NBA Tries New All-Star Format; The Butler Factor; Chronicle Misfires

All-Star games have become problematic in this era of $50 million ballplayers.

To put it simply, the players don't want to risk injury--putting all that money in jeopardy--for what is essentially a meaningless exhibition.

They do still seem honored to be selected. But playing in the games is another matter. Many either opt out because of a phantom injury, or play at half speed.

The NFL's solution has been to go to flag football, which may be safer, but is kind of like substituting Case Keenum for Josh Allen.

Over the weekend, the NBA tried to energize its own failing All-Star show--one that's been in decline for a decade and reached a new low with last year's 211-186 debacle--by trying a four-team tournament.

The 24 All-Stars selected by fans, players and coaches were divided into three teams chosen by TNT analysts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal. They were joined by a fourth team of "Rising Stars," all of whom had no business playing in an All-Star game. 

The new format was designed to inject some real competition into the event and encourage the players to actually try on defense.

Good luck with that.

A few players made an effort to play defense--notably Victor Wembanyama, Kyrie Irving and Jaylen Brown. But the game mostly featured uncontested three-pointers and dunks.

But that wasn't the worst part of the contest.

No, the worst, most absurd and embarrassing part was a 20-minute interruption in the middle of the game. 

With Shaq's team leading Barkley's team 11-1, the championship final was stopped for 20 minutes for a tribute to the TNT analysts.

Talk about bad taste.

Whoever decided on doing this in the middle of an All-Star game should never be allowed near a sports broadcast again.

The tribute was hosted by the annoying, ubiquitous "comedian" Kevin Hart (above). It's bad enough we have to endure Hart in virtually every credit card and sports betting commercial. Now the NBA tabs him to emcee the All-Star Game?

When play resumed, all the competitiveness, momentum, and defense had disappeared. The break essentially killed the quality of the game. The players seemed to have lost interest.

And who could blame them.

Bottom line: the new format may have been a slight improvement on the usual all-offense, no defense atrocity, but it was sabotaged by a major flaw in the team makeup and a tone deaf presentation that destroyed the flow of the game.

The Warriors' Draymond Green, part of the backup TNT crew, asked to rate the all-star format on a scale of 1 to 10, gave it a "zero."

I think that was unduly harsh. Let's call it a "2."

The Butler Factor: On a more positive note, Jimmy Butler's first four games with the Warriors have been a revelation.

The man can play basketball. His presence on the court has made life much easier for Steph Curry. 

“Every possession just doesn’t feel as hard,” Curry said. “You still see attention, you still see defenses, but you have to worry about something else."

That something else is Butler, whose forceful drives, ballhawking defense, and ability to get to the line provide a new injection of muscle and disruption this roster severely lacked. 

And, wonder of wonders, Butler never throws the ball away, a trait badly needed on a team that has lost so many games this year because of untimely, unforced turnovers.

The Warriors are 3-1 since he arrived, and could easily have been 4-0. Butler, labeled "a franchise changer" by teammate Draymond Green, is averaging 21.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.3 steals for Golden State.

Butler, who has been known as something of a malcontent in his previous stops, likes the vibe on Golden State.

Asked what he’s noticed about playing for the Warriors, he said “How much fun that they have. … They be out there hooping. Guarding. Getting the ball where it needs to go – and smiling. That’s the way the game is supposed to be played.

“When you play with that much joy and that much happiness, everybody eats.”

Moses Wins: Also good to see Moses Moody finally in the Warriors' starting lineup. I love Warriors' coach Steve Kerr, but for some reason I feel he hasn't fully appreciated Moody and Jonathan Kuminga.

Kuminga, of course, just hit his stride before suffered a severe ankle sprain. Can't wait to see him team with Curry and Butler when he returns after the all-star break.

Moody has scored in double figures 13 of the last 15 games, and the Warriors are 7-0 in games he has started. He does a lot of little things to help you win games--key rebounds, steals, blocks, timely three pointers.

Chronicle Blows It: Over the weekend the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article, as part of its NBA All-Star coverage, on the "Bay Area's Groundbreaking Women" in women's basketball.

The article was an embarrassing mish-mash of errors and omissions written by a columnist who was recently named California Co-sportswriter of the Year.

Either he didn't do his homework, or his editors fell asleep at the wheel. Or both.

First off, there was no mention of the American Basketball League (ABL), a pioneering women's league that was founded right here in the Bay Area.

And as for groundbreaking women, there was no mention of Anne Cribbs, co-founder of the ABL and later President of BASOC (Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee).

Yes, I'm prejudiced, since I was involved in the ABL, but how could you devote most of the article to the Women's Basketball League (WBL), which lasted quick in the late 1970s, and the Ladies Professional Basketball Association (LPBA), which lasted about a month in 1980, with nary a mention of the ABL, which lasted two and a half years from 1996-98, featured most of the '96 U.S. Olympic Team, paid competitive full-time job type salaries, offered player-focused leadership, and gave the players a chance to own equity in the league?

And how could you claim the WNBA rose "from the ashes of the WBL and the LPBA," both of which pre-dated the WNBA by almost 20 years, when in fact, the WNBA ascended from the ashes of the ABL, which it put out of business and then absorbed all of its players?

One of our players, Yolanda Griffith, immediately won the WNBA's MVP award in 1999. Another, Katie Smith, became the all-time leading scorer in women's professional basketball. And one of our coaches, Brian Agler, led two different WNBA teams to league championships.

There were a couple of other major gaffes.

The article said Jennifer Azzi, who led Stanford to its first NCAA championship in 1990, was a member of the 1984 Olympic Team. Azzi was a sophomore in high school in 1984. She played on the '96 Olympic Team. 

The article also failed to mention Azzi was a founding player of the ABL and star of the San Jose Lasers team.

But the real beauty was claiming that Warriors' owner Joe Lacob "played a major role in creating the LPBA" in '79. Lacob was 23 years old and in grad school at that time.

Lacob did, however, play a major role in creating the ABL in 1996 and was owner of the Lasers' team that featured Azzi.

While the local newspaper has ignored the ABL's contributions to women's basketball, it received some nice national coverage last month from ESPN, and last summer, surprisingly, from the NBA network.

Let's hope the Chronicle's coverage of the new WNBA Golden State Valkyries' team will offer more accuracy and perspective than yesterday's half-assed attempt at women's basketball history.