Fading All Stars & NBA Nostalgia

This episode dives into the transformation and struggles of the NBA All-Star Game, examining player motivations and the implications of recent events. D Turnipseed raises questions on how to improve the competitive spirit of the league while discussing the intertwining themes of nostalgia and modern-day performance standards. 

• Discussion on LeBron's last-minute withdrawal from the All-Star Game 
• Debate over giving players million-dollar bonuses to increase competitive spirit 
• Insights into how nostalgia is affecting perceptions of the NBA presently

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

what's up ? What's up ? It's the third down conversation , your place for sports and entertainment . I am d turnip seed and on today's episode , the nba all-star game , how can the league incentivize players to actually compete ? Le LeBron backing out at the last second was that selfish . And lastly , does the NBA have a nostalgia problem ? Well , I'm going to break all that down and , as you know , I'm real , I'm authentic and I'm always in context . Let's ride .

Speaker 1 0:50

The NBA All-Star Game is just not what it used to be . I'm sure people are tired of hearing about how the league was during MJ's time or how the league was during Kobe's time , but those guys , guys competed and when it was winning time , they gave effort , they locked in . It is believed that your alpha superstar sets the tone for that game . D Wade has said that , kenya Martin has said that . So LeBron does have to wear a little bit of this . As to why the game has become what it has become , one player stated that if the league gave each all-star a million dollars , then their effort would increase , and that's just wild to me , because it shouldn't take a million dollars to compete for fans . Plus , the NBA already gives cash incentives and that hasn't worked . So you saying give y'all more . Come on , man . So how can the NBA incentivize this game ? What methods could they use ? Because at this point they trying everything like what they did this past year . It was . It was confusing . It was way too many stoppages , it was like a four-team tournament . It was so confusing . They need to take a page out of apple's book and keep things simple . Customers like simplicity . The easier to understand , the better .

Speaker 1 2:23

So I've got a couple potential fixes for the All-Star game . The first thing I would do is go back to the traditional East versus West . All this picking captains and drafting a team stop , it's just , it's overkill . It's overkill , you don't need it . So go back to just East and west . That's my first thing . The second thing I would do is add three additional all-stars to each team , so each team has 15 players . Each player will play at least one quarter and then the fourth quarter . The best five will play .

Speaker 1 3:01

The third thing I will do is introduce the Elam inning . The Elam inning is something that's come from the basketball tournament TBT that occurs in the summertime and it's created to have a more natural ending to the game . With a team that is losing , it's not worried about the clock running out , but instead can focus on defense and trying to meet the target score . The target score is determined by the current winning team score and then adding 12 points to it . So if the winning team has 50 , you add 12 to that . That makes it 62 as the target score . This target score will be introduced at the six minute mark of the fourth quarter . At that point the clock turns off and it's just basketball and you just compete and see who can get to the target score first .

Speaker 1 4:02

The fourth thing that I would do is award home court advantage in the NBA finals to the winning team , again just trying to add incentives to the game . We have to give the players purpose . I think if we can give the players that , why that reason as to why am I here competing ? I think ultimately we can make it a better product and make it a better game and make it something that the fans will appreciate from an entertainment standpoint and a competitive standpoint . I hope you guys enjoyed that first segment and if you haven't had a chance , go ahead and hit that like button , go ahead and hit that subscribe button and a five-star review will sure help a brother out . Remember shows will drop every Tuesday and follow me on socials at the Third Down Conversation . Now let's continue the show and jump into segment number two .

Speaker 1 5:14

So a few hours before the All-Star game was about to tip off , lebron announced that he wasn't playing in the All-Star game . He didn't give anybody a heads up , he didn't tell Adam Silver who was the commissioner . He just was doing his press availability for the All-Star game and just said that , uh , I might play . A lot of people criticized LeBron for it . A lot of people called it selfish . Some people say that he should have gave a quicker notice so that they could have replaced his spot . People felt like Norman Powell could have been a quicker notice so that they could have replaced his spot . People felt like Norman Powell could have been added or LaMelo Ball could have been added if LeBron had have told the league sooner rather than a couple hours before the game started . But then I ran past a clip between Chandler Parsons , who was a former NBA player , lou Williams , a former NBA player . Take a listen to this exchange between Chandler Parsons and Lou Williams .

Speaker 2 6:15

Chandler's saying that the league and players in the league have basically been forced to indulge LeBron's family dream and to have Bronny be there , which is fine , we've accepted it . It is what it is . But he couldn't be bothered to give anybody a heads-up notice more than 30 minutes before the game starts so that A somebody else could have been there . And if it is in fact because you didn't want to play against the rising stars , then that's just who's going to be in there , so so again , you have a team of rising stars .

Speaker 1 6:41

If LeBron James sits out , who's going to replace him ?

Speaker 3 6:43

All of the guys that were going to replace him are in the game . Trae Young was in the game .

Speaker 1 6:47

The only person that was left on the bubble was LaMelo .

Speaker 3 6:50

Ball , that's it .

Speaker 2 6:50

So you think his ankle and foot thing started 20 minutes before the game started .

Speaker 1 6:56

Or do you think he's had a few days with heads up ? So again , so again . Now that's an interesting take , that LeBron was um protesting because he did not want to play against the rising stars . And what Chandler Parsons was saying is that's odd , because you're making other guys in the NBA play against your son now . That's an interesting perspective . I'm not sure I agree with it , but it does make you think a little bit and ask yourself was he protesting Like ? Was he turning his nose up at the fact that they were going to have to play the rising stars ?

Speaker 1 7:32

It's possible . I mean , even Draymond Green came out and said that the rising stars shouldn't be on Sunday , that Sunday is reserved for the all-stars , shouldn't be on Sunday , that Sunday is reserved for the all-stars , that the all-stars should get all the shine and these rising stars , you know , have to pay their dues . In so many words , chandler Parsons stated that . You know , lebron knew his foot and ankle was already sore . He was already missing games for it . But Chandler asked a very good question there Would LeBron have played if Bronny was one of the rising stars ? I think we all know the answer to that question he would have for sure played . Is it possible that Bron was upset that Bronny wasn't named to the rising stars team ?

Speaker 1 8:17

And that may have led to his possible protest . Possibly . Again , I don't believe that . I don't believe that . I'm just kind of just throwing things out there as I'm like thinking out loud about it . But telling the league , commissioner , when you tell everybody else that you're not playing , that's not okay . For sure should have said something way sooner . Therefore , someone could have took your place . Norman Powell could have been a first-time all-star . Lam Norman Powell could have been a first-time All-Star . Lamelo Ball could have been a first-time All-Star . And if Bronny was on that rising stars team , oh yeah , you're playing . You're for sure playing . Please remember to like , subscribe , follow , Drop a comment , Leave a review .

The All

Speaker 1 9:06

Five stars , please Remember . Shows will drop every Tuesday and I want you guys along for the ride and also follow me on social media Instagram , Twitter , YouTube at the Third Down Conversation .

Speaker 3 9:33

Nostalgia is killing the NBA . The 90s basketball Michael Jordan and Kobe was not as clean as y'all think it was . Y'all forget that Jordan left the league for two years . Y'all forget that Kobe rest in peace , quit on his team in the playoffs and did not shoot the basketball . So all this Kobe Jordan ? Oh , he's not this , he's not that .

Speaker 1 10:01

That is propaganda you just heard a clip from Channing Frye , former NBA basketball player played for the Cleveland Cavaliers . He went through this whole breakdown as to why it's hard to find someone to be the face of the league . Now what he's alluding to in that clip is guys not wanting to be talked bad about . He used a explicit word . I won't use that word , but he pretty much said that guys don't want to be bashed on media outlets . Therefore they don't want to be the face of the league , which kind of gives credence to people saying that , let's say , not as mentally tough as the previous era . But I'm not here to debate that . If you want to think this new era is soft , go ahead . That's not my opinion . If you want to think the 90s was better , go ahead . I want to focus in on what he said about MJ and Kobe . He said that nostalgia is killing the NBA and nostalgia is just an affection for the past . He stated that the 90s wasn't as clean and highlighted that MJ retired or left the game for two years and how Kobe quit on his team when MJ retired . He retired because his father had just passed away . He was murdered , actually , and his father had always wanted him to play baseball . So , on the heels of winning a championship , losing your father , mj decided to leave the game to go play baseball because he knew that was his father's favorite sport . I don't knock him for that . I wouldn't use that as a well . Mj left because of the pressures , so I think he's missing the context on that . Now let's switch to Kobe . He states that Kobe quit on his team and what he's talking about is the 05-06 season . The Lakers are playing the Suns in the playoffs and this narrative that Kobe quit on his team is so , not true . It's so , not true , and the only people that really say this are the media , and the only people that really say this are the media . You haven't heard many players come out and say that Kobe quit on his team . They don't say that because they know Kobe is the ultimate competitor . But I'm going to back up what I'm going to say with facts , with numbers . As I started to research did Kobe really quit on his team ? I came across a video from a guy by the name of Johnny Arnett that really broke this down .

Speaker 1 12:45

During the 2005-06 NBA season , kobe led the league in scoring . He averaged 35 a game that year . However , there was something very , very odd about that year for the Lakers . When Kobe scored not as much and got his teammates involved , the Lakers won more often . In fact , when Kobe scored less than 35 , the Lakers were 15-3 . When he scored 35 or more , they were 13-15 .

Speaker 1 13:18

Now Phil Jackson is the coach . The offense that they ran the triangle , and Phil always felt it was best for the offense to be free-flowing . The triangle worked when the ball was moving , but when one player dominated the ball the offense became bogged down . He even told MJ this and got MJ to change his ways , aka trust his teammates to make the offense work , which would lead to wins During the playoffs against the Suns that season . The games they won Kobe averaged 23 a game . The games they lost Kobe averaged 39 a game on 49% shooting . So his numbers when they lost look great . But Kobe cares about winning . The series goes to a game seven and in the first half of game seven Kobe scores 23 points on 61% shooting . But the Lakers are down 15 going into the third quarter . This shows that Kobe trying to dominate the ball and force his offense was not working .

Speaker 1 14:31

So did Kobe quit ? Nah , instead he tried to get his teammates involved because they had had success during the season when that was his approach . The end result did not work in the Lakers' favor . Kobe's teammates they shot 33% from the field . Combine that with the frustration that Kobe had with the organization . People just assumed that Kobe quit because he only took three shots in the second half . However , when you look at the numbers , put it all in context , it shows a player so desperate to win that he changed his game and did what everyone said he should do more pass the ball . But these are just my thoughts . Did Kobe quit ? Nah , not Kobe . Nobody truly believes that this has been the Third Down Conversation . I am D-Turnip Seed . Jesus loves you and I'm out Peace . Thanks for watching .