New York Times on the Road Again and Again and
Marc Stein On Basketball
On the Route Again at All-Star Weekend
Plenty of stars expressed business nigh playing in the All-Star Game, only it proved to be an of import trip for Nikola Vucevic and for a columnist eager to resume traveling.
Sun'south 70th North.B.A. All-Star Game was repeatedly described as one virtually all of the states could have done without.
The about disclaimer got thrown in for people similar Boran Rajcic, Stefan Vulevic and the Orlando Magic's Nikola Vucevic. Similar the league's broadcast partners at Turner Sports, and the historically Black colleges and universities that gained then much from the weekend, Vucevcic and his close friends savored the feel.
Vucevic and swain All-Stars were immune to bring up to four guests into the bubble environs that the N.B.A. conceived in Atlanta in hopes of staging Sunday's competitions safely and hushing the naysayers who feared that the ane-day format could devolve into some sort of superspreader event. After deciding with his wife, Nikoleta, that it would be wiser for her and their 2 young children to stay home this year, Vucevic figured he would be commemorating the second All-Star appearance of his career as a party of 1.
Rajcic and Vulevic wouldn't let it happen.
Rajcic drove to Georgia from California and made stops in Phoenix and Dallas along the mode to annals the requisite league-mandated negative tests for Covid-19 at official Due north.B.A. squad testing facilities. Vulevic drove in vi hours from Virginia to double the size of Vucevic's fan club. And so moved by those efforts, Vucevic arranged to stay over Lord's day night earlier returning to Orlando — unlike the many All-Stars who left town immediately after the game past individual jet — to maximize his fourth dimension with the guys.
Time together had to suffice as the primary source of entertainment, since they were posted up in a downtown hotel that, per N.B.A. rules, those cleared to enter were not allowed to leave.
"I actually had a pretty nice balustrade with my room," Vucevic said. "We just hung out, played music, caught up."
Rajcic, who was the best man in Vucevic's nuptials, and Vulevic were determined that they had to exist in Atlanta, whatsoever it took, to make the virtually of what might testify to be the loftier point of Vucevic'south trying season. Vucevic, at thirty, is producing career-best personal numbers so robust that he earned an All-Star spot despite injury-ravaged Orlando falling to 14th in the Eastern Conference at thirteen-23. A 6-foot-11 Montenegrin center, he is averaging 24.half dozen points and xi.6 rebounds while shooting 41.2 percent from iii-point range, which explains why the Boston Celtics — who openly covet a large man with shooting range — are mentioned often amid the multiple playoff teams interested in acquiring Vucevic earlier the March 25 merchandise deadline.
I was not aware of a room-with-balcony-option at my Atlanta hotel, simply I could empathize the pull Rajcic and Vulevic felt to make the trip. Earlier boarding a Georgia-bound flight last Friday dark, I hadn't left my Dallas base of operations to nourish an N.B.A. function of any kind since leaving the Walt Disney Globe bubble last September. This consignment struck me as the must-see occasion to end that drought. I was convinced of it despite the unappetizing prospect of pandemic air travel and knowing that the mere fifty members of the news media that would exist credentialed at State Farm Loonshit, compared with the usual ane,000-plus that the league credentials, would get nowhere near the players or the floor like we ultimately did in the Disney bubble.
When I strolled the streets surrounding the Atlanta Hawks' home on Saturday afternoon, there was zero All-Star free energy in the air and, unlike a typical Northward.B.A. product, very trivial signage to signal what would exist happening Sunday night. Lord's day's walk to the game was even more disorienting, thanks to a police presence in the area that completely cleared out the arena'due south perimeter. Maybe the North.B.A. and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Atlanta mayor, were unable to dissuade locals and out-of-towners from congregating at unaffiliated parties thrown Fri and Saturday night every bit they had hoped, but past game twenty-four hours it was very much the closed-to-the-public, fabricated-for-television issue that the league intended.
I knew going in that I would be granted access to a decent seat in a confined section of the loonshit backside one of the baskets and little else, but I'm glad I went. If the game was going to go ahead, after LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden and various other stars had all spoken out so forcefully confronting the league'south intentions to stuff three days' worth of All-Star festivities into a i-dark Turner bonanza, I felt a responsibility to become there too and see as much every bit I could with my own eyes — simply in case something went desperately beveled.
Those superspreader fears were apparently averted when Philadelphia's Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons were kept isolated from the other All-Stars afterward it was discovered that before leaving Philadelphia they had been exposed to a barber who had tested positive for Covid-19. The announcement that Embiid and Simmons were being pulled from Sunday'southward game stoked a fresh round of apprehension and resistance among players, but my sense was that most participants came abroad appreciative of the experience.
Image
"There's manifestly a big balancing deed, and I know Adam Silver tried to clear that throughout this process, and evidently u.s. as players, we have reactions to everything that happens because it's our world and we're living in information technology," Golden Land's Stephen Curry said. "I all the same had a not bad time out there."
Portland's Damian Lillard added: "Information technology had to be done, and we got information technology washed. We showed upwardly and did what we needed to practise."
Whether All-Star 2021 really was or wasn't a must is the point on which this whole argue hinged. Possibly you will recall how succinctly Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers summed it upwards in early Feb.
"We all know why we're playing it," Leonard said then. "There's coin on the line."
I, too, thought the risks taken to preserve Turner's projected windfall of up to $30 million, on summit of the untold millions that the Due north.B.A. and its players avoided losing through an outright counterfoil, were ill-advised. Still I must concede, with hindsight, that information technology'due south a stretch to parrot the line that routinely dismisses the All-Star Game equally "merely" an exhibition. TNT treats it as the precious stone of its annual N.B.A. coverage, bigger than any single playoff game on its air, while Silver said the league was expecting a global goggle box audience of more than 100 1000000 people, along with more than a billion social media views and engagements.
No mere exhibition game generates that sort of hoopla. All-Star games don't count — except that the N.B.A. tin can rightfully say they do.
Like everything else in the league (and the world) these days, it'southward complicated — and oftentimes inherently risky over the past year. Few understand that improve than Silvery, who is back in New York now for what could be another nervy week as the 400-plus players who were not in Atlanta gradually return to their teams. Coming out of a break is when the N.B.A. has typically had a surge in positive Covid-19 cases.
It too figures to exist a week filled with somber reflection given Thursday'due south looming one-yr ceremony of the N.B.A.'s shutdown in response to the coronavirus outbreak. I interviewed Silverish recently for a ane-twelvemonth-later project that ran in Mon'due south editions of The New York Times, which featured Silverish sharing some of his thinking and takeaways from March 11, 2020.
"When I fabricated that determination that night to shut down, I thought of it more every bit a hiatus, because it was a realization that nevertheless long nosotros're shut down, we need to put in place a whole new set of protocols to bargain with this emerging virus," Silverish said in final month's interview. "It wasn't and then much that, all right, the world has stopped.
"At that moment," Silver said, "I did not have a sense that we would be having this chat almost a year later and we still would not be back to business concern as usual."
The 70th All-Star Game, however you felt most it, was the latest illustration of exactly that. It became such a divisive result considering business organization as usual has been replaced by pandemic life for longer than about of us ever imagined.
The Scoop @TheSteinLine
March eight
In that location is optimism within the Lakers that they will get strong consideration from Andre Drummond if Drummond ultimately leaves the Cavaliers via buyout, league sources say.
Cleveland's preference, of course, remains trading Drummond elsewhere before the March 25 trade deadline.
March 6
The NBA has sent out roughly 200 letters with cease-and-desist orders to diverse party promoters in the Atlanta surface area that have used the league's All-Star logo and event proper noun in connection with unaffiliated events scheduled this weekend, league spokesman tells @NYTSports
The most notable aspect of the letters, of form, is that they suggest there are at least 200 parties going on in the expanse this weekend after Atlanta Mayor @KeishaBottoms urged the local denizens not to hold All-Star events when the NBA is not interacting with the public at all
This newsletter is OUR newsletter. So please counterbalance in with what you'd like to see hither. To get your hoops-loving friends and family involved, please forward this email to them so they can jump in the conversation. If you're not a subscriber, you lot can sign up here .
Corner 3
Image
You ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I'll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com . Please include your first and final name, too as the urban center you're writing in from, and make sure "Corner 3" is in the subject line.
(Responses may exist lightly edited or condensed for clarity.)
Q: You recently wrote an article about the surprising New York Knicks. Knicks fans are excited most Immanuel Quickley, simply this Knicks fan is puzzled well-nigh the play of Obi Toppin. What is your sense of the hype he got when drafted and the reality of his play to date? — Rich Helfont (Port Washington, N.Y.)
Stein: The hype hasn't helped Toppin's cause, but the Knicks' circumstances have changed since draft night in Nov, likewise. No i expected Julius Randle to play at an All-Star level. Toppin was drafted every bit a potential Randle replacement by a forepart part that suddenly finds itself trying to determine whether Randle's glorious one-half-season makes him a cornerstone histrion they have to keep.
I thought there was a decent chance that the Knicks would take Tyrese Haliburton at No. viii rather than Toppin, merely they felt a greater demand in the frontcourt, with RJ Barrett projected to be a more significant contributor to the Knicks' future than Randle.
The most troubling aspect of Toppin'due south deadening start is that, at historic period 23, he was thought to exist more than N.B.A.-ready than nearly rookies. Even Derrick Rose, whose recent return to the Knicks has clearly helped Toppin when they play together, mentioned recently that Toppin is still adjusting to the speed of the N.B.A. game. The ultratight turnaround from draft night to the offset of Toppin's first North.B.A. preparation camp, with no summer league, appeared to snuff out the supposed experience edge.
Q: Is there any business organization about dilution of the N.B.A.'s make due to the oversaturation of the alternate jerseys teams wear every twelvemonth? The recent orange-versus-ruddy clash between the Hawks and Thunder seemed like a humorous, and unfortunate, result of league guidelines that allow teams to wear clashing colors instead of the traditional light-versus dark contrast. Is anyone at league headquarters worried that the Lakers wearing bluish on some other team'south blue courtroom, or Miami dressing like the Pittsburgh Steelers or cotton candy on whatsoever given night, or Milwaukee wearing 2 shades of bluish that have never been part of the Bucks' aesthetic cheapens the history of these teams and the league? — Michael McAfee (Austin, Texas)
Stein: As a fellow traditionalist, I decided to let your whole bluster run, even though I suspect yous knew the answer before y'all sent in the question. The league and its teams clearly agree no such concerns almost printing an array of new jerseys every season. Information technology must be assisting or they wouldn't do it.
If information technology were up to sappy me, of course, teams would all be wearing what they wore in the 1970s and 1980s (when applicative) and Mitchell & Ness would remake and market everything the Buffalo Braves wore from 1973-74 through 1977-78. Only I, like you, conspicuously am non the target audience for today'southward jersey manufacturers.
I will say, though, that I really practice like the San Antonio Spurs' new Fiesta scheme. That's pretty much the lonely modern design I am drawn to.
Q: If a replacement All-Star gets replaced, does it get in the record books that they made the All-Star team? — @RivelBrian from Twitter
Stein: Fantabulous question about precisely the sort of tape-book minutiae that this newsletter cherishes.
I checked with the league office and, yeah, Phoenix's Devin Booker will exist recorded every bit an All-Star for the second successive season, even though he was chosen as a replacement for the injured Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers and and then had to exist replaced by Utah's Mike Conley because of a sprained left genu.
Conley thus exits the Best Actor To Never Earn All-Star Status fence, leaving backside the likes of 1980s (and 1990s) stalwarts Derek Harper, Ron Harper, Rod Strickland, Byron Scott and Cedric Maxwell, along with Jason Terry and Lamar Odom from the more than recent past, and Portland's CJ McCollum as the virtually deserving current veteran player.
Booker volition surely carry a chip into next season even with the league at present recognizing him equally a two-time All-Star, considering he was an injury-replacement selection both times after being snubbed by Western Conference coaches 2 seasons in a row. McCollum, in his 8th season, was also playing at an All-Star level when he sustained a fractured left foot on Jan. sixteen.
Numbers Game
Image
2
Equally the 2d half of the season begins with two games on Wed, merely two teams rank in the height 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency: Utah and Phoenix. The Jazz, at No. 4 in both categories, are the only team in the league that ranks in the top 5 in both. The Suns are No. 8 in offensive efficiency and No. 3 in defensive efficiency.
99.4
Afterwards two consecutive seasons in which pace leaguewide crept past 100 possessions per 48 minutes for the kickoff fourth dimension since 1988-89, that figure is downwards ever and so slightly. Entering Wednesday's play, teams are averaging 99.iv possessions per 48 minutes, co-ordinate to Stathead.
3
The Lakers, Clippers and Nets are the only teams in the 30-team North.B.A. that have not had a game postponed this flavor according to the league's wellness and safety protocols. The league had to postpone 31 games during the season's showtime one-half because at to the lowest degree one team could not field the requisite eight players in compatible equally a result of positive tests for Covid-19 or, more than frequently, considering of issues with contact tracing.
6
But five of the six actually played in the All-Star Game afterward Philadelphia'southward Ben Simmons was sidelined by the N.B.A.'s contact tracing rules, only this season'due south six All-Stars listed equally left-handers tied a league record: James Harden (Nets), Julius Randle (Knicks), Domantas Sabonis (Indiana), Simmons (Philadelphia), Zion Williamson (New Orleans) and the late improver Mike Conley (Utah).
xiv
Leave information technology to my trusty friends at Stathead to be able to dial up the history that shows at that place were likewise six lefties in the 1973 All-Star Game in Chicago: Tiny Archibald (Kansas City-Omaha), Dave Cowens (Boston), Gail Goodrich (Los Angeles Lakers), Bob Lanier (Detroit), Jack Marin (Houston) and Lenny Wilkens (Cleveland). Even so it must be noted that All-Star rosters swelled from 12 to 14 from 1970-71 through 1972-73, when the N.B.A. briefly stipulated that each team in the 17-team league had to be represented in the All-Star Game. The 1973 game in Chicago was the league's last of three in a row with 28 All-Stars rather than 24. Fan voting for the five starters began in 1974-75.
Hit me up anytime on Twitter ( @TheSteinLine ) or Facebook ( @MarcSteinNBA ) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com .
jamisonseliestionce99.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/10/sports/basketball/on-the-road-again-at-all-star-weekend.html
0 Response to "New York Times on the Road Again and Again and"
Enregistrer un commentaire