Kevin Durant won the 2019 NBA All-Star Game MVP award by virtue of being the top scorer on the winning Team LeBron. Kudos to him.
Kevin Durant got the NBA All-Star MVP trophy, Stephen Curry got the attention. What’s new?
We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
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Meanwhile, per usual, real-life teammate and all-star opponent Stephen Curry had far more memorable moments from the game and weekend in his hometown of Charlotte, and got much more positive attention than Durant. What’s new?
I’m struggling to identify a single memorable moment Durant had during the game. Curry, meanwhile, set up a beautiful pass on the defining play of the weekend: a sky-high bounce pass alley-oop to the incredible Giannis Antetokounmpo. Curry also finished the game with a reverse dunk that legitimately confused everyone on the Team LeBron bench and Twitter. He drew a four-point play on buddy Klay Thompson by kicking out his leg. Oh, and he wore a throwback jacket on Saturday that matched the jacket he famously wore as a child.
Durant ... uh ... hit some threes in the All-Star Game, yelled at Joel Embiid a little, and added another trophy to his mantel. Congratulations?
Schedule Update and Programming Note
There’s no more NBA basketball until Thursday. As such, and given the trade deadline has passed, it is unlikely that you’ll see another newsletter before Friday, unless there is substantial news requiring takes and links. Enjoy the week!
Links
Paul Flannery’s SUNDAY SHOOTAROUND tackles Blake Griffin, playing some of the best basketball of his life in purgatory.
Big Kristian Winfield on Kemba Walker, always the surprise star.
The Pelicans fired Dell Demps on Friday. I wrote about how judging his tenure and figuring out where New Orleans went wrong is impossible because of their strange recent history. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis made some odd, incomprehensible comments about his “list” of preferred destinations on Saturday.
Kofie Yeboah regraded every dunk that scored a perfect 50 in the Slam Dunk Contest over the years. Here are the 12 dunks from this year’s contest, ranked. Hamidou Diallo’s elbow dunk was incredible, John Collins’ airplane flight was hilarious, and ... I could leave the rest, to be honest.
One sad thing about Dirk Nowitzki apparently retiring is that he and Luka Doncic are pretty adorable.
Kudos to Joe Harris for beating Steph in the 3-Point Shootout. Kudos to Jayson Tatum for winning the Skills Competition. Kudos to whoever came up with the legends shootout idea, a slight improvement over the Draymond Green-Kevin Hart shootout that however, did not pay off with anything interesting.
You may remember that All-Star Weekend in Charlotte had been postponed over an anti-transgender bill North Carolina legislators passed a few years back. Reggie Bullock took the opportunity of the weekend to go to Charlotte and speak as an ally to a group of LGBTQ youth in the city.
”Finding Giannis” is now available online. Interesting.
Alex Wong talks to Kevin Garnett about ... well, everything. The most important note is that Team USA had a $1 million dunk bounty on Yao Ming during the 2000 Olympics but no one won it. I saw the guys get together and give the millie to Vince Carter for the Weis dunk. Or maybe give the milly to Weis.
Be excellent to each other.
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