Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. I write about what’s happening in the NBA daily, even when COVID has ravaged the league.
Looks like we might get an all-star game this season.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Quinn Harris/USA Today.)
With the pandemic going on, I didn’t think we would have the extra festivities. It’s already hard enough to keep the season going with all these postponed games happening. Luckily, there hasn’t been a major disaster with COVID so far.
Yet…
What are we doing, guys?
On one hand, yay, extra entertainment. But is this exhibition really necessary? It’s a chance that’s really worth not risking. Especially since they are talking about having the regular festivities like the slam dunk contest and three-point shootout. Are the players going to act as fans for this year’s event?
It already feels dangerous to have fans, even if distanced, in the building. I may understand this if they’ve been in a bubble, which I understand that most players don’t want to have because they feel so isolated from the rest of the world. But it’s a game that is usually for the fans and pretty much rendered meaningless.
Just have the fans/media/players vote for the all-stars and leave it at that. That feels like enough of a reward because, sometimes, even players just want to skip the game and take the rest.
But imagine if someone catches the virus DURING the game, even if it’s just one of the players watching. Then we’ll go through all this contract tracing and all the stars would have to quarantine for the next couple of weeks. That sounds like a catastrophic mishap waiting to happen. They don’t have to play this game. The league should just take a week or even a two-week break and let everyone just rest.
But as if with everything else, though, it’s all about the $$$$$ and whatever anyone says won’t stop the league. So all we can do now is hope for the best. We always have to worry about this, won’t we?
Bullet Passes
Anyway, here are your leading vote-getters so far if you care more about this kind of stuff than lives at risk.
Yay, I guess.
The Mavericks finally stopped their 6-game losing streak and, of course, it had to happen to Luka Doncic‘s counterpart, Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks. Like I said before, those two will be tied forever because they got traded for each other and were in the same draft class. Luka finished with 27-8-14 while Trae had 21-4-9.
Tyrese Haliburton won Rookie of the Month for December/January and he continued his excellent play by scoring 16 of his 21 points in the second half to help power the Kings over the Celtics. What a steal for the Kings in the draft.
The Rockets had their 6-game win streak snapped as they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Man, a lot of these teams are so up and down this season but it has been a very unusual campaign, to say the least.
Paul George scored 36 points against the Cavs. George was a pretty big subject in Jared Dudley’s eBook, Inside The NBA Bubble. Dudley said that George shouldn’t put himself on the level of a LeBron James and an Anthony Davis. There’s a more concise explanation here from Silver Screen And Roll.
I like Dudley; he was the first active player I had ever interviewed. It’s just a lot of he-said, he-said stuff going on here. None of them are wrong; it’s just a matter of one upmanship.
Joel Embiid had 34 and 11 against the Hornets. I’m telling you guys.
NBA Scoreboard
Feb. 3, 2021
Watch This Play
LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges has an Air BNB that comes with a windmill.
💥🎆📸
LaMelo Ball to Miles Bridges FIREWORKS from EVERY ANGLE! pic.twitter.com/KPaoAEhn6W
— NBA (@NBA) February 4, 2021
That is sick, man. Just sick. Pun intended? Probably.
Everyone, please take care of yourselves during this pandemic. And that goes for everyone involved with the NBA as well.
You can find Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
You can also check out Rey-Rey’s podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental, for more basketball content and, really, whatever else.