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-- Written by @STEVEYGIII, NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, UFC Strike and Candy MLB collector--
Beyond playoffs and championships, there are few things in sports that I look forward to more than NBA All-Star Weekend. In the grand scheme of the NBA season, we have a few landmarks – Opening Tip Off, Christmas Day, now the In Season Tournament, the Playoffs and of course NBA All Star Weekend. I’d challenge of all those landmarks; it is arguably the biggest piece of the NBA season besides The Finals.
When I was a kid, All-Star Weekend was the family size bag of Doritos, Mountain Dew, a couple buddies over and trying to imitate every dunk we saw on the rim on the back of my bedroom door. It was trying to set up a 3-point shootout around the room; then on Sunday night being glued to the tv knowing I didn’t have school the next day for Winter Break. They say how can you not be romantic about baseball, but how can you not be romantic about basketball?
The dozens of memories we all have from watching All-Star Weekend are what keeps us coming back year in and year out to the dunk contest when we don’t know half the guys in it right now. It’s the knowledge of knowing you’re going to see something you’ve never seen before or a performance that cements the fact that these are the absolute best players in the world. That is the absolute beauty of living in the NBA Top Shot era with All-Star Weekend. Bringing the ability to collect and own those exact moments we will look back on a decade from now. Imagine being able to own the historic Vince Carter Dunk Contest moments back when it first happened (and at a fraction of the legendary moment). The All-Star Weekend moments, whether they are from a future NBA Hall of Famer or a kid from the G League who saved the Dunk Contest are such a special, unique cut out of NBA history.
We’ve seen various integrations with All-Star Weekend moments on Top Shot. We had the All-Star Classics legendary series (of which the big name moments have held solid floors over time), Rim Shakers, the two ASG rare sets, sneaky Origins legendary moments of Lavine and Gordon; and last year’s mint to demand fandom set. As we preach all the time – go watch your moments. Watch these All-Star Weekend moments and take yourself back to where you were, what you were doing, the feelings of watching those moments happen live. That is why I love the All-Star Weekend moments, in whatever format they find themselves in. Enjoy being connected to those moments, even if they aren’t going to put you at the top of some leaderboard and get you access to a Discord channel. Enjoy your connection with basketball’s top weekend of the year. You’ll be talking about those moments 10 years from now; whether it was the Vince Dunk Contest, Jalen Green wearing a Top Shot moment in a Top Shot moment thumbnail, Curry’s no look 3, Mac McClung out of nowhere or LeBron’s All-Star moment being back in Cleveland for example.
If you look at the actual All-Star Game moments themselves, you have highlights of history of guys playing together you don’t normally see or may never see again. How about a Jokic to LeBron alley oop from S3? The other beauty with the lack of defense in the game until the last 5 minutes is the abundance of moment worthy highlights we get all night long. If you put together those All-Star Game sets and watch them back (again watch your moments), you have a season’s worth of highlight moments in one set. You get half court shots, 360 dunks and some 3 pointers with a little “extra spice” in them. Oh, and hey – you get the Fast Break boost of a 2nd use from a rare! I am personally ok with the current mint to demand Fandom path we are on. It finds the line between “we don’t want to pay for them as rares” and the “it creates too many commons,” while ensuring we get to collect a piece of All-Star Weekend. Having moments of first time All-Stars, along with the winners, team reels and a challenge tie in feels like a solid formula to me.
I love the idea of being able to collect and own those pieces of history of my favorite NBA weekend of the year. I love being able to look back at my collection over time and share those moments with people or with the people I shared those moments with. All-Star Weekend is as special as you make it. Dig up some of the previous years’ moments on Top Shot, watch them back this year before or during the events and remember why this weekend is so special.
How can you not be romantic about basketball?
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