. You’re reading that correctly. That’s the face of the league trashing the way it operates.
That’s not a great look for the NBA — especially not at a time when criticism of the league seems to be at a fever-pitch. Adam Silver and company can’t be happy hearing this coming from either of these two All-Stars.
Look, generally speaking, I’m with them. I don’t love the new All-Star format, either. I think it’s very gimmicky and would much rather see a classic East-West showdown. I’d love to be wrong about the new format and am keeping an open mind, so we’ll see.
But, on the broader subject of the state of the game that James broached there, his criticism — and even Durant’s to a certain extent — rings hollow to me.
The last time I checked, both of these guys have been All-Stars for a majority of their careers. They acknowledge that the game isn’t what it used to be and are the epitome of the “I Think You Should Leave” hot dog guy meme. They’re trying to figure out how we got here, too. Just like the rest of us.
As elder statesmen in the NBA, this isn’t necessarily their burden to bear anymore. They’ve played in more All-Star games than they have left in their careers. We won’t see them around forever. And, even when we do, they probably won’t be playing heavy minutes.
But, man. If they want a little more effort in the games, then maybe they should try bringing it to the table instead of just complaining about it after the fact. That goes for the other All-Stars, too.
The 3-pointer discussion is different. Teams are obviously shooting more 3-pointers than ever before, but that’s a natural progression of the game. There are ebbs and flows. As time goes on, players evolve, and rule changes happen. This will eventually pass, and with the conversation the way it is now, changes will probably happen soon.
In the meantime, though, it’s up to James and Durant to control what they can control. A little more effort from them and maybe this isn’t even a discussion.
Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
Mat Ishbia and the Phoenix Suns decided to sell concessions for $2 in the Phoenix Suns arena, which is absolutely reasonable and exactly how it should be.
It was always ridiculous that people were paying more than that for bags of chips that were half filled with air and bottles of water that somehow still leave you thirsty.
Considering how much these teams are worth, those prices are even more absurd. Sportico released its annual NBA valuation data and the numbers are staggering.
A few numbers for you:
You catch my drift here. The cheapest team in the league is worth multiple billions of dollars. You and I could pool together our resources with a few thousand other people like us and we probably still couldn’t buy a sliver of this team.
I’ll never buy another bag of chips from an arena again.
— Shaq throwing Kenny Smith into a Christmas tree becoming a holiday tradition is hilarious to me.
— Excellent troll job from Mike Breen on Doris Burke here. Prince Grimes has more.
— Here’s Meg Hall on why the Bucks didn’t touch their champagne after winning the NBA Cup.
— Dylan Harper continues to hover at No. 2 in NBA mock drafts. Bryan Kalbrosky has more here.
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic weekend. Peace.
-Sykes
