NBA All-Star Weekend: Dragic and Plumlee…Participate
Feb 15, 2014; New Orleans, LA, USA; Phoenix Suns guard
Goran Dragic(1) and Oklahoma City Thunder guard
Reggie Jackson(15) during the 2014 NBA All Star skills challenge at Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
For the record, all of us (all one of us) here at Heat Waved are proud of our Phoenix Suns and appreciative that Goran Dragic and Miles Plumlee got to represent the Suns at NBA All-Star weekend. For our money, the festivities are very outdated and need to be changed more than they already have been.
The two events that don’t need changing are the Rising Stars game and the actual All-Star game. Those are a showcase of athletes, the best that the game has to offer. Sure, they break down into AND1 Mixtape Tour-type games from time to time, but at least they’re entertaining.
Plumlee did his part in the Rising Stars game, including a terrific block of the hometown hero, Anthony Davis. Although he didn’t put up big numbers, scoring just four points with three rebounds and the block, he did get the Suns a bit more national attention, which is always good.
Dragic participated in the Skills Challenge on Saturday night, which is only second to the Shooting Stars competition as the worst during the festivities. Editors Note: The Celebrity Game is beyond horrible, as well.
Goran did well, but he and teammate Reggie Jackson got knocked out in the first round.
So in a nutshell, Dragic should have been selected as a reserve to the All-Star game and instead got to come spend 25 seconds dribbling around stationary men. Hooray. To say that we’re a bit salty about Dragic not getting the nod (over Damian Lillard, mind you) to make the reserves would be understating it.
At the end of the day, Miles and Goran wouldn’t have accepted the invitations if they weren’t interested in going, so that’s good enough for us. But seriously — Dragic is going to get MVP consideration but can’t make the All-Star squad? Come on man!
Michael Dunlap is an NBA credentialed writer who is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief for the Sports Illustrated/Fansided NBA site HoopsHabit.com and the Arizona Sports site HeatWaved.com. He also covers high school sports for The Arizona Republic. Follow me on Twitter @DunlapNBA.