If you’re a Star Wars fan you might be able to relate.
Many feel that the movies in the original trilogy (technically Episodes IV, V, and VI in the sequence) were among the best sci-fi pictures of all time.
Just as many fans were disappointed after watching the prequel trilogy films that came out many years later.
And these days, that’s what all-star skills competitions have become it seems—nowhere as good as previous iterations.
It’s about halfway in the 2008–09 NBA season and the all-star game is set to take place this weekend in Phoenix, Arizona.
Besides the chance to see the league’s stars, NBA all-star games give fans a chance to see players show off their skills through events such as the three-point shootout, the slam dunk competition, and the rookie challenge.
The NBA has even tried to spruce things up this year by adding the playground favorite shot-mimicking elimination game H–O–R–S–E, or thanks to a last-minute marketing deal with that gecko icon insurance company, a game of G–E–I–C–O.
But is this latest addition to the skills competition more about defibrillation as opposed to actual innovation?
After a two-year hiatus, the slam dunk contest returned in 2000 and then-Toronto Raptor Vince Carter wowed all and won with a repertoire that included windmill and under-the-leg dunks. Analyst Kenny Smith declared, “It’s over!” even though it wasn’t.
While many consider that contest one of the best in recent memory, subsequent competitions have seen some unique dunks but have failed to live up to the hype.
In 2005, Phoenix Suns Amar’e Stoudemire dunked a ball off of a soccer header from teammate Steve Nash, but the reaction from the crowd lacked the electricity that Carter’s dunk evoked.
And last year’s contest—which included Orlando’s Dwight Howard, who won the dunk contest in a Superman shirt, and Boston’s Gerald Green blowing out a birthday cupcake candle on the rim—also failed to really drop anyone’s jaw.
But the NBA isn’t the only league suffering from a dry spell in its all-star showcase.
While the NHL all-star game had an exciting finish—a 12–11 shootout win for the East—the skills competition left something to be desired, especially the breakaway competition, which many view as the NHL’s answer to the NBA’s dunk contest.
Although Washington Capitals winger Alexander Ovechkin really seemed intent on putting on a show for the crowd in Montreal during the breakaways—an event he ultimately won—his winning breakaway was more notable because supposed enemy Evgeni Malkin helped him don some props. The breakaway itself didn’t even result in a goal.
TSN’s hockey analysts Pierre McGuire and Darren Dreger weren’t fans of this year’s skill showcase.
“I didn’t like it very much,” said McGuire during the post-game SportsCentre broadcast, when asked about the skills competition.
“They have to get some energy in the building. I’ve been coming to this building in Montreal for a long time and I’ve never seen it as flat as it was tonight.”
“For me, from a hockey standpoint, there wasn’t much that was entertaining in there with the exception of the hardest shot, it’s a legitimate hockey play,” said Dreger.
One of the biggest complaints of the newer Star Wars trilogy was that there were too many special effects and too little substance in the storylines. By the same token, there are too many props and less skill in skills competitions in today’s all-star games.
