The NBA All-Star game (or games this time, as it was a mini-tournament) took place last Sunday, and had a mixed reception: all fans agree that, sportingly, it was a better format than last year's, which had no competitive edge, even for a friendly (nobody defended and the final score reached 211-186). However, many people still complained that the event was too long: over three hours, with constant commercial breaks... for just three 15-minute mini-matches.
A fan on Reddit actually did the maths: of the 3 hour event, only 42 minutes of actual basketball were played. Instead, there were 80 minutes of ads in total. The rest was music performances, tributes, pre and post-game talks, and a Mr. Beast Challenge. "Basketball seemed to be a secondary to the show-based entertainment aspect of the night", complained the user forgetchain.
Clearly, users didn't like it, as it broke the flow of the event. "While the on court product from the players was still relatively mediocre, that would have genuinely been passable, even enjoyable, if the production hadn't been such an absolute slog, felt extremely outdated, had forced humor, and just genuinely felt like it was put on by a league that has no clue how to entertain its fan base", said user paxusromanus811.
Many particularly criticised Mr. Beast segment, which lasted 5 minutes between the two semi-finals ("Some intern spent the weekend with their 8 year old nephew and thought Mr. Beast would KILL with a 6 minute YouTube clip...on national TV", said actuarally), while the three games only lasted 12 16 and 14 minutes in total.
Kevin Durant explodes on X: "cancel it and give everybody a break"
Seeing the reviews, Kevin Durant exploded: "I think it's more fun to complain about the nba than to actually watch it. Crazy, cancel all star weekend and let's just give everybody a break since we're so miserable around this time..."
"I am asking you to rewatch the FULL live broadcast - with the unreal amount of commercials, breaks, everything else, today", replied a journalist. Durant said that his point is that "fans complain about EVERYTHING" and nothing is good enough. Do you agree?
