![\"Slam](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Gj4NdFDbYAAmbxg.jpg-large-e1739832518842.jpeg\")
<\/a>Slam Dunk Champion Mac McClung’s amazing first dunk this year.<\/p><\/div>\n
I watched the proceedings all three days\/nights, and these are what stood out to me, not in order that they happened:<\/p>\n
The absolute highlight of the entire shebang, not just for me but I\u2018m sure for everyone, was Slam Dunk three-peat Champion, (and Roger Federer doppelg\u00e4nger,) Mac McClung<\/strong>. (I love that someone there knew enough to play Return of the Mack<\/em> when he won, as I had been yelling at the TV to do since he was first introduced that night!) OMG! He\u2019s not even in the NBA! He\u2019s in the G League, which is basically the \u201cminors\u201d for basketball players. I\u2019ve watched him all three years that he\u2019s been in the competition, and he gets more amazing each year. The first time he just surprised the heck out of everybody, and single-handedly revived the one time jewel of All-Star Weekend, the interest in which had been flagging for several years. The second<\/em> year, he was even better, and this<\/em> year, we all figured he\u2019d be good, but what else could he do to surprise us? Jump over a car, that\u2019s all! And grab the ball off the head of a pal who was sticking-out from the sunroof! I repeat\u2014OMG. Give that guy an NBA contract already! Even for one day, so he can say he played in the League. He deserves it.<\/p>\n By the way\u2014it\u2019s pretty disgusting that no NBA star<\/em> will compete in that contest anymore. Long gone are the days that Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins dominated. Viewers would prefer to see players like LeBron James, Zion Williamson, and Ja Morant do the dunks, but those guys don\u2019t want to be embarrassed if they lose. Or even miss. Shame on them.<\/p>\n The other highlight of the weekend was seeing a teen-age college student from the audience, Jaren Barajas<\/strong>, win $100,000 shooting from the middle of the court against star Damian Lillard<\/strong>!!! The kid, (who, when asked how he\u2019d spend the money if he won, answered that he\u2019d help his family and use some for college,) had to get one ball in the basket before Dame could get three. Dame had two, and then Jaren did it! And the place went berserk with joy!!! As did I. I have a feeling that Lillard missed a few on purpose, but Mr. X thinks he did not. Only Damian knows.<\/p>\n Jaren Barajas in the middle, with Damian Lillard silently cheering him on, (with the ball in his hands.)<\/p><\/div>\n I appreciate that they spread the events out over multiple venues in the San Francisco area, (labeling everything as \u201cSan Francisco Bay Area,\u201d as opposed to all previous years, when they just stated the name of the one arena the festivities were held in,) but it was also a tad annoying, especially because they never explained why they did that. I\u2019d venture a guess for the motivation\u2014because they know that people think that San Francisco is a cesspool of drug addicts and crime and unfortunate homeless people, so they wanted to show that there’s more than that\u2014but I can’t figure it out for sure.<\/p>\n What I can<\/em> figure-out is that they did sooooo much else wrong, as well! Most of the intros were done in not a great way, (except, finally, for the actual All-Star \u201cgame,\u201d) they need to stop re-doing the dunk and skills competitions differently each year, and they totally screwed the Spurs duo\u2014veteran Chris Paul<\/strong> and sophomore Victor Wembanyama<\/strong>, one of my all-time favorite players\u2014in the Skills contest by not explaining the rules correctly to a young guy whose first language is definitely not<\/em> English!!! Shame on them. They need to hire me<\/em> already to make it all right next<\/em> year.<\/p>\n The Friday night \u201cgames\u201d were beyond weak. The celebrity one that kicked-off All-Star Weekend had only one real<\/em> celeb\u2014Shaboozey<\/strong>. The rest were mainly non-famous folks\u2014working actors, WNBA players, supposed social media personalities\u2014with a couple of old NBA players mixed-in. It was a joke. Mr. X pointed-out how empty that venue was.<\/p>\n LiAngelo Ball, aka Gelo, rapping on All-Star Weekend.<\/p><\/div>\n Then they moved on to the Rising Stars Game that I\u2019ll describe for you in a sec. And it was held at another empty venue! Why couldn\u2019t they have been held at the same site??? It\u2019s all so head-scratching.<\/p>\n On Saturday night, as part of the presentation, player Lonzo Ball<\/strong> introduced a performance by his brother, rapper Gelo<\/strong>. The whole thing made me sad. It was like a high school talent show. I kept wondering where the Balls got a fourth<\/em> brother from, because the other three\u2014<\/strong>Lonzo, LaMelo, and LiAngelo\u2014are all NBA players. Not super successful ones, (Lonzo hurt his knee and until this season, hadn\u2019t played for two years!,) but still\u2026 So I looked it up, of course, to see just where Gelo fit in, and it turns-out\u2014he is LiAngelo!!! There\u2019s no fourth bro. His pro ball career didn\u2019t pan out, so he became a rapper! Perhaps that\u2019s why his All-Star performance was so weak. Seriously, I mean this with no snark; I feel bad for the dude. He was performing in front of his former fellow NBA players who were all aware that he didn\u2019t make it in the league. I think we\u2019d all be insecure in that circumstance. I actually feel bad for him. And for his bros, as well, to have the horrible father that they do. Growing-up could not have been easy for any of them.<\/p>\n I hate Draymond Green<\/strong> soooooo much!\u00a0 It\u2019s disgusting that TNT has him commentate.\u00a0At all! And I think he has a contract with them for when he\u2019s done playing. Ewww.<\/p>\n There was some incredibly rude woman who was sitting next to Oscar Robertson<\/strong> all weekend, but according to pix I researched, she\u2019s not his wife, so perhaps a daughter. I really wish I could get to the bottom of it, (for all<\/em> our sakes,) but no matter who<\/em> she is, she never smiled once, (at least not when the cameras were on her,) and this is even worse\u2014during the Three Point Shootout, she sat right next to the contestants, and\u2026was chatting away on her phone!!! That is beyond<\/em> rude! And so disrespectful to the sport that gave her first row seats throughout!<\/p>\n On the very left is that incredibly rude woman who was chatting on her phone in the front row, right next to the guys who were vying for the title of Three-Point Shoot-out Champion! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n The rest of my thoughts here are about the actual new crazy All-Star Game set-up, which is actually an All-Star Tournament<\/em>. And one of the four teams is not even composed of all-stars! It was almost entirely G League guys, who are the exact opposite of all-stars! (On top of that, only two of those half dozen players advertised in the image at the top of this column played in the main game!!! One wasn\u2019t even there at all!)<\/p>\n The quick version is that on Friday night of the weekend, there was a four-team mini-tournament of \u201cRising Stars.\u201d Three of the teams were comprised of rookies and second year players who are not<\/em>\u00a0stars by any stretch of the imagination. And one team was all guys from the aforementioned G League. The team who won then moved on to play on Sunday against one of the three teams made up of All-Stars. The twenty-four\u00a0All-Stars were split into three teams\u2014one of the older guys, one of the young guys, and one supposedly of the international guys\u2014all who would play if there was a traditional<\/em> All-Star Game. But the \u201cold guys\u201d team could’ve easily lost to the team of \u201cnobody famous guys\u201d because it’s not a real game; they played it just forty points. (For reference, usual All-Star Games final scores are around 184-172! So no guys this year can qualify for any records, which is just sad.)<\/p>\n As Cleveland Cavaliers star, (and another of my faves,) Donovan Mitchell<\/strong> said, I\u2019m an East-West girl, so even though this format was<\/em> a tad interesting, I prefer the old way. (I can\u2019t wait to see what they decide to do with it in 2026!)<\/p>\n I hate to say it, but I agree with Draymond that the young Rising Stars guys do not<\/em> belong in the \u201cAll-Star Tournament.\u201d He kept ragging on it, even though his Warriors teammate, star Steph Curry<\/strong>, says that he, Steph, is the one who invented this new format! As Sunday evening went along, though, Draymond got more and more mean about it, taking shots at everyone. It was enough already. (Even Hall-of-Famer Oscar Robertson came out against his vitriol.) The mini-tourney was all interesting enough; I just don\u2019t like change, especially in an All-Star situation. But some people, like even the great Charles Barkley<\/strong>, think it was necessary. Chuck said that if Draymond\u2019s group of players hadn\u2019t messed it all up, they would not have had to change anything. Mmmm.<\/p>\n Steph Curry rocking my two color sneakers style… Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n It was incredibly rude of LeBron James<\/strong> to have dropped-out of the games a few minutes before it all started! He should have done so the day before, to give someone else the chance to participate in what would have been special to them. And he screwed his eight-man team by making them play with just seven!!! He knew his ankle was bad last week<\/em>.<\/p>\n And how did the team of \u201cGlobal Stars\u201d include three Americans???<\/p>\n The whole thing was, to use Mr. X\u2019s word, mush.<\/p>\n By the way, why were two of the players\u2014Matas Buzelis<\/strong> on Saturday night and Steph Curry on Sunday\u2014rocking two different color sneakers, which is the style that I<\/em> started back in the day?! Why does everyone copy me???<\/p>\n …and Matas Buzelis copying my style, too! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n They really did need Kevin Hart<\/strong>, who finally showed up to try to save the day. But there was waaaay too much of the guys talking before the games. Get the games going already!!!<\/p>\n I hate to say it, but they need a lot less of the commentators. The entire All-Star Game needs it be the East versus West again, more pure game action, more Kevin Hart, and a lot less talking!<\/p>\n This new format wasn\u2019t fair to the team that won the first game; they had to sit for about forty more minutes than the second team did before they played the \u201ctitle\u201d game! That is soooo not fair. They totally cooled down and then had to get their beings back up to compete again.<\/p>\n And then on top of that, all of the action was paused\u2026in the middle of the final game<\/em>\u2026 for \u201ca tribute to TNT!!!,\u201d because this is the last year that the Turner network will broadcast the All-Star Game. (NBC takes over next year.) And it wasn\u2019t just a short-ish video\u2014it was about twenty minutes of speeches and tomfoolery! Who organized this mess???<\/p>\n It\u2019s in Los Angeles next year, so I\u2019m repeating\u2014they need me to fix it all for them right now<\/em>!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>