All Star Games are Going Downhill

All Star games used to be a time where the best players in the world would compete in a competitive game to see who the better players were. I have not been alive long enough to see a good competitive All Star game, but I wish that I could have.

I see a lot of old hockey all star highlights come up on social media, and it used to be complete full contact, high intensity, and they all played like it was the Stanley Cup final. Now, it just seems like a bunch of friends playing pond hockey. No one takes it seriously; the score is always high, and there’s no contact because nobody wants to get hurt and sacrifice their season. I understand that they don’t want to get hurt, but there is no point in being selected for an All Star game, for being an All Star , and not wanting to showcase your talent in the game.

The score between the Central Division vs Atlantic division was 7-5 Atlantic. The score between the Atlantic and Metropolitan was 10-6 Atlantic, and the score between Central and Pacific was 6-4. Every single game had at least ten goals scored, which may not seem like a lot, but they are 20 minute games. There is no defense being played.

Scoring ten combined goals in a full game is a high scoring game, never mind one 20 minute period. Although everybody loves to see an offensive game, everybody also loves to see an open ice defensive hit, which will never happen anymore in an All Star game. 

The All Star game seems like it would be an incredible high intensity game to watch, but it’s actually quite the opposite. It is extremely low intensity, and not a good game at all. The skills competitions are more entertaining to watch than the actual game because people are actually trying in those. I feel bad for the fans who pay a lot of money to go watch a friendly scrimmage.

The basketball All Star games are far worse. Similarly to hockey, nobody even tries. It’s all offense with no defense. It is also extremely repetitive. Lebron’s team will go up the court and hit a long three or a fancy alley-oop that nobody is contesting, and then the other team will go do the same exact thing. By the end of the game it usually looks like they don’t want to be there anymore. The score at last year’s game was 170-150, Team Lebron over Team Durant. There is clearly no intensity or defense going on if teams are closer to 200 then 100.

Even the dunk contest is going down hill. The players are not to blame for the decline in the competition, we’ve just been seeing the same dunks every year for the last decade. It also doesn’t seem like it would be very fun to watch when they take some of the tallest guys in the league and stick them in a dunk contest. There will never be another dunk contest like when Spud Webb, standing at 5’7” won it in 1986. 

The only All Star game that is still tolerable to watch is the MLB all star games because the guys are still trying, and that’s because baseball is a game where if you’re not trying you’re pretty much not even playing. Pitchers usually only go a few innings so they can throw as hard as they want, fielders are making the plays, and the hitters are actually trying to score. It is the only all star game where it seems like both teams actually want to win.

The only way I will ever watch an All Star game is if they bring the intensity back. I’m not old enough to ever be able to see a high intensity game and I wish that I could have. Nothing sounds better to me than all of the best players in the world competing in a high intensity game against each other to see who the better all stars are.