Criticism of the NBA All-Star Game has seen an all-time rise, coming from fans, NBA insiders, and even the players themselves. But one person who isn’t criticizing the event is NFL legend Tom Brady, and he provided a rather unique reason as to why.
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In a recent newsletter, Brady said he felt the need to criticize the All-Star Game, too, until he thought about it from the players’ perspective.
As a superstar during his playing days, the 7-time Super Bowl winner knows how important health is to the players and used that to provide his defense of the ASG.
He simply claimed no superstar could risk getting injured while going all-out in the game, thus derailing his team’s title chances.
He brought up MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to make his point and emphasised how important the Canadian guard was to the OKC Thunder.
“If SGA plays like it’s a Game 7 and plows into Evan Mobley on a drive to the rim and they both get injured, that’s two critical pieces of the #1 seed in each conference going down at the worst possible time,” he wrote.
For Tom Brady, players have the biggest obligation to their team
The fact that the NBA All-Star Game takes place so late in the season makes it an even bigger risk for players because the playoffs are right around the corner. Having their best player get hurt with so little time left could torpedo any team’s season.
Brady said that although he made 15 Pro Bowls, he rarely played in them because to do so would be to risk letting his teammates down if he got injured.
“If I’m out there going 100% in a game that doesn’t matter, and Aaron Donald does his Tony Siragusa impression and snaps my collarbone, I am potentially a part of stealing their dreams and messing with their futures,” he wrote.
Agree or disagree with Brady’s perspective, there’s no denying that during his career, he was the ultimate winner.
Team success was all that mattered to him, and when you look at it from that perspective, the All-Star Game and Pro Bowl do seem comparatively inconsequential to the chance to play for a title.
