“Extend the Break a Couple More Days”: Sparks’ Dearica Hamby Offers a Unique Solution to Fix the All-Star Game
This year’s NBA All-Star weekend is behind us, but once again, fans, analysts, and former players have criticized the festivities for being lackluster. From the absence of star power in the Slam-Dunk contest to the controversial skills challenge disqualification or the new four-team format, a solution is needed to explain why All-Star weekend has become such a snoozefest.
Enter Dearica Hamby. The WNBA star for the Los Angeles Sparks took to X to offer her solution to what can get NBA All-Star weekend back on track. Her pitch? Make it a one-night event.
“My 2 cents lol The fix to all star is to only make it one day… one event… preferably Friday or Saturday and eliminate all the extra stuff :)”
The Sparks star doesn’t want everything to happen in just one day. She just wants the important things, preferably the Slam Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest, and Skills Challenge, to remain alongside the All-Star Game. A 3x All-Star, Hamby knows the charade that goes into the All-Star weekend.
“from experience … by Sunday you are exhausted from media/ brand obligations… AND now you mean to tell me I gotta go to market in 2 days. Extend the break a couple more days so the all stars can also leave.”
my 2 cents lol The fix to all star is to only make it one day… one event… preferably Friday or Saturday and eliminate all the extra stuff 🙂 from experience … by Sunday you are exhausted from media/ brand obligations… AND now you mean to tell me I gotta go to market in 2…
— Dearica Marie Hamby (@dearicamarie) February 18, 2025
Hamby is looking at this from the players’ perspective. Making the event one day means less media for all those involved, which is taxing enough on top of the current three-day schedule. Extending the break also gives a nice cushion for talent to be able to travel and rest up before having to return to the gameday grind.
For example, the first game back is on Wednesday, when the Lakers host the Hornets. That’s just a two-day break for the stars from either of those two teams who were a part of the All-Star Sunday. Now if we reduce the festivities to just a day, the players would’ve gotten at least four days off.
The question is would this solve the issue of players not caring as much for the All-Star festivities? Cramming everything into one day might work out logistically, and extend the superstars of the league some extra time to rest up. But with nothing really on the line as they are in the MLB All-Star game, players opting to not attend All-Star weekend is still an issue.
It’s not as if solutions have not been pitched. Like Hamby, several former NBA players attempted to come up with ideas as to how the slam-dunk contest could return to its former glory. However, they eventually agreed that even a cash prize wouldn’t mean much considering how much NBA stars are already being paid.
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