Quinn’s Quickies: NBA All-Star Sham, Ionescu’s Night, more

I knew I needed to do a Quinn’s Quickies after watching just a few minutes of last night’s so-called game. 

·         Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game should be the last one to be played for a long time. I stomached about five minutes of the fourth quarter. Guys literally walked up and down the court – ALL OF ‘EM! They didn’t even pretend to play defense. They really weren’t even playing offense. They were just chucking up “3s.” Being that one team – I don’t even care enough to check which team – scored more than 200 points, they were obviously doing that all night. I’ve already heard the nonsense that they’re paid too much to risk injury playing hard. Stop. No one’s played hard in the NBA All-Star Game in years. It became a status symbol to sit out of the game for a while. This isn’t the All-Pro Game in the NFL. You can at least go half speed and put on a show without getting hurt. The NBA is becoming a joke. They have to throw extra money at players with the bogus In-Season Tournament and create a minimum number of games played to qualify for the Most Valuable Player Award just to try to motivate players to actually care about the regular season. Can’t ‘til they give these guys lounge chairs when they’re on the bench.

·         I can’t believe how many people are gushing over Steph Curry for edging out WNBA player Sabrina Ionescu in a head-to-head 3-point shooting contest as part of All-Star Weekend. This is all about Ionescu! She’s in her off-season – maybe she is playing overseas? – and rolls into the men’s all-star weekend to give possibly the best shooter in the history of the NBA all he could handle. Next year, put the rematch on over the game.

·         For the second year in a row, G-leaguer Mac McClung won the Dunk Contest. Last year, he was on the Sixers’ affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats. Now, he’s with Orlando’s squad. How the hell is he not still on the Blue Coats? Delaware didn’t want what has to be the biggest, if not the only, attraction to go watch a G-League game?

·         Caitlin Clark became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer in women’s basketball on Thursday. When I first read that ESPN’s Jay Williams refused to call her “great,” I didn’t think much of it. Then I realized that he wasn’t debating whether or not she was the “greatest,” he wouldn’t call her “great.” That’s just stupid. He heaped praise on her, according to Awful Announcing, saying, “I think she is the Stephen Curry of women’s college basketball. . . . I think she has changed the dynamic of the way the game is played. I think the way she plays — the pizzazz — she’s probably the most prolific scorer the game of basketball has ever seen.” Then he added, “I am unwilling — and maybe it’s more the Kobe (Bryant) mentorship around me — to say that she is great yet.” Get serious. That was the weakest attempt ever by someone trying to attach themselves to greatness, in this case, Kobe Bryant. Nice effort, Jay, but . . . nope. Not buying.

As always, get in the comments and let me what you think.