Tag: NBA All-Star 2021

Mike Conley Jr. is finally an NBA All-Star in his 14th season and fans were so happy

It’s about time.

It’s been a long time coming for Mike Conley Jr. It took some extremely unfortunate injuries to Anthony Davis and Devin Booker for it to happen, but Conley is finally going to be an All-Star.

It’s been 14 long, long seasons. He played an integral piece for so many of those Memphis Grizzlies teams that made deep playoff runs for the first 12 years of his career.

And, for so long, it felt like he should’ve been an All-Star. Certainly, he was good enough. But there was always a question of who he would start over. Chris Paul? Russell Westbrook? Steph Curry? Damian Lillard?

But here we are. It’s finally happening. He’s in as an injury replacement for Devin Booker, who sprained his knee earlier this week.

This is amazing. The NBA world was so happy for Mike Conley.

Looks like we’ve got to find another “best player to never make an All-Star game” now.

Good on Conley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MK0HoBHqbY

Charles Barkley really said Jordan Clarkson was having a better season than Anthony Davis and meant it

He’s dead serious.

Charles Barkley says a lot of really wild stuff. Like, a lot. So it’s not really surprising when he has a scorching hot (and wrong!) take.

But on Thursday’s NBA on TNT show when he said he’d vote for Jordan Clarkson over Anthony Davis as an All-Star, it just felt more outrageous than usual. He really believes this.

Barkley said that he wasn’t going to vote Davis into the All-Star game which, fine, sure. He should be an All-Star, but it’s fair to say he hasn’t been the same dominant player he was last season. He’s also been hurt, so there’s that.

But it wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t voting for Davis. It was the fact that he legitimately believes that Jordan Clarkson is having a better season than Davis right now.

And he was incredulous when Shaq and Kenny Smith suggested otherwise. Just look at this, man.

“We’re talking about who’s having the best year, not who is a better player…It’s not who is the best player, it’s who’s having the better year.” 

He said he wanted to reward Clarkson for having a great year, which he is! He’s averaging career highs across the board. He’s probably going to be sixth man of the year, which will be his reward.

But he hasn’t been better than Anthony Davis. And when Kenny asked Barkley if he thought Clarkson was having a better year than Davis, Barkley reiterated that “yes” indeed he does believe that. With a straight face.

This is just wild, y’all. Wild. But I guess we should expect nothing less from Barkley at this point.

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The 2021 NBA All-Star game is officially happening. Here’s everything you need to know

It’s all in one night.

For weeks now, it’s been evident that the NBA was going to have an All-Star game despite the COVID-19 pandemic raging on.

There were so many signals showing us that it’d happen. All-Star voting carried on as it normally would, news leaked about the NBA potentially having the game in Atlanta. A schedule of the events that would take place over the weekend also began circulating.

Now, it’s all official. The NBA’s All-Star game is back on. The league officially announced the news on Thursday.

They announced the game…but with a bit of a twist. Instead of being over the weekend, it’s all in one night in Atlanta.

Yup. Here’s everything you need to know.

The 4 most surprising things about the NBA’s All-Star voting so far

From everything to Alex Caruso appearing on the list to Jerami Grant turning into a star.

The second round of NBA All-Star ballots are in and the returns are pretty wacky so far.

Of course, the leaders look right so far. You’ve got LeBron James with 4.3 million votes and Kevin Durant with 4.2 million votes as your leaders in the East and West respectively.

They’ve also got big names following them. Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and that rounds out the top six vote getters.

None of that is particularly surprising about this. What is surprising, though, are some of the names you see as you start to move toward the bottom of the list.

Just take a look.

Yeah, things are getting pretty weird here. Let’s explore this for a second.

Everything the NBA’s All-Stars have said about having an All-Star game

Here’s everything the NBA’s All-Stars have said about the All-Star game. No one seems to want to play in this thing.

When the NBA and the NBA Players Association agreed to start the season on December 22, they also agreed that there would be no All-Star game. Instead, there’d be a week of rest and recovery for the players between the first and second half of the schedule.

Now, that tune seems to be changing despite the NBA’s struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic so far.

The NBA is negotiating with the Players Association to have an All-Star game on March 7 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The two sides are in the midst of agreeing to COVID-19 testing and safety protocols now but are expected to come to terms soon.

So it looks like the All-Star game will be happening after all. But, despite the Players Association being apart of this, the players don’t seem too thrilled about it. LeBron James said he had “zero interest” in the game after the Lakers game against the Nuggets.

He’s not the only one to speak up. Here’s what every All-Star has said about the game so far.

Carmelo Anthony on NBA having All-Star Game: ‘I don’t think it’s right’

LeBron James’ fellow 18-year veteran, Carmelo Anthony, agrees that having an All-Star Game is not a good idea.

Several players of the younger generation were already discussing the various reasons why they are against the NBA having an All-Star Game this season. On Thursday, Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony joined his 2003 draft buddy LeBron James in using the attention of their platforms to call out the NBA for what they see as a bad decision.

Following his 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, LeBron James called the NBA’s proposal to have an All-Star Game a “slap in the face.” Carmelo wasn’t as forceful with his words, but he agreed with James that having an All-Star Game should not be a priority right now.

It remains to be seen how the NBA will react to so many of the biggest names in their game saying that their plan is stupid. The league has not officially announced any plans for the All-Star Game yet, which means they could shift from the reported plans to have a March 7 game.

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All-Star Weekend 2021 a potential sacrifice of next season, shortened schedule

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported yesterday that the All-Star Weekend is a candidate to be sacrificed next season.

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All of the latest reporting about the upcoming NBA season suggests that there will be a quicker turnaround than most expected when the season ended 13 days ago inside the Walt Disney World bubble, as the Los Angeles Lakers lifted the trophy for the 17th time in the franchise’s history. Now as they look to defend their title, it appears the Lakers will have to follow the longest season in NBA history with the shortest offseason. There also is another casualty likely for the upcoming season: the 2021 All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that no final decision has been made but that it’s on the table to get axed.

Given that coronavirus cases are steadily rising across the country and it seems impossible to know when a vaccine will be readily available, hosting a massive party for people from all over the country and the world, such as All-Star Weekend, seems inadvisable and irresponsible. It also seems highly unlikely that the league will allow fans in arenas, eliminating yet another key aspect of what All-Star weekend is about.

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