Does an NBA All-Star Draft Held in Private Make a Sound?

The draft to determine the rosters for the N.B.A.’s 67th All-Star Game, with LeBron James and Stephen Curry picking the squads as captains, shouldn’t have merely been televised. It should have happened at midcourt on live television just a few minutes before tipoff.

Just like they do it on the playground.

In the true spirit of the modern N.B.A., and the transactional frenzies it routinely spawns, LeBron and Steph should have even been allowed to swing a trade or two after making their selections.

Sadly, though, you didn’t get to witness any such deliciousness.

Instead, the East’s and West’s leading vote-getters hopped on a conference call Thursday afternoon, joined by a limited number of league personnel who were all sworn to silence, so James and Curry could make their picks in secret. The results were revealed Thursday night on TNT, with league officials determined to take every measure they could conjure to ensure that the pick-by-pick decisions made by both superstars are never uncovered.

Which pretty much guarantees that the All-Star Game on Feb. 18, before any of us even get to Los Angeles, will go down as a disappointment yet again — since we’re all going into it on such a letdown.

There was so much excitement when this new format was announced in early October. It later emerged that the unease that Houston’s Chris Paul, the N.B.A. Players Association president, felt watching the blatant lack of competitiveness in last year’s All-Star Game on TV while out injured, combined with a strong nudge from Michael Jordan — now the owner of the Charlotte Hornets — led to the format overhaul.

But the glee was short-lived.

A captains-pick-their-teams format was hatched by the league with the full intention to televise the draft, but pushback from the N.B.A. Players Association — not unanimous resistance, but enough — scuttled those plans.

The concept called for the respective winners of All-Star balloting in each conference, as captains, to divvy up the other eight players selected as All-Star starters by votes from fans, players and media members. Once the starting lineups were in place, James and Curry chose the 14 All-Star reserves, as selected by the coaches, one by one.

Yet it became clear in December that none of the potential draft drama anticipated by the basketball public would come to fruition, because none of us would have the opportunity to see the anguished looks on the faces of James and Curry when, say, they had to choose between a teammate and someone they’ve always wanted to play with from the other conference — or the even more anguished faces of those waiting their turn to be chosen.

Imagine James faced with the prospect of deciding whether to draft or pass on Kyrie Irving after all that has transpired between the former Cleveland Cavaliers teammates over the past six months — and then having to field questions about how and why he made the decision.

Imagine James being forced to choose between Kevin Love — who has been so unfairly painted as a scapegoat for so many of the Cavaliers’ problems during their recent 4-11 funk — and his Warriors rival Draymond Green instead.

Imagine the size of the chip that would have formed on both of Russell Westbrook’s shoulders had James or Curry dared to pick another All-Star reserve ahead of him, with the world watching.

Imagine the tension, most of all, had the draft been packaged as a separate televised special — as the National Hockey League did three times between 2011 and 2015 — and how it would feel for the last two players waiting to be chosen.

Scrumptious is the word you’re looking for to describe any of those scenarios.

Even if the precise details of Thursday’s draft eventually leak out, as so much business in the N.B.A. does, it just won’t be the same. Not being able to witness the real-time reactions of every player involved snuffs out any usefulness for a player draft.

There are three main reasons this format, which initially inspired so much hope among hoop romantics that it could pump some much-needed life into the league’s midseason showcase, was conducted behind closed doors:

1) The league did not want to risk embarrassing the last player chosen — or anyone else.

2) The league did not want to put the captains in a position where they might upset teammates by passing over them.

3) The league adopted both of those positions at the behest of the players’ union. Some All-Stars want the draft televised, but some don’t. So the league acquiesced.

LeBron James, right, has played nice this year with his former teammate, Kyrie Irving. But would he draft him to his All-Star team, or would he leave him for Curry to select?CreditGregory Shamus/Getty Images

And that left N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver to do most of the explaining in recent weeks. In a recent NBA TV interview, Silver said: “The goal was to improve the All-Star Game, not put a cherry on top of the cake.”

Michele A. Roberts, the executive director of the N.B.A. Players Association, declined interview requests this week through a union spokesperson. But the N.B.P.A. did issue a statement Thursday to SB Nation, saying “it was the absence of a consensus by prospective players likely to be affected that led to support” for keeping the draft off the air.

The rampant tiptoeing around this whole thing is silly. It’s the All-Star Game. It’s a game, in other words, that doesn’t even count. Let’s hope Curry was right when he predicted last week that the television element would eventually come to fruition, urging patience because the new format still has its “training wheels on.”

Uncomfortable as it might be at the moment for an All-Star to be snubbed by a fellow All-Star on a public stage, for whatever reason, let’s also not forget the wise words of Curry’s coach in Golden State. As Steve Kerr told us during the 2015 N.B.A. Finals, and has been fond of repeating ever since, he and the players get paid “a lot of money” thanks to “the intense interest worldwide in the sport.”

“With that,” Kerr often reminds us, “comes scrutiny and criticism.”

Kerr gets it. There’s a trade-off here. The N.B.A. is enjoying maybe the greatest period of broad relevance in its history, which has taken compensation to dizzying new levels, largely because the audience finds the league’s various personal interactions and back stories so intoxicating.

No sports league on Earth lays bare its innermost feelings — its feuds, grudges and animus — better than the National Basketball Association. When so much of the league, as well as its television partners, is profiting so handsomely from life under the microscope, why pretend otherwise?

Thursday’s draft simply wasn’t the new format to implement if you don’t go all the way. The various relevant parties that dished up this frustrating tease would be wise to drop the charade and embrace the sport’s true identity here — pettiness and all.

Or try something else.

Let's block ads! (Why?)