The long anticipated return of the All Star game to the NBL stable had many questioning whether it would have some level of success in showcasing some of the league’s best talent or be an absolute flop that tarnished the game and its success in once again become irrelevant.
The Dunk Comp and 3pt shootout started off the proceedings with Steven Weigh of the Adelaide 36ers prevailing against Peter Crawford of the Townsville Crocs in the 3pt comp and Bennie Lewis of the Melbourne Tigers taking out the Dunk Comp in controversial circumstances over the human pogo stick Lance Hurdle of the Wollongong Hawks.
Luckily the only thing that tarnished the game was Chris Goulding’s “What the hell” hair do, the game itself was somewhat of a highlight film of the NBL, at least in the first half anyway.
Thomas Abercrombie was throwing down alley opp dunks at every opportunity, not to be outdone there were also dunks from Shawn Redhage, Cedric Jackson and Chris Goulding, there seemed to be more dunks in the first half of this game than in the whole NBL so far this season, but hey, that’s what the fans want and what they pay to see, and they got what they paid for, total lack of defence and some lovely fast break throw downs.
Jonny Flynn was doing his best to provide a show for the fans, razzling and dazzling his way up and down the court and dishing out some sweet assists to his team mates, he inspired both sides to turn it up on the performance front and what ensued was some scintillating displays of ball handling, offensive creativity and from what we could tell but couldn’t confirm, on court trash talking, all the ingredients for a seemingly successful All Star game.
Eventually though, players pride came into play, and after being down significantly in the first half, the team from the North decided to tighten up defensively and make a contest out of it, and they came back to be within single digits on the scoreboard, but the lead the South had opened up in the first half was just too much to overcome.
7 players from the South team and 5 players from the North team scored in double figures and the scoreline seemed something more resembling the old 48 minute games than a 40 minute highlight package, there were 70 assists in the game from both sides, almost as much as the 90 rebounds for the whole game, all this in 40 action packed minutes.
All in all, the return of the All Star game after so many years seemed to have success written all over it, with this as a good starting point hopefully the league can build on this success and grow the showcase from here on to become a staple of the NBL season.
Great for all the players to put on a great show and great for the fans to once again show support for this format, let’s see what next year brings as far as the All Star game goes, they planted the seed to make it a success, hopefully it can be improved upon from here.
