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Ja Morant Should Be An All-Star … But We Don’t Need an All-Star Game
Today in “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” News: 

 

Per CBS Sports: The NBA and the NBPA have announced that there will be an NBA All-Star game, scheduled for March 7th in Atlanta. Details about the schedule of events are still undisclosed.

Clearly, the league decided this was a stupid idea at one point, because they initially canceled the annual showcase of top league talent back in November. Given the fact that cases and deaths have surged since then, it is truly puzzling to hear of this new decision.

Three thousand people in the U.S. died of COVID-19 …  YESTERDAY. Couple that with reports of a new, more easily transmitted strain of COVID-19 being discovered in the U.S? No one enjoys the All-Star game *that* much. 

How many people associated with the league need to die before the fact that we are still experiencing a global pandemic and potential super-spreader events such as the All-Star Game are both dangerous and unnecessary? How many more unnecessary cases of the ‘rona need to be spread around the league, not just to players but their families as well?

This is a bad look, particularly when the NBA has already acknowledged that bringing together the top players in the league to play a meaningless game that has no bearing on the standings was a spectacularly bad idea. If there absolutely must be All-Star content in 2021, broadcast some of the games from years past and call it a day.

Let’s have an All-Star break without an All-Star Game this year. Because it’s the right thing to do.