The World vs. The U.S. Now, that's an All-Star Game

Instead, the NBA slogs through another showcase weekend with a who's-he Slam Dunk contest and a forgettable Sunday game.

Mac McClung

Imagine Shai Gilgeous-Alexander bringing the ball across midcourt. To his left, looking for lanes to the hoop, is Giannis Antetokounmpo. Standing next to the post, available for a lob, is Joel Embiid.

Hovering like queens on a chessboard are Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic. Gilgeous-Alexander can feed the ball to Jokic and then set himself up in the left corner for a 3-pointer. Doncic will be lingering here and there, available to punctuate the play if the shot clock begins to fade.

Such a unit of versatile giants might average 150 points in the NBA. It also might have to.

Because now you should imagine the other end of the floor, where Jokic and Doncic would be living on a rapidly sinking island, chasing the likes of Steph Curry, Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant on the outside, while they leave the lane open and helpless agaisnt Ja Morant and LeBron James.

This is the NBA All-Star Game everyone deserves. The World vs. the U.S.

It is as unlikely than Mac McClung winning the slam-dunk contest, which happened Saturday night during All-Star festivities in Salt Lake City. It is made even more unlikely by the NBA’s current ethos, which doesn’t even require its stars to bring a doctor’s note when they miss games. How can the best players on the globe justify playing an exhibition against each other when they bristle at playing at Indiana on a Wednesday in March?

Instead, All-Star Weekend continues its march to irrelevance, where the regular season already is. The move to include two extra teams per conference in the postseason, through “play-in” games, cheapens the quality of regular-season games without reducing the expense of the ticket. The Lakers are five games below .500, yet they are two games out of 10th place in the West.

The NBA’s reaction to this is to suggest an in-season tournament, some sort of weird version of the F.A. Cup, with a million-dollar bonus to each player on the winning team. Golden State coach Steve Kerr has a more relevant suggestion, which is to reduce the season to 72 games. Presumably Kerr can present this plan to the owners while he convinces them they’ll make the same money.

Meanwhile, McClung did some ungodly things as he won the slam-dunk in Utah. He also set a record for fewest NBA games (two) played by a slam-dunk winner. McClung is on a 2-way contract with Philadelphia and has played 18 games, nine of them starts, for the Delaware Blue Coats of the G-League.

If you’ll recall, the ABA invented the contest to promote its best players. The participants in the first slam-dunk, in Denver 47 years ago, were Julius Erving, George Gervin, David Thompson, Artis Gilmore and Larry Kenon. Thompson performed a 360-degree spin during his dunk. Erving took off from the free-throw line for his, which earned him the trophy. It was a groundbreaking event for the league with the 3-point shot and the tri-colored ball. 

Now the NBA needs a midseason watershed, and the World vs. the U.S. could and should be it.

Not only would the competition be interesting and maybe even fierce, but the game would illustrate two different worlds of player development.

The World team would be top-heavy with bigs. The closest thing to a real point guard would be Dennis Schroder. In truth Jokic would be the conductor, since he has averaged seven or more assists in each of the past five seasons and is at 10.1 this season.

But beyond the aforementioned starting lineup, here’s the tall talent pool for the World;

Kristaps Porzingis, Doumantis Sabonis, Pascal Siakam, Lauri Markkanen, Nicola Vucevic and  Franz Wagner.

Americans don’t train their bigs to play the whole game. They are taught to be rim-protectors on defense and, for the most part, screeners on offense. The best player in college is Purdue’s 7–foot-4 Zach Edey, but he isn’t expected to be a first-round draft choice, just like Iowa’s Luka Garza, who was national Player of the Year and now struggles to stay on an NBA roster.

But if you had a lineup of Curry, James, Durant, Tatum and Morant, here’s what your bench looks like (assuming health and desire):

Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan, Jalen Brunson, Jimmy Butler, Devin Booker, Draymond Green, Jrue Holiday, Klay Thompson, Trae Young, Paul George, Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo.

The latter two are the best bigs the U.S. can offer.

Granted, a World-U.S. game is monstrously impractical, but it beats the heck out of LeBron and Giannis drafting players off the schoolyard and then walking through what is basically the world’s most expensive shootaround.

The biggest hurdle would be the players’ reluctance to tax their own declining energy levels, which are dissipating like the Colorado River. But surely each side could find 12 players who relish the idea. It’s hard to imagine Mikal Bridges, with a 367-games-played streak, would pass it up.

This is when you miss Michael Jordan the most. As much as he would enjoy one-upping his U.S. teammates, he would carry the flag passionately if he had a chance to beat the World. Most of his colleagues would follow.

Otherwise, just forget the All-Star Game charade. Keep awarding the weekend to the interested cities. Pick the best players, introduce them in a concert hall, fill it up with VIPs, maybe let the All-Stars sing and tell jokes, invite the top vocalists, and then bring on the after-party.

When it’s over, assemble the NBA scouts. It’s never too early to find the next Mac McClung.