All-Star announcers try harder than players
The NBA All-Star game Sunday night was a joke. A bad one.
For the sake of transparency, this comes from someone who is not a big fan of professional sports. They all seem overpaid and underworked.
That doesn’t mean some of them aren’t nice guys, but they were born with gifts most of us could only hope and pray to possess.
There was 397 points scored and zero defense.
Most of them are there because they get a heavy fine from the NBA if they don’t come to what should be a showcase and not a threepoint shootout.
The Western Conference team went 80 of 143 from the field, including 25-76 on three-pointers and they were 1 of 1 on free throws.
The Eastern Conference team was 83 of 146, 42 of 97 behind the arc and 3 of 4 on free throws.
Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks had the distinction of missing the only free throw in the game.
The West was highlighted by veteran All-Stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Stephen Curry to name just a few, while the East was made up mostly of younger guys who have taken the three-point shot to extraordinary lengths.
Of course, when all you do for a living is play basketball you should be pretty good at it.
The combined 288 shots were fired up like a machine gun, one every 10 seconds. Rebounds were by whoever hadn’t started lumbering up the court yet.
What made the “game” a joke, was no one cared who won. Showing off was the Sunday theme.
The leading scorer in the game was Karl-Anthony Towns, who stars for the Minnesota Timberwolves and was a standout at the University of Kentucky. He came off the bench to score 50 points.
He appeared to give some effort and was happy to be playing, so he logged a teamhigh 28 minutes while James played 14.
The announcers tried harder than most of the players.
Charles Barkley was assigned to the alternate broadcast on TNT and may have made the biggest headline when he trashed San Francisco describing it as full of “homeless crooks.”
The NBA All-Star Game lasted about two hours, but seemed much longer.
Probably the biggest disappointment was CBS didn’t show reruns of Yellowstone.
It starts at 6 p.m. tonight in College Station, Texas, where the Arkansas Razorbacks face the Texas A&M Aggies. If the Hogs are going to have any chance of not being in a playin game in the SEC Tournament they have to be at their very best for their final six games.
They could run the table, but it isn’t likely as these final regular season games including road trips to Alabama, who leads the league and has a NCAA NET ranking of No. 5, and Kentucky, which isn’t having a typical Big Blue season but is still is ranked No. 22 in the NET.
Alabama is 12-1 at home this season and their only home loss was to Clemson 8577 in November. The Tigers have a NET ranking of No. 27. Kentucky has four home losses but is coming off a huge win at Auburn last Saturday and might be peaking at the right time.
The Aggies have a lot riding on this game tonight as they lost to the Razorbacks 78-77 at Walton Arena, and with the Hogs having a NET ranking No. 136 a loss could hurt A&M’s No. 45 ranking, which makes them a strong candidate as a NCAA Tournament bubble team.
Of the last six games, Arkansas should be favored in two: home games with Misery, which is winless in the SEC, and Vanderbilt, which is 2-10 in league play.
The final home game for the Hogs will be against LSU. Neither team may be favored as the Tigers are hard figure.
Winning out for the Hogs is a huge challenge, but would have big dividends.