NBA All-Star Saturday has settled on a good rhythm: the Skills Competition is amusing, the Three Point Contest is worth watching, and the Dunk Contest is what everyone’s really here to watch. But it didn’t always use to be this way. As recently as 2015, the evening featured different events and challenges.
NBA All-Star Saturday night: A history of events that completely flopped
H-O-R-S-E had so much potential, but nope.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Most of them have been short-lived — only the Dunk Contest and Three Point Contest have lasted 20-plus years. But that shouldn’t stop us from reliving these moments and failed ideas, just to remember what this Saturday night might have looked like one or two decades ago.
Here are all the All-Star Saturday night events that were tried and eventually, for one reason or another, discontinued from the official schedule.
H-O-R-S-E
When: 2009, 2010
Why: H-O-R-S-E is the most famous basketball variation out there, played on blacktops and in gyms across the world. As I’m sure you know, the game is simple: you take turns shooting the basketball, and players have to replicate made shots, earning a letter if they don’t. Get all the way to H-O-R-S-E, and you’re out. Last player standing wins.
The NBA tried this for two All-Star weekends, but it didn’t quite work. There were two main problems: the players were’t creative enough, often settling for simple jump shots, and they were too good! Rajon Rondo and Kevin Durant weren’t close to finishing when the event’s time limit ran out, so they had to settle it with a three-point contest that stretched on for several minutes, too.
For those reasons, the NBA never brought the event back. H-O-R-S-E will live on, but perhaps not during All-Star weekend.
Shooting Stars Competition
When: 2004-2015
Why: This was simply a shooting competition, bringing together teams of three — usually associated by connections to a specific NBA city — and making them hit three to six shots before nailing a half-courter. Teams typically included an NBA star, a retired player, and a current or former WNBAer. It wasn’t ever thrilling, but it was a decent way to begin All-Star Saturday.
Legends Classic
When: 1984-1993
Why: This was a pick-up game held between former NBA stars, and it lasted an entire decade. There was nothing wrong with the idea itself, but it resulted in too many player injuries for the old stars — most of them in the 40s — that the league finally shuttered the game after a decade. And these dudes weren’t even really trying on defense! They were just old and injury prone.
2Ball Contest
When: 1998, 2000, 2001
Why: 2Ball was an earlier, worse version of the Shooting Stars competition. It replaced the dunk contest in 1998 — and to be fair, the 1997 Dunk Contest was truly atrocious — and it was a dud. Basically, teams had eight locations that they could shoot from, each worth an increasing number of points. Somehow, the NBA brought it back twice more on All-Star Saturday, although this time coexisting with the Dunk Contest. 2Ball instead lives on infamously only in the league’s history.
Hoop-it-up tournament
When: 2002, 2003
Why: This was another early version of a different All-Star event — in this case, the All-Star Celebrity Game. It was a three-on-three tournament with teams that featured former NBA stars, WNBA players, and celebrities. But why bother with the quirky three-on-three format? It’s so much easier to just host one celebrity game.
Old-timers game
When: 1957 and 1964, apparently
Why: I don’t know. Wikipedia says this happened, and Wikipedia has never been wrong, so I’ll throw it on the list. I’d imagine it was extremely similar to the Legends Classic, although I’m not sure how many retired “legends” truly existed in 1957.
But oh well, this event clearly didn’t survive long.
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