Winners/Losers from NBA All-Star Indy 2024

Who came out on top of the NBA’s ASW return to the Circle City?

WINNER: The City of Indianapolis

While you never want to take anything for granted, it is rare that Indy disappoints under the bright lights, as they were this weekend for the annual NBA All-Star Weekend. Despite Mother Nature trying to throw in a bit of a curve ball with plummeting temperatures and a Friday afternoon flurry (Super Bowl payback?), the city continued to showcase its prowess as one of the best event hosting cities in the world. It was clear the host committee was going to ‘play to their strengths’ so to speak, leveraging its best-in-class infrastructure and showcasing their two premier venues, Gainbridge Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium. In the heart of it all was the Indiana Convention Center, another Indianapolis gem that is conveniently connected to over a dozen hotels via skywalk, the most of any convention center in the country. This venue played host to TNT’s Inside the NBA crew for their Thursday night All-Star kick-off, showcased a number of concerts headlined by the likes of Keith Urban and Lil Wayne, and truly was the epicenter of basketball for about a 72-hour period courtesy of the NBA Crossover experience. With dozens of vendors, countless opportunities to interact with current and former players, and even a little pickle ball showcase starring Pacers fan favorite Lance Stephenson, Indy had something for everyone, and the venues were jam packed with fans all weekend long. Call it hometown bias, call it Midwest hospitality, call it whatever you want, the city of Indianapolis was a clear winner this weekend and made a strong case for future host consideration, something Herb Simon called out specifically with Adam Silver during Sunday evening’s ASG.

LOSER: Fans of Competitive Basketball

Despite all the festivities, the celebrities, the Saturday night showcase, etc., at the end of the day, they still have a game to play. And that was not lost on NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who during Saturday’s media availability acknowledged as much, saying, “We’d gotten carried away a little bit with the entertainment aspect; I think we’re going to see a good game tomorrow night.” As it turned out, Adam Silver is not exactly Nostradamus. Despite the NBA’s best efforts to spark a little more buy-in from its star players, most notably in returning to their East vs. West format, nothing about Sunday night’s contest could be characterized as ‘good’ or ‘competitive’. NBA fans were treated to a laughable 211-186 Eastern Conference victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, a game that did not see a scoring margin below double figures after the 9:49 mark in the 2nd quarter. To put it bluntly, the game was putrid. A record-breaking 168 3-point shot attempts, a bevy of badly missed dunks (none worse than by former league MVP Nikola Jokic), and a few ‘I’m going to get mine’ performances put the proverbial cherry on top of a lackluster Sunday evening showcase. None of which was lost on Adam Silver, who couldn’t help but show a bit of frustration during the game’s trophy presentation, saying, “To the Eastern Conference All-Stars: you scored the most points... well, congratulations." The commissioner, like many others, recognized this game for what it was—abysmal. Whether it be additional player compensation, a tie-in to Finals home court advantage for the winning conference, or including the ASG in player award totals (re: 65 game minimum), one thing is crystal clear: the NBA must do something to restore integrity to this game, and they better do it quick. While ratings were up slightly from last season, the 2023 and 2024 games mark the two lowest-rated All-Star contests across the last 20 years.

WINNER: Tyrese Haliburton

If there was an over/under on hours of sleep for Tyrese Haliburton this All-Star weekend, you’d better have hammered the under. Haliburton was seemingly everywhere: the Pat McAfee show, the Woj Pod, riding in an Indy car, interacting with fans at the NBA Crossover, supporting teammates at the Rising Stars Challenge, participating in Saturday’s Skills and 3-Point contests, and nearly capping it all off with an MVP performance in Sunday’s All-Star game. Bottom line: the city of Indianapolis, and frankly, the NBA, could not have asked for a better ambassador and host this past weekend. Tyrese embraced his role and then some, and one can only hope this is a continued sign of things to come for one of the league’s most exciting up-and-coming stars. While he may have been robbed of a shot at MVP honors by a ball-hogging Damian Lillard on Sunday, Tyrese Haliburton was a clear winner this weekend and continues to cement his place as a bona fide superstar in this league. As Shaquille O’Neal said this weekend in regard to Haliburton, “when KD is gone, when Lebron is gone, when Steph is gone, do you think he can be the face of this league? I say, yes.” Pretty high praise from the Big Fella.

LOSER: Slam Dunk Contest

It’s time. As simple as that, it is just time to rethink this entire spectacle. This segment could have been titled with about half a dozen different tags, most notably: ‘lovers of good dunks’, ‘dunk contest judges’, ‘dunks over people of any size’, or just simply put, ‘Jaylen Brown’. Yes, all of them were losers in their own right, but none are to blame. The reality is that you are a loser the minute your name gets associated with the modern NBA slam dunk contest, and everybody knows it. This event has been on life support for years; the players don’t want to get anywhere close to it, and who can really blame them? No disrespect to Mac McClung, who is a phenomenal athlete and dunker, but he is not an NBA player. In his entire professional basketball career, he has played a whopping 45.5 minutes combined across 4 NBA games, and this is, after all, the NBA slam dunk contest, not the G-League slam dunk contest. The G-League, in fact, has its own slam dunk contest. It too took place on Saturday and was won by Maine Celtics guard Jordan Jackson. Bringing Mac up to the “big leagues” for a once-a-year dunking spectacle is, of course, a no-brainer for him, but on a macro level, it is nothing short of a Bandaide for a bullet wound. This year, 50% of the field was comprised of G-League players. Is that really what the fans want to see? Zac Lavine and Aaron Gordon gave us a glimmer of hope in 2015–2016, but that proved to be nothing more than a flash in the pan. For the better part of 15 years now, this event has been a letdown for fans, and it is now time to acknowledge that we must make a change. At the bare minimum, the 3-point contest should be slated as the All-Star Saturday finale. That’s the bare minimum. One could argue it’s time to move on from the contest entirely, and there is certainly a case to be made. Between the egregious judging (sorry Darnell and Fred), the ‘welp, we’ve seen this before’, and the ‘WTF was that’ (Jaylen Brown), Lucas Oil Stadium was filled with a smattering of “boos” throughout Saturday night, and rightfully so. The fans at home weren’t feeling any different. A laundry list of posts on X (formerly Twitter) tells the same story that has been told for years on end—this event is a dud. Why not try something different, NBA? How about a 1:1 single elimination bracket with a selection of current Rising Stars or All-Star players? Or a collection of dunkers and shot blockers matched up head-to-head for an “Meet at the Rim” challenge? We all know the injury conversation will dominate the debate, but it’s time to try something new. The Slam Dunk Contest is a clear loser.

WINNER: The G-League

As aforementioned, G-League star Mac McClung took home some hardware for the second consecutive season on All-Star Saturday night, a clear win for the NBA’s official minor league and one that only further cements a precedent for G-League players to participate in the contest, assuming it continues in its current format. That, however, was not the only event that McClung suited up for over ASW. The Osceola Magic Guard led all scorers in a Team Pau vs. Team Detlef round 1 matchup during Friday night’s Rising Stars Challenge. Team Pau was headlined by the number 1 and number 2 overall picks in this past summer's draft, Victor Wembanyama and Brandon Miller, alongside a collection of other promising rookie and sophomore players. Team Detlef, on the other hand, was comprised entirely of G-League players from both the G-League Ignite and a handful of other G-League franchises. To say the effort level was lopsided would be putting it mildly. With much of the same ‘too cool for school’ attitude that was on display in Sunday night’s affair, Team Pau looked disinterested in providing any level of force against an opportunistic group of G-League up and comers. Team Detlef led by as many as 12 points in the early going at 25-13, and despite Team Pau closing the gap to 1 on a 15-4 run, it was a classic case of too little, too late. Team Detlef answered right back with a run of their own and ultimately put the contest away with a 5-point margin of victory in the challenge’s target score format. If there was anyone holding out hope that this next generation of future stars might help spur a return to the ‘good old days’ of Magic v. Bird, MJ v. Kobe, and East v. West fighting for conference supremacy, you would have walked away from this game sorely disappointed. Despite a roster full of supremely talented young players, the competitive edge was sorely lacking. For the G-League and their fans, however, this could not have played out any better. This victory instantly provided a jolt of legitimacy to the league and their marquee group, the Ignite, in particular. The G-League players did not appear satisfied to have just made it to the event but took full advantage of the platform they were given. They ultimately did fall in the final round to the challenge’s MVP, Bennedict Mathurin, and Team Jalen, but the mark had already been made. They came to play, and that was enough to walk away a winner this ASW.