BROOOOOOK-LYYYN!

This is my last Wizards blog post of the year. I need some time off from writing about this team. What is it that I keep needing time off from writing about them by the way? It's not good. After this weekend, I'm completely exhausted by Ted Leonsis, Ernie Grunfeld and the rest of the Wizards' so-called brain trust.

I went to Brooklyn Friday for a very very quick weekend getaway. It's not the shortest Wizards road trip I've ever planned, but it was close. All told, this was the 16th different opponent I've seen the Wizards play on the road. 13 to go, I guess. Before this game, my road record was a surprisingly good 8-8 (while I'd seen the Wiz play 15 opponents not the road prior to this one, I'd seem them lose to the Clippers twice in L.A.). Now it's below .500 again.

Let's cut to the chase here, shall we? Below is a list of the three best things that happened Friday night in Brooklyn:

3. The Subway is way better than Metro. I love that train system.

2. They have Brooklyn Brewery beer at Barclays Center.

1. Kelly Oubre made a heart sign with his hands for Sophia when he saw her wearing his jersey.

Not so good, right? Now let's look at the worst three things that happened Friday in Brooklyn.

3. The Wizards played another uninspired game and lost to another team with zero All-Stars like they have done countless times in the last two or three years.

2. During the game, the Wizards front office orchestrated a three way trade to send Kelly Oubre to Memphis only to have the trade news leak and Memphis blow the whole thing up.

1. OK, so there were just two worst things that happened in Brooklyn Friday night but number 2 above once again emphasized for me that staying under the salary cap is more important to ownership than long term strategy or winning even while season ticket prices continue to increase.

Definitely not so good.

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale. One of my favorites. 

I like going to Wizards road games. I love traveling and I love cheering on my team on the road. So the results are not always what I want but hey, if I can get to an even record over the years that I've been heading all over the country to see the Wiz, that's honestly better than the team's overall winning percentage over that same span. One day, maybe, I'll make it to all the other arenas in the NBA for a Wizards game. Hopefully this team doesn't kill my spirit before that happens.

This was not my first NBA trip to Barclays Center. I came here twice before during All-Star Weekend in 2015. This time I had better seats. Like 10 or 15 feet from the edge of the Wizards' bench kind of seats. Totally different perspective than sitting where I've sat before in the building. Basketball is a completely different game when you are close enough to hear the dialog between players and coaches and when you can see the eyes of the players. Those were some pretty good seats. I won't say much about the actual game other than the Wizards fell behind in the first quarter but recovered for a lead at the 12 minute mark then fell behind in the second the exact same way and never really decided to recover. 11-18 and behind the Nets. Might be called an off-night if there weren't so many just like this already this season.

Obligatory "I was at the game" picture.

One of the things I love about traveling to road games is checking out the other team's arena, especially with so many new buildings out there. From an architectural standpoint, Brooklyn's Barclays Center has to be one of the best out there. While other buildings make an effort to fit into their surroundings or go the generic downtown sports arena route, Barclays dares to be different.

It starts with their curved, video streaming iconic entrance that reveals itself as you emerge from the Subway and extends inside the arena to a lobby that flows right into the main space. You can actually see the scoreboard when you walk in as the walls between the main entry and the arena space were intentionally left off to create this effect. The concourses that make their way around the court space are pretty wide, way wider than we find at Capital One Arena. The more road arenas I see the more this fact hits home that our home building would have benefited so much from an extra 20 or so feet in the north - south direction and it's not a function of the street grid since G Street was eliminated to make way for then-MCI Center.

If MCI Center was one of the first downtown arenas to incorporate some of the character of the surrounding blocks by integrating Chinese motifs into the exterior skin of the building (and I think it was one of the first FWIW), it didn't go much further than that. Barclays does. While it may seem like a minor gesture, they have integrated large photographic displays of some of the early Brooklyn basketball teams into the concourse walls. Fed Ex Forum in Memphis had similar graphics when I was there earlier this year. It provides a great tie to the basketball history of the city. Basketball didn't just arrive on Long Island when the Nets moved from Jersey in 2012. It has been there for a more than a century since just after James Naismith invented the game in the late 1800s.

The front entrance of Barclays Center.

One of the early Brooklyn basketball teams with a beer vendor selling Brooklyn beer.

So let's talk about this whole trade thing. When it was clear that the Wizards were not going to win this game (or more accurately when it was mathematically impossible for that to happen), we headed for the exit. As we did, Kelly Oubre punctuated the loss with an emphatic dunk, leading one of our fellow Wizard fans (our row was ironically full of Wizards fans) to say something to the effect of he probably dunked that hard because he just found out he was traded. 

Hold up! What?

So sure enough a quick check of Twitter got us the news. Trevor Ariza back to the Wizards; Kelly Oubre to Memphis; and Austin Rivers to Phoenix. Oh and the Wizards got a second rounder out of the deal and a very very very very protected second second rounder. Initial reaction: the team is giving up on Kelly, getting a second round pick that they don't value at all and hoping the few years older version of Trevor Ariza gets the Wizards back to where they were when he was in Washington the first time. And of course, there has to be some cash savings, right?

About a half an hour later, that deal was dead. The initial scuttlebutt was that Memphis and Phoenix seemed confused about which Brooks from the Grizzlies (Dillon or MarShon) was headed to the Suns. Later it came out that the Grizz were upset about the deal being leaked  before it was finalized and torpedoed it. Whatever the reason, it was dead and the Wizards had two guys in the locker room who knew damn well the team had just given up on them. Couldn't be long before they got back on the trading block.

Coach Brooks furiously scribbling out a play. As bad as the Wiz were Friday, this happened a lot.

Sure enough by Saturday afternoon there was a different deal done, one that got the Wizards the same two players out of Washington and got less (that's right you read that correctly: LESS!) in return. Second rounders? Forget about it.

I have two takes on this trade. First, before I get to either opinion, let me say that the Wizards are in some sort of salary cap hell and likely will be for a while if they don't make some moves that reduces their cap number going forward like now. They are over the cap this season and have an 11-18 record. Next season, they already have $112 million committed to just five players (Wall, Beal, Porter, Mahinmi and Brown) against a cap expected to be around $123 million. Throw in Dwight Howard's $5.6 million player option and they are about capped out with just six bodies. How do you win with six players and no track record of being able to attract good free agents on discounted deals? You don't. You need more flexibility in a big big way. If the Wizards intend to trade their way out of this situation this year (and I think they have to) then they have lots of work to do. This deal ain't it.

First Take: This is one of many moves to transform this team.

There is a possibility here that the Wizards have a larger plan that nobody outside the organization fully understands (nor should they be privy to that lest it tips the league to the Wizards' hand). I know I'm giving a lot of benefit of the doubt here but stay with me just a bit.

On the surface of things, Ariza on an expiring deal does not seem like the fix the Wizards need, even for a team in desperate need of defense. If there's a plan to keep him, there better be a plan which is pretty darned solid to move Otto Porter and that move better come with a future first round pick coming back to Washington. Ariza is also clearly in demand, if rumors around the league are true; if the intent is to use him as trade fodder for another deal then I can get on board with that. But that trade better return some young talent and a first round pick because it's likely the team interested has some sort of championship aspirations this year and whatever pick comes back ain't going to be that great. 

In this scenario, the team is willing to part with Kelly Oubre because they just traded for Sam Dekker, who effectively becomes the Wizards' replacement draft pick from the 2015 NBA Draft. Dekker was picked three spots behind Kelly that year, is a year and a half older, is probably steadier right now but has nowhere near as much upside. He's also probably easier to retain on a reasonable deal because guys with little upside don't get big contracts unless they are really really really good (or Ian Mahinmi if Ernie Grunfeld has anything to do with it, I guess). Dekker ain't.

Kelly Oubre in his last game as a Wizard. Probably.

Second Take: The Wizards are trying to do whatever it takes to get below the luxury tax.

This take is way easier to execute and way more short sighted and has the capacity to cripple to team for years to come. And since it is the easier and more obvious take, it's the scariest because as fans, the primes of John Wall and Bradley Beal (who has already allegedly asked out of Washington and will no way re-sign) have been completely wasted. It's also scary because even if the plan is to go with Take 1 and it doesn't work no matter how well planned, you have achieved nothing to solve the short or long term issues with this team which means you end up with Take 2 anyway and have completely failed. Completely.

Before we get to the salary cap stuff, let's start by addressing the arguments that Kelly Oubre wasn't that good for the team now or in the future anyway.

I'm sure there are some folks out there who think Kelly Oubre will never be as good as he should be. Now, I'm not pretending that Kelly is the best player on the floor most nights or even most minutes right now but here's what's good about Kelly: (1) he plays hard; like with more energy and effort than anyone on the Wizards, a team noted for not playing hard at all most nights the last season and a half, (2) he's got a ton of upside; sure he may not pass the ball as much as he should and he commits some poor fouls sometimes (he is getting way better) but he's likely to be better than Trevor Ariza will be in three years or so and he's likely to be better than Sam Dekker ever will be. Or not; there's some risk there. Kelly's a swing for the fences type of prospect. You might also strike out.

For those out there who say there's no way we will be able to re-sign Oubre in the offseason, I say why not? First, the Wizards can match any offer if they really wanted to; maybe Kelly gets not much interest and the offer is reasonable. Second, if he gets an offer that you are not willing to match, then sign and trade may be an option. If he gets a great offer and you let him walk, he's not here next year. Guess what? Neither is Ariza. If there are no more plans to move Ariza, then you've traded away flexibility for a shot at glory this year. Ariza ain't the difference maker the Wizards need so you really traded Oubre for nothing. There won't be any glory this year based on this trade.

So if it's a salary cap move, what's wrong with that? Isn't ownership allowed to save money if they want to? Well yes sure, but the fact that the Wizards are choosing to save money and sacrificing competitiveness short term without having a long term vision that's attainable (that point is very important) should be important to every fan of the team and especially those who pay for season tickets every year. My lower level seats increased in price 20% this year and the owner of the team gave the front office an A grade for the offseason and here we are trying to dump salary in December. Again, all this assumes future moves don't materialize. Not future moves are not intended; intent gets you nothing here.

Can we take a look at that offseason A grade just for a paragraph or so? The big moves since the 2017-2018 season were trading Marcin Gortat for Austin Rivers (who the team just traded again); drafting Troy Brown (who hardly plays); and signing Jeff Green and Dwight Howard (who has played in nine of the team's 27 games this year). Doesn't look like an A to me.

Part of the pennant wall at Atlantic Social across from Barclays. Not relevant maybe but too good not to post. 

I left Brooklyn upset on Friday night. Upset at another poor showing on the court but more upset about what I see as trading away a young player with lots of promise who plays hard and is likable as strictly a salary cutting move. My patience is wearing thin with this front office. It might be absolutely done. If we as Wizards fans think trading Kelly Oubre for Trevor Ariza thinks this makes the Wizards good enough to compete this year or better long term we are absolutely fooling ourselves. It does neither of that. I can't see any argument that will convince me of that.

The pressure should be on this front office. Not to deliver millions of dollars of tax savings by cutting salaries short term, but to produce a winner that is more than a failed promise of competing in the Eastern Conference year after year after year. So far, there has been nothing delivered in that regard. If they can't do it, then someone else needs a shot for the fans' sake. For the sake of the people who spend millions of dollars collectively to go watch the Wizards in person at Capital One Arena.

I realize I've said nothing about Austin Rivers in this whole narrative. You can take that silence as my opinion of the relative value of him on the Wizards.

When it became obvious to the Brooklyn faithful that the game was in the bag Friday night, we started to hear long choruses of BROOOOOOK-LYYYN coming from the crowd behind us. Why can't we get that sort of enthusiasm from our crowd at Capital One Arena. Maybe if we got that kind of enthusiasm on the court or from our front office we would. Here's hoping my next Wizards road trip gets me back to even.

Saturday Afternoon Fever

It's been almost two weeks since I posted my last blog entry, a doom and gloom affair about the Wizards' postseason chances. Since that post, the Wizards are 5-0 and things look a lot rosier. Hopefully this post won't screw up that mojo. Not superstitious. Just saying.

I've been traveling for the primary purpose of watching professional basketball games for a little over eight years now. The first trip I ever took was a planned day trip to Minneapolis to see the Wizards beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in January 2007. Unfortunately for me, the weather in D.C. made it an overnight trip and the Wizards made it a loss rather than a win. But if that unplanned day off that Monday taught me anything, it was that there was value in staying at least an extra day wherever I traveled to see something unique about the place I had visited rather than just watching hoops and drinking beer in a local bar after the game.

So given the lesson of Minnesota in '07, I couldn't visit New York or Brooklyn on NBA All-Star Weekend last month without doing something that I couldn't do anywhere else. I've been to New York City a bunch of times in the last decade or so but I haven't spent a whole lot of time across the East River in Brooklyn. My first thoughts here were to either walk across the Brooklyn Bridge or go to the Brooklyn Brewery. But I'd done both of those before and the temperatures in New York over the Valentine's Day weekend this year never cracked freezing, so the last thing I wanted to do was walk over a bridge. So instead I did something different and totally Brooklyn. I'm thinking late 1970s. I'm thinking disco.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Saturday Night Fever. The movie tells the story of Tony Manero (played by John Travolta), a kid living and working in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn. During the day, Tony works at a hardware store selling paint and whatever else his customers come in for. At night, though, Tony practices his dance moves at a local dance studio. Tony manages to get time at the studio for free because he sends women to the studio so they can work on their moves, but also so the owner of the studio can work on his moves, if you know what I mean.

The highlight of Tony's week comes every Friday and Saturday night when he and his friends head over to 2001 Oddyssey, a nightclub where Tony can do what he does best out on the dance floor. This all sounds so pedestrian and dated, right? What I love about the movie is that Tony is a guy who knows he wants to do something more with his life and can't seem to figure out how to get it done. He knows he loves dancing and is good at it but can't see a way to parlay that into a way to improve his life. So in the meantime, he works at a low paying job, does the same thing week after week and lives with his parents and the crushing weight of their disapproval over what he's doing with his life.

Enter Stephanie, Tony's unwitting way out. Stephanie's a fellow Brooklynite who has managed to escape Bay Ridge by working in a Manhattan office and shacking up with an older guy who works with her. While she comes off as confident and sophisticated (well, late 1970s sophisticated anyway), she has no more idea about where her life is headed than Tony. While she's made the first step, she's equally lost and confused as to what to do next. The movie is their story of making the next move in each of their lives. The film ends with no definitive conclusion to their life journey which I love. Life rarely has a neatly packaged happy ending.

Saturday Night Fever was filmed in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst and a lot of the sites used to shoot the film are still there today. So Saturday afternoon before All-Star Saturday Night at Barclays Center, I hopped on the R from midtown Manhattan and toured the remaining notable locations from the movie. The 2001 nightclub is unfortunately long gone, but there's some good stuff to see nonetheless. Here goes.

Saturday Night Fever...

Saturday afternoon fever.

Pearson Bay Ridge Home Center, 7305 5th Avenue

Yep, that's right, almost four decades on, the hardware store where Tony Manero earned his paycheck and where Mr. Fusco uttered those famous words "no, Tony, you can't fuck the future, the future fucks you!" is still a hardware store. I'm sure it's under different management than it was when the movie was filmed but I love that it's still selling paint and paint brushes, just like John Travolta's character all those years ago.

Walking through Bay Ridge today is like taking a trip back in time. The streetscape in the neighborhood seems to be decades removed from today. There are no big box stores or chain establishments. 80 percent of the businesses you pass walking from the Subway station to Pearson's today are locally owned and operated, just like they have been since they started selling anything in Brooklyn.

The store today looks a little different than it did when Mr. Fusco and Tony Manero closed up the store at 6 pm towards the beginning of the movie.  The main entrance is in the same general location within the storefront but there's a whole lot less glass and window space than there was in 1977, probably to decrease heat loss and increase security. It almost makes me miss the good old days when we could blissfully waste cheap fossil fuels. Not really but I did love the amount of window space in the original store.

Saturday Night Fever...

Saturday afternoon fever.

"The Manero House," 221 79th Street

The house where Tony lived with his parents, sister and grandmother in Saturday Night Fever is located a few blocks from the Pearson Bay Ridge Home Center, and it's also still standing. The first time he enters the house in the movie, Tony finds himself on the wrong end of a tongue lashing from his mother and out of work father about being late for a dinner which isn't ready anyway. The ensuing dinner conversation makes it plainly obvious to the audience that Tony is falling far short of his brother, Frank, Jr., who has entered the clergy.

If you didn't look closely, you might miss the house. It looks nothing like the house in the movie. The fake stone siding is gone and the whole house has been remade as some sort of English Tudor fantasy. The fenestration on the front of the house has been re-worked and the entrance now features a mini-dormer on a pair of added columns to divert the rain that I'm sure the current residents appreciate in a heavy storm. But the steps up to the front door are instantly recognizable and the bay window on the right side of the house is intact, complete with the exact same leaded or faux-leaded glass.

I imagine the interior layout is pretty much the same, with the stair on the right side of the house and the living room and dining room on the left with the kitchen in back of the dining room. Once you get upstairs, I bet the bedrooms are still in the same spot, but I'm doubting the Farrah Fawcett poster is still on the room that was Tony's in the movie.

Saturday Night Fever...

Saturday afternoon fever.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connects Brooklyn to Staten Island and at the time of its construction in 1964 was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Today, it ranks 11th but still first in the United States. On the Brooklyn side of the water, the bridge terminates right in Bay Ridge about a couple of miles from where the Maneros lived. As far as suspension bridges in New York go, it's definitely a distant third to the Brooklyn Bridge and George Washington Bridge but it's longer than those two so there you have it.

The scene in the movie where Tony and Stephanie sit on a bench at the foot of the bridge  is pictured above. Tony tells her all about what the bridge means to him and that dialog shows the audience that Tony is connected to his neighborhood and knows something more than working at a hardware store and dancing. Later on in the film the bridge plays a more ominous role when Tony's friend Bobby C takes an unintended dive into the East River, too distraught about how the Catholic church might view him getting his girlfriend, Pauline, pregnant to understand how to go on.

The bridge today look exactly the same as it did when the movie was filmed, although I'm sure if I got close enough, I would see a whole lot more rust on the steel than it had when it was built. My intent in walking down 4th Avenue was to get to the same bench that Stephanie and Tony sat on during their talk in the movie. But honestly, after about a mile of walking, the significantly below freezing temperatures got to me and I had to settle for taking a picture through the leafless trees from much further away. What can I say, I'm getting soft in my old age.

Saturday Night Fever...

Saturday afternoon fever.

Lenny's Pizza, 1969 86th Street

The last stop on my afternoon tour was a late lunch at Lenny's Pizza, the same exact pizza store that Tony Manero grabbed a couple of slices and strolled down 86th Street eating them sandwich style at the beginning of the movie. If there was a place that I was looking forward to more than anywhere else on this tour, it was Lenny's. Not just because Travolta's character ate at the same place under the same ownership, but any place that's been in business serving pizza in a pizza famous place like Brooklyn has to be good, right?

Lenny's is located right next to the 20th Avenue stop on the D line, which runs on an elevated track right down the center of 86th Street. When you walk in to the restaurant, there's a counter on the left displaying some amazing looking pizzas, strombolis and garlic knots that all New York pizzerias seem to offer. The margherita pizza looked amazing with gorgeous red sauce and a thin coating of what looked like delicious mozzarella cheese. I ordered two slices just like Tony Manero and sat down and waited for a couple of pieces of pizza heaven to come out of the oven, piping hot and delicious.

If I've ever been more disappointed in a pizza lunch, I can't remember the time. The sauce at Lenny's had some awesome flavor but that was pretty much all I could taste. The cheese added nothing and the crust had the consistency of stiff cardboard. It was honestly a little uncomfortable to eat. Maybe it was the time of day or the fact that it was so cold outside, but based on my visit, I can't believe this place has been in business so long. I should have taken two to go for the ultimate SNF experience, although I'm sure it wouldn't have improved the taste. Maybe I need to come back in the summer or something.

Lenny's was my last authentic Saturday Night Fever stop but there was one more thing I had to do before splitting New York and heading for home. I've eaten my fair share of fast food in my day and I'm still a total sucker for Taco Bell but I'd never ever stopped by a White Castle. In the movie, Tony and his friends Double J, Bobby C and Joey take Stephanie out to White Castle in Brooklyn. That store is long gone but there are still White Castles in New York, including one between our hotel and Madison Square Garden. How could I resist this opportunity to complete my Saturday Night Fever experience! Far out!

Hello Brooklyn!

The NBA All-Star Game is the marquee attraction of the NBA's All-Star weekend, but it's not the only event that generates some buzz during the mid-season break. Before the main attraction on Sunday night, there are two more nights of excitement in the Rising Stars Challenge (Friday night) and the All-Star Saturday Night. I suppose I could have headed to New York last weekend and just taken in Sunday night's game but what's the point of that? All-Star Weekend for me had to include all three nights. Plus I sort of had little option. More on that later.

On a typical All-Star Weekend, the Rising Stars Challenge, All-Star Saturday Night and All-Star Game all take place on successive nights in the same arena. After all, most cities only have the luxury of having one NBA team. But New York not only has two teams (as does Los Angeles) but the two teams play in totally different arenas. So instead of having one team host all three nights, the NBA elected to put the All-Star Game at the New York Knicks' Madison Square Garden and have the Brooklyn Nets' Barclays Center host the Friday and Saturday night affairs. That not only got me three nights of basketball, it also got me a look at the almost brand new Nets arena.

Barclays Center from the west.

The main lobby of Barclays Center.

Of all the arenas opened in the last ten years or so, Brooklyn's Barclays Center has to be the most expensive and most deluxe so I was excited about getting an up close and personal look at the place on both Friday and Saturday nights. There's an iconic image of the place with a giant hole in the roof with video displays within the hole which alone seemed worth experiencing. I really couldn't wait to get to Brooklyn to see it for myself.

 

After a couple of nights there, it's a nice place. I mean it's clearly newer than Verizon Center and the block (as with most arenas in the NBA) is not as restricting as the city grid at 601 F Street in D.C. so the concourses are nice and wide. The food choices are amazing and completely New York with a strong emphasis on Brooklyn. We ate pizza with a black and white cookie before the All-Star Saturday Night got started which I'd probably eat again, although Saturday I elected to wash all that down with a Budweiser instead of another $9.75 12 oz can of Brooklyn Lager like I had the previous night. I love Brooklyn Lager, but one per weekend at that price point is enough for me.

 

The hole in the roof disappointed me. I guess I hadn't looked closely enough at the pictures of the arena before visiting but the hole is in what is basically a canopy over the main front entrance. It looks like so much more than that in the pictures I guess. I can argue with the logic of having a canopy with a large hole in it but I guess I won't here. I'm probably being a little harsh about the outside appearance of the place considering I was only there at night and didn't feel inclined in the far-less-than-freezing temperatures to spend some time looking around the outside of the building.

 

If there's an impressive part of the building, it's the front lobby, which serves as a monumental arrival space and also allows crowds to filter onto the main concourse before the game and back out of the building after the final whistle without causing a horrendous backup at the exits. The space itself is more modern both in the way space is defined and the way it is lit than any other arena I have visited. I was truly happy to see the entry space. I hope the security tent we passed through on the way to the main lobby on Friday and Saturday nights was an All-Star only fixture. Otherwise, it significantly negatively affects the entrance sequence.

Friday night's Rising Stars Challenge.

First up at the Barclays Center: the Rising Stars Challenge. This was not my first time at this event. During the 2001 All-Star Weekend in D.C., which also happened to be my first as a Wizards season ticket holder, I managed to get a seat to this event on Saturday afternoon at Verizon Center. I paid $10 to sit in the last row of Section 119 in the lower bowl to see both this event and the All-Star Team practice. This year those two events were split, with the cost of each event far exceeding the ten spot I paid 14 years ago. I see that as a measure of how much the revenue stream for the NBA has changed in the last decade and a half. My seats this year were $55 each and they were not as good as my seats in '01. Assuming the cost of practice tickets were similar, that's at least a ten-fold increase in price over 14 years.

 

When I took in this event at Verizon Center, it was a contest between ten rookies and ten second year players, a true rooks vs. sophomores event. Since 2001, the game's format has undergone two changes: first to two teams drafted by two celebrity / former player coaches and then this year to a USA vs. the world format. Call me a traditionalist, but I loved the old old format. For me, the idea of taking a class of guys and pitting them against the draft that followed them is far more appealing. There seems to be a common rallying point for each group to show that their draft class is superior. I don't see it in the new formats. I am also not convinced there's enough talent in the world group to equal the American group. Sure the world won this year's inaugural battle in this format, but I think you will generally end up with something lower in quality by doing it this way than by taking 20 first and second year players regardless of national origin.

 

If I were buying these events a la carte (I was not), I'd likely skip this event. Maybe it was the players involved or that I've seen way more hoops than I had in '01 but I didn't find this game particularly spirited. I don't remember much from the game I saw in Verizon Center all those years ago, but I do remember the Chicago Bulls' Khalid El-Amin playing defense hard enough to draw blood and get some folks on the sophomore squad upset. Maybe he set my bar too high. On the other hand, maybe the complete lack of Wizards players in the game affected my enjoyment. Whatever the case, I was less enthusiastic about this game than I was the last time I attended.

Trey Burke and Brandon Knight ready to start their first round heat of the Skills Competition.

At the end of the Rising Stars Challenge, I was honestly worried that All-Star Weekend's hype and expectations would exceed the actual action on court. But any chance of that disappointment dissipated as soon as All-Star Saturday Night started. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this was the best event of the weekend. Even better than the All-Star Game. And it probably wasn't even close.

 

I had a couple of concerns about All-Star Saturday Night. First, the lack of Wizards players' involvement. John Wall was initially announced as a contestant in the Skills Challenge but then withdrew to get a little more (or just a little maybe) rest than he would have without participating that night. Second, I was concerned the event would end quickly and that it wouldn't be particularly exciting. No chance of that as I soon found out.

I think what makes All-Star Saturday Night so entertaining is that it's a real competition. Yes, I know they keep score in the All-Star Game but it's not really competitive. The margin of victory in no way reflects the amount of desire to win that is put out there on the court. But the events held on Saturday night are different. Guys are really looking to show that they are the best in the league at shooting three pointers or dunking or running rings around their counterparts in the dribbling/passing/shooting competition that is the Skills Competition. And believe it or not, the challenge that these guys put up for each other translates into the crowd. Team affiliation aside (although let's face it, I was rooting as hard as possible against Kyrie Irving), it was really easy to get absorbed into what was happening on the court.

 

This was pure entertainment all the way. And Barclays was probably the right place to host this event. I wrote earlier that I thought Barclays was a nice place. For this event, with its lighting and projection capabilities, it was incredible. The arena looked like it was hosting a rock concert, especially during the Slam Dunk contest, which was the last event of the night. If I were picking just one event in All-Star Weekend to attend, it would definitely be the Saturday night event. This, not the All-Star Game, is absolutely the best part of the three day weekend.

 

And it wasn't short either. It easily went three hours and while it's difficult to claim anything costing $500 was money well spent, it was worth every penny to do it once. I'm now one arena closer to visiting every building in the NBA. Now I need to get back to Barclays to watch the Wizards play sometime.

The light show before Zach LaVine's final dunk of the Slam Dunk competition.