YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

    Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

    To get started, first
    Ball Don't Lie

    Kevin Love would like the NBA to take the MLB’s approach on All-Star games

    By Kelly Dwyer | Ball Don't Lie – Fri, Feb 10, 2012 1:55 PM EST

    Speaking with the Associated Press' Jon Krawczynski on Thursday, Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Kevin Love offered this up:

    (Courtesy Twitter.com/APKrawczynski

    No. No. No. Nooooo. NO. No. NOOOOO. No, and no. And we're upset about this enough to "ratchet up the intensity" here at Ball Don't Lie and take Kevin out of consideration for the first-team All-NBA selection he has clearly earned so far in 2011-12. The NBA All-Star Game decides who gets home-court advantage in the Finals? The only group that could possibly be in favor of that are sports writers who often have to figure out if they have to pack for Miami or Chicago, or Boston and Orlando, in the last second after a conference final ends and the Finals start a couple of days later. Everyone else? That's a big fat "BOO."

    Sorry, Kevin. And I say this coming from a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, who utilized a late-season run last summer to sneak in the backdoor of the postseason, and a nice home-field turn a few weeks later on their way to a World Series win. Did the loss of home-field advantage destroy the Texas Rangers' chances in the World Series? Probably not. Did it hurt them, especially when it came down to a Game 7 in Missouri? Perhaps. I'm sure they would have preferred to play the deciding game in Texas.

    In basketball? Where the best team usually ends up winning it all? Things are different. Let's not mess with that to make a Sunday night game on TNT a little more interesting. As if Bud Selig's 2004 ruling about home-field advantage has made his All-Star game any more compelling.

    [Video: Kevin Love gains competitive advantage through yoga]

    Baseball, and we love it for this, is a fluke sport even in the postseason. Football and college hoops, with their single-elimination playoffs, aren't far off. The NBA takes in its fair share of upsets from time to time, and the playoffs are an engaging watch in spite of the chalk approach, but the best team usually finds a way to pull it out within seven games unless something (an injury, a suspension, or an odd matchup) has gone pear-shaped.

    I can't recall many plays from the MLB All-Star Games in the years since 2004 despite (probably) watching them, but I recall about as many from the NBA All-Star Game in recent years. I love the NBA's version, and welcome what it is worth, but players do take it easy and if the alley-oops aren't connecting there isn't much to chew on.

    Not to slam the relative athleticism of baseball players, but they can sit through an All-Star game and not have it take much toll on their tired bodies. The NBA? It's closer to the NFL's Pro Bowl, which the NFL runs following the season, because who would force players through an exhibition like that midseason?

    The NBA isn't wrong to hold its All-Star game midseason, but the players aren't wrong to go through the motions (mindful of the NBA's stretch run) in their version of this sometimes-forgettable exhibition game. The result, as we should all be happy with, is a lighthearted affair featuring the NBA's best players filled with all the pomp and silliness that a pointless game held in a February month with nothing else going on in sports should offer. It's a trifle. We can't wait to watch it, but it's forgettable.

    [Related: Facebook campaign to get Will Ferrell for NBA All-Star intros]

    And the NBA certainly doesn't need to adopt what might be (BCS aside) the least-popular ruling in sports in order to make things more competitive. Baseball players aren't exactly barreling into catchers or taking the extra base in their All-Star game these days, smartly, even if their teams have an outside or even pretty good shot at the home-field advantage three months later in the World Series. Even the most dogged of NBA competitors, with a shot at the Finals (a far tougher shot than baseball teams have) won't be thinking "home court" while they consider taking a charge in late February.

    This is fish in a barrel. And as much as the NBA has screwed up over the last year or so, they're not going to be ridiculous enough to listen to the otherwise well-meaning Love's suggestion.

    (Right?)

    More sports news from the Yahoo! Sports Minute:

    Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
    • Latest chapter of Lakers-Celtics rivalry coming to an end
    • The hidden play of Super Bowl XLVI: Tom Brady's injury revealed
    • Shine: Story of NFL's oldest cheerleader to hit the big screen

    Watch Full Count!
     
    • mark_3_1_6
      mark_3_1_6  •  3 months ago
      I actually think the NBA all star game is the best out of all the major sports all star games. It's high flying dunks and ridiculous shots and allyoops that you rarely get to see on a regular basis. Having the all star game determine home court advantage completely undermines all the effort a team makes to get the best record throughout the season... Texas lost the world series because of that stupid rule. Unfair.
    • Doug
      Doug  •  3 months ago
      Why is it the NBA All Star game is a "lighthearted trifle we cant wait to watch" but the NFL Pro Bowl is an embarassment, a laughingstock, we should get rid of it entirely, etc.?

      All-star games are something the fans deserve to see. Its a fantasy come true, a place to settle all those barstool "who's better" arguments. All the best players in the league, all playing together, and playing RIGHT. We want to see them all playing elite-level basketball, not just jogging back and forth together and tossing up some uncontested shots. If we wanted to see them just hanging out, we'd send them all to Disneyland for a day with a camera crew.

      Maybe Finals home court isnt the right reward to offer, but you have to do something to get these guys fired up and playing 100%. Maybe extra cap space or an extra midlevel exemption for teams from the winning conference in the next year - but something.
      • arnold
        arnold 3 months ago
        I agree. Currently the all-star games are horrible to watch. No defense :s
      • Steve G
        Steve G 3 months ago
        Because bball is a different sport. No one trying to avoid injuries. Not contact.
      • Gerald F
        Gerald F 3 months ago
        You say that now, until the best player on your favorite team gets hurt.

        And nobody is going to be playing "elite-level basketball" with a week or two of practice together, anyway.

        The All-Star game is a chance to see all of your favorite players together on the same court, having fun and doing things they wouldn't dare do in a meaningful game. Anything else is never going to happen any way you slice it.
    • Gabriel Rockman
      Gabriel Rockman  •  3 months ago
      I have to agree. Its hard enough watching normal NBA games right now, but the allstar game is completely unwatchable. There is zero defense in NBA allstar games, its not fun watching a game that has no defense. It would be nice to see some people actually playing defense in an NBA allstar game, and Kevin Love's suggestion is one that could actually get that to happen.
    • Yahoo Bill
      Yahoo Bill  •  3 months ago
      This is a really stupid idea. The only reason MLB does it was a lame response to a rare tie (when better solutions to that problem were available).
    • curtis h
      curtis h  •  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  •  3 months ago
      Love comes to the sixers and he will be in the finals.
      • MAATMAN
        MAATMAN 3 months ago
        IF HE IS SO GOOD WHY CANT HE LEAD THE WOLVES TO THE FINALS LIKE LEBRON LED THE CAVS AND AFTER LOVE DID 4YEARS OF COLLEGE HE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THAT WITH 4 YEARS OF COLLEGE
      • Utep
        Utep 3 months ago
        this guy ^LOL^ does Love have anything that resembled lebrons team mates in minnesota? you be trolling.
      • Mike
        Mike 3 months ago
        MAATMAN: If you spent enough time in school as either of them did, you wouldn't be writing in all caps.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Madison, Wisconsin  •  3 months ago
      Dwyer must have the weekend off. I've been itching all day to hear about the stinging texts Mike Brown received from his family last night, or the hilarious salvos being fired on Lin by his next opponent.
    • lawinrp
      lawinrp  •  Vancouver, Canada  •  3 months ago
      What kind of ideas can you expect out of baseball. Why don't they just declare the champion to be the team that wins the conference that wins the all-stars? Get rid of the Finals altogether.
    • Joshua B
      Joshua B  •  Houston, Texas  •  3 months ago
      Let's go the NHL route where two (active player) captains pick squads. The draft AND the game would be more interesting.
    • Steve G
      Steve G  •  Detroit, Michigan  •  3 months ago
      Horrible idea. Doesn't work in basketball.
      • Steve G
        Steve G 3 months ago
        pains me to agree with dwyer.
    • kirby r
      kirby r  •  Osaka-shi, Japan  •  3 months ago
      Another point on this is that the winner of the All Star game much of the time is just a coin toss. Both teams have great players but some are better team players than others and some of just selfish prima donnas. Who wins the ALL Star game doesn't even say anything about which division is better. One year it's West another it's East but it doesn't say which league is better top to bottom or which league has the best record. The court advantage should reward the playoff teams anyway, not the whole league (even if this approach could be said to do that). I don't advocate this at all but it would even be better to just choose the West/East total win/loss record against one another if you want to select based on league dominance--but that also would not be fair if the winningest team in the NBA is slighted.
    • Harvester of Souls
      Harvester of Souls  •  3 months ago
      No ways
    • flacko
      flacko  •  Cicero, Illinois  •  3 months ago
      that would be dumb.... best record gets it
    • Web
      Web  •  Washington, District of Columbia  •  3 months ago
      Is he an absolute #$%$ It screwed up the World Series. Yeah, 100 wins in the AL and 100 wins in the NL are against different sets of teams, but the All-Star Game doesn't prove anything. Play it for 10 straight days, and it will probably split 5-5. Alternating home field was the only logical arrangement.Overall record in the NBA is fine....although the ratio is different, at least they do play a number of games against each other's conferences during the year. Perhaps the first "tiebreaker", though, should be the head-to-head record against each other in the regular season. If not tied, then the better record gets home court.
      • Wyatt
        Wyatt 3 months ago
        best record should get home field, court, ice, whatever.
    • Ultra-Humanite
      Ultra-Humanite  •  3 months ago
      Stick to playing basketball Kev.
    • Jay
      Jay  •  3 months ago
      Is it just me or does it seem like Dwyer doesn't agree with love? What a tard
    • Adrian
      Adrian  •  Chicago, Illinois  •  3 months ago
      Only if everyone gets to stomp on Love's head first!
    • Reppin 4rm Big D to Jrzy
      Reppin 4rm Big D to Jrzy  •  3 months ago
      this is silly because even if the west is perennially stronger, no cream puffs are coming out the east, its always the top 2 or 3 seeds making it from the east who always have well over 55 wins
    • JEOMK
      JEOMK  •  Mountain View, California  •  3 months ago
      Worst idea ever. Okay not ever, but it's a horrible idea. You want to "ratchet up the intensity" of a meaningless All-Star Game at the expense of likely affecting the outcome of the NBA Finals? This could actually ratchet DOWN the intensity of meaningful games at end of the season. If a the top seed in a conference has an insurmountable lead over its conference foes, it would have no incentive to finish with a better record than the top team in the other conference if home court in the Finals has been pre-determined. Might as well rest the starters for the playoffs and limit their minutes.
    • DavidT
      DavidT  •  Toledo, Ohio  •  3 months ago
      Stupid idea! This would only make the regular season less important.
    • C K
      C K  •  3 months ago
      I don't like this idea, the regular season would be meaningless.
     Post a comment

    Yahoo! Sports Authors

    Regular Contributors:

    Eric Freeman, Dan Devine, Jim Weber, Jared Dudley, Kristian Dyer