Biggest Winners and Losers from 2023 NBA All-Star Weekend | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
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Biggest Winners and Losers from 2023 NBA All-Star Weekend
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LeBron JamesJesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
All-Star weekend has come and gone, and the festivities were about as much fun as they’ve been in years.
The Rising Stars tournament had its moments. A legend won the three-point contest. A player who was in the G League earlier this month resuscitated the dunk contest. And the All-Star Game itself was packed with highlights.
The weekend produced tons of highs and a couple of lows. The biggest from each side of the ledger can be found below.
Winner: Jayson Tatum
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Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
Jayson Tatum missed enough in the Three-Point Contest to be eliminated after the first round, but he was completely unconscious in the All-Star Game.
He went 22-of-31 from the field and 10-of-18 from deep on the way to a record-setting 55 points.
And as if a 55-point performance needed any window dressing, Tatum added plenty of showmanship. He blew kisses to the crowd, clearly pushing for the MVP award (which he won) and milking individual matchups with LeBron James and, in one of the most entertaining moments of the night, teammate Jaylen Brown.
The All-Star game is an exhibition, and few players displayed as much talent as Tatum.
Winner: Jose Alvarado
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Jose AlvaradoAlex Goodlett/Getty Images
The Rising Stars Challenge doesn’t traditionally generate the most buzz from All-Star weekend, but Jose Alvarado did his darnedest to change that.
In the first contest of the mini-tournament, he went through a live interview with the commentary team while playing. And he went off for it.
After leading his team to victory in Round 1, Alvarado was a bit quieter in the title game, but he finished with a bang.
With his team within three points of the target score, Alvarado approached Donovan Mitchell courtside, had a bet with him that he was going to hit the game-winner and did this.
Alvarado made more of an entree out of an event that often feels like an appetizer.
The performance earned him MVP honors for the Rising Stars challenge. And as if that wasn’t enough, he cameoed for Trey Murphy III in the dunk contest too.
#NBAAllStar @NBAAllStar
? <a href=”https://twitter.com/treymurphy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@treymurphy</a> with an assist from <a href=”https://twitter.com/AlvaradoJose15?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@AlvaradoJose15</a>!<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ATTSlamDunk?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#ATTSlamDunk</a> x <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/StateFarmSaturday?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#StateFarmSaturday</a> <a href=”https://t.co/ULOSkpIAoX”>pic.twitter.com/ULOSkpIAoX</a>
Loser: The Skills Challenge
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Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
Bless the hearts of whoever’s trying to make the skills challenge more interesting, because at least we know the effort was there.
This year, the event didn’t just consist of the obstacle course we’ve come to know. There were also passing and shooting competitions, which certainly makes the contest encompass more skills, but it also made it feel more gimmicky.
And as is the case seemingly every year, several of the competitors seemed thoroughly uninterested in being involved. Jordan Clarkson moseyed around the obstacle course like he’d rather be anywhere else. And he said as much afterwards.
The fact that the Utah Jazz team, including Collin Sexton and Walker Kessler, won wasn’t much of an endorsement for trying either.
If the league wants to carry this forward (and let’s face it, it probably needs to fill the broadcasting time slot), it has to find players who want to be there.
The answer might be the rookies. Jaden Ivey, Jabari Smith Jr. and Paolo Banchero had some truly rough stretches (especially in the shooting portion), but it at least looked like they cared.
All of this is still relatively new to them. Next year’s skills challenge should include the nine most exciting first-year players.
Winner: Damian Lillard
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Damian LillardJoe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images
The Portland Trail Blazers’ mediocrity has put a damper on an absurd Damian Lillard campaign.
He’s posting career highs in points (31.4) and threes (4.2) per game, while shooting 37.2 percent from deep, and he didn’t earn enough votes to start the All-Star game.
But he outshot a pair of Indiana Pacers (Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield) in the final of the Three-Point Contest while rocking his Weber State jersey in the state where he went to college.
As if that wasn’t enough, he then went out and dropped 26 points off the bench in the All-Star game, including the game-winner.
NBA @NBA
DAME TIME. THAT’S GAME.<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TeamGiannis?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#TeamGiannis</a> reaches the target score of 182 to win the 2023 <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAAllStar?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#NBAAllStar</a> Game! <a href=”https://t.co/PElkOAy5OJ”>pic.twitter.com/PElkOAy5OJ</a>
Lillard obviously isn’t in need of a breakout, but this individual campaign deserves more attention. This weekend gave him at least a little of that.
Loser: The All-Star Draft
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Nikola Jokić and LeBron JamesAAron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Draymond Green called Nikola Jokić the toughest player to guard during the broadcast of the All-Star Game. At media availability the day before, Zion Williamson said Jokić was the best player in the league.
But during the live draft ahead of Sunday night’s event, he appeared on track to be the last pick before taking matters into his own hands.
Joel Rush @JoelRushNBA
Nikola Jokic is selected – or maybe selects himself? to Team LeBron…<br><br>Then Ernie shouts out Joker for being the first player to start the <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAAllStar?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#NBAAllStar</a> game on his birthday. <a href=”https://t.co/dXgqMNYuDf”>pic.twitter.com/dXgqMNYuDf</a>
That’s objectively ridiculous.
Jokić is one of the best passers in basketball history. He’s a two-time reigning MVP averaging a triple-double, and he’s posting the highest true shooting percentage of all time in a 20-plus-points-per-game season.
He should be front and center in marketing campaigns with Giannis Antetokounmpo, but moments like this just open (arguably) the league’s best player up to clowning.
All-Star weekend is all fun and games, and there are definitely pluses to the draft, like the head-to-head between Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in the second half of the All-Star Game. Jokić acting thoroughly uninterested every time he plays in the All-Star Game is a factor, too.
But I don’t think we’ve had a single year without some unnecessary awkwardness during this phase of the event. This year, that awkwardness happened to be live and in the arena where the game was played.
Winner: Mac McClung
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Mac McClungJesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
It’s been half a decade since Mac McClung’s high-flying high school highlights went viral. In terms of prep mixtapes, they didn’t get much better than McClung’s. At the time, his highlights felt about as ubiquitous as Zion Williamson’s.
An underwhelming college career at Georgetown and Texas Tech, plus two years on the fringes of the NBA have tempered his fame.
But on All-Star Saturday Night, he made himself the headliner, dominated the dunk contest, reminded all his former fans of his spectacular athleticism and won plenty of new ones.
Just days before the weekend, McClung signed a two-way deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. And while Saturday’s performance doesn’t guarantee long-term success there, it should at least put him on the radar for executives all over the rest of the league.
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