The Western Conference held off the Eastern conference 143-138 in the 2013 NBA All-Star game this past Sunday; Chris Paul earned the MVP with 20 points and 15 assists.
Over the years the NBA All-Star game has been jam packed with highlight reel dunks and very little defense. Often times the game finishes with both teams totaling somewhere in the ballpark of 150 points, this year’s all-star game might have had a little bit more defense than usual.
The NBA All-Star game can be fun to watch, but some believe it is actually quite boring. This got me thinking, what professional all-star games are actually fun to watch? Every all-star game from each sport has its own positives and negatives.
The NFL Pro Bowl might be the worst. It seems so out of place, unlike most all-star games it actually comes after the season. This isn’t necessarily bad it just puts itself at a disadvantage because the majority of the other all-star games are contested in the middle of the season; kind of like a break from the regular season.
Plus, football is a much different sport than others. It is much more physical and it also takes a lot more to conduct. With basketball all the players need are some uniforms and a ball and you can have an all-star game.
The NHL’s all-star game is similar to the NBA’s. Coming near the midway point of the season and casting the best players from each conference against each other. The NHL, NBA, and the MLB all have all-star breaks to break up the usual flow of the season.
Most professional sporting leagues here in America have similar systems for their all-star games where they feature the best players from each conference in a game to determine which conference has the best players. But not every league uses this same system.
Major League Soccer (MLS) actually has a very different system that they go off of that is quite interesting. The MLS takes the best players from the entire league and has them join up to play an international team in their all-star game. MLS All-Star games in the past have featured international clubs such as Manchester United, Celtic and Chelsea.
But the best all-star game has to come from the MLB. Baseball has it right, also casting the best players from both American League and the National League against each other to see which side has the better players.
But unlike the other leagues where the winning team earns bonuses, the winner of the MLB All-Star game actually gets something that could be much more important than just financial compensation.
The winning side in the MLB All-Star game actually earns home field advantage for their respective league in that year’s World Series. So while it does showcase the league’s top talent it can also be very competitive.
The stakes are much higher in the MLB All-Star game and this often times makes it more exciting to watch.
A lot of people enjoy most all-star games, if nothing else it is really a joy to see top talent play alongside each other against the other top talent in the league. Some all-star games are better than others, but that really comes down to your own personal preference, but from my point of view the MLB All-Star game is the best format and most exciting to watch.
Tyler Rollason is a Winder-Barrow High School graduate and mass communications major at the University of West Georgia. He writes a weekly column for the Barrow Journal. You can e-mail comments about this column to tyrollason@yahoo.com.
