The National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star festivities started last Friday (February 17) — coincidentally on Michael Jordan’s 60th birthday — with diminishing interest and a strong musty feel. However, despite an inauthentic production, there were interesting moments throughout the weekend, signalling a very positive outlook for the league.

Last Friday, the Jordan Rising Stars game featured young, hardcourt talent and that augurs well for the future of the NBA, then on Saturday, Mac McClung came from (relatively) nowhere to capture the AT&T Slam Dunk contest, where three of his four efforts earned maximum scores. McClung, despite playing only 25 minutes in his NBA career (zero this season), went from G-League player/YouTube sensation to dunk contest champion in a matter of minutes, and provided a refreshing change to the subpar fields featured in the last few years. All things considered, if the objective is to see the best-performing slam dunks, the NBA may be better off casting participants from YouTube or Instagram mixtapes as opposed to actual NBA players.

Furthermore, for whatever reason, the slam dunk contest is not attracting the NBA’s best anymore (Ja Morant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Zach LaVine, Anthony Edwards, Aaron Gordon, etc) and the names of this year’s contestants are already basically forgotten — maybe even McClung if nothing eventful happens with him after his 15 minutes of fame. This is left to be seen.

The NBA’s newly crowned all-time scoring leader, LeBron James, was selected for the showcase for the 19th time in his 20 seasons, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (whose scoring title he also eclipsed a few weeks ago) for the most in the sport’s history. The 38-year-old Los Angeles Lakers star captained Team LeBron, who lost to Team Giannis on Sunday night in the 72nd NBA All-Star Game. Lebron scored 13 points in 14 minutes in the first two quarters but did not return for the second half as he jammed a finger on the rim during a blocked-shot attempt in the second quarter.

In a showcase of 24 of the NBA’s best players, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum stole the show in a record-setting performance to help lift his team to a 184-175 victory. Tatum set himself apart with an All-Star record 55 points along with 10 rebounds and six assists. His total points surpassed the previous record set by Anthony Davis in 2017 (52 points). For his dazzling output, Tatum was named the Kobe Bryant All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the first time in his career.

For the season, Tatum is averaging 30.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists for the first-place Celtics (42–17), who hold the best record in the league at the All-Star break and, after the fun and games of last weekend, a most serious race started last night for places in the post-season.

The Milwaukee Bucks (41-17) entered the break at second place in the Eastern Conference, riding on the back of a 12-game win streak, but standout forward Giannis Antetokounmpo injured his right wrist in Milwaukee’s final game prior to last weekend, and will reportedly miss a few games. He did play the first 20 seconds of the All-Star Game on Sunday and scored one basket but did most of his work pre-game and on the sidelines as captain.

The top six in the East leading into the break are rounded off by the Philadelphia 76ers (38-19), Cleveland Cavaliers (38-23), Brooklyn Nets (34-24) and New York Knicks (33-27), but the Nets appear to have surrendered the season after trading Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns, respectively, at the trade deadline on February 9.

Which leads to the power shift in the Western Conference — Phoenix (32-28) and Dallas (31-29) sat at position five and six, respectively, in the conference prior to the break but a significant run to the finish is expected since their squads were bolstered by the trades from Brooklyn. First place in the West has been comfortably held by the Denver Nuggets (41-18) for a significant period leading up to last weekend and it is left to be seen if reigning league MVP Nikola Jokic and company can hold off any late charge from other teams that are charged with ambition.

The Memphis Grizzlies (35-22) were just a few games behind Denver leading up to the break but, in third place, were the surprising Sacramento Kings (32-25), who last had a play-off berth in 2006. A brilliant purple laser — introduced his year — shoots into the sky from atop the Golden 1 Center every time the Kings win, a welcome sight for Sacramento fans after being the laughingstock of the NBA for nearly two decades and missing the play-offs for 16 straight years, the longest such drought in NBA history.

The Los Angeles Clippers (33-28) occupied the number four slot prior to the All-Star break, but their very close neighbours, the Los Angeles Lakers (27-32), who failed to make the play-offs last season, are labouring at No 13 but hope that the trade deadline moves will pay dividends before the season ends. The fate of the defending champion Golden State Warriors (29-29) is also precariously perched at No 9 in the Conference and with talisman Stephen Curry sidelined and their dismal away record (7-22), the road to 82 games will be far from smooth.

With the first 10 places in both conferences so tightly packed, and each team having around 26 games left to play, the race for play-off places promises to be fast and furious — “That’s Game.”

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