Since Bird retired, and Gan Guoyang and Jordan no longer participate in the three-point contest, the viewership has dropped significantly.
In the end, the little-known Heat player Harold Miner won the slam dunk contest championship.
Knights star Mark Price won the three-point contest championship—he’s considered a pretty big name among the contestants, Price is a backup point guard for the Eastern All-Stars this year.
Before the main game, there was still a warm-up called the Legends Game.
Those retired stars suited up again to present fans with a senior basketball exhibition game.
However, this game is about to retire just like its players.
Firstly, stars are like leaders, when they leave, the glory fades.
New fans aren’t as interested in old stars.
Especially stars from the 70s and 80s, who weren’t well-marketed, don’t have a strong fan base.
Many new fans who just got into the sport in the 90s want to see Jordan, Ah Gan, Olajuwon, Robinson.
Those old guys, whose names they can’t even call out, whose games they’ve never seen, are just for reminiscing.
Paying to watch them play is really uninteresting.
If they could play exciting games, why would they retire?
So nostalgia is the least valuable, just for remembrance.
Trying to sell tickets and make money from it, real buyers are few.
People still prefer the freshly baked, contemporary stuff.
The second reason is that official games are too taxing on these old guys.
Even in exhibition games, a 48-minute game, everyone once was a top player, the intensity won’t be low.
Especially when the team often has crazy ones like Rick Barry.
Playing in the Legends Game, they still want to win and push hard for intensity.
The result leads to some old stars getting injured, sometimes severely.
In last year’s Legends Game, David Thompson and Norm Nixon got injured.
Even if not injured, these old guys who haven’t trained or played intensely for a long time, feel like they’ve died once, often lying in the bathtub or bed, unable to move for half a day.
So after this All-Star Game, the Legends Game retires in the NBA.
Of course, there’s another crucial reason: NBA players’ salaries have risen.
Most NBA stars retiring in the future will be millionaires or even billionaires.
They don’t have to risk injury to earn appearance fees and play the game.
On the night of February 21st, the All-Star main game.
For this game, Magic Johnson was invited to be a commentator on the sidelines.
His partners were Mike Fratello and Dick Enberg.
Before the game started, they kept debating two issues:
Can Michael Jordan still win a championship?
And can Shaquille O’Neal surpass Ah Gan, becoming a greater center?
About the first issue, Magic Johnson remained optimistic, he said:
"I believe Michael can someday win the championship, Ah Gan won’t win forever. This year’s Trail Blazers are quite weak, I can feel it, they lost many important games."
"I defeated the Trail Blazers twice with the Lakers, and once at the Olympics. Defeating Ah Gan’s team is very difficult, very very hard, you need some luck while giving your all."
"The goddess of luck will stand on Michael’s side someday."
In Magic Johnson’s view, this year’s finals will likely still be a duel between the Trail Blazers and the Bulls.
The Heat and Suns are on a roll, but they seem to be missing something.
Regarding the second issue, Magic Johnson’s answer was very certain:
"Impossible, Shaq is excellent, unprecedented potential, but impossible to surpass Ah Gan."
"Ah Gan is only 28 years old, his achievements are already very amazing, honestly, I wouldn’t dare write such a novel."
"Shaq can first set his target on Karim, I think that’s more realistic."
In Johnson’s view, targeting Jabbar is already a realistic thought.
After all, surpassing Gan Guoyang is really too hard, his accumulated achievements are already very astounding.
"Even if Ah Gan retires immediately, he is the greatest basketball player in history, better than Bill Russell."
Having competed against Gan Guoyang for years, now forced to retire, Johnson is completely convinced by Gan Guoyang.
Two consecutive three-peat titles, is an achievement that seems terrifying just imagining with closed eyes.
Especially for Johnson, who experienced the tough NBA seasons, fought directly against Ah Gan, won and lost.
And for Shaquille O’Neal, being compared to Gan Guoyang in his rookie season is already a success.
He is the second rookie All-Star starter since Michael Jordan and Gan Guoyang in 1985.
He successfully ousted Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon from the Eastern starting position.
This shows how popular he is among fans.
According to past conventions, this year’s starter was most likely Olajuwon.
But O’Neal, this dunking beast, is too popular.
His personality is much more interesting than the increasingly quiet and steady Olajuwon.
O’Neal represents the stars of the new era, with a strong hip-hop style.
This makes O’Neal very popular with the young African-American crowd, so the votes are naturally high.
Because of O’Neal’s rise, Patrick Ewing almost missed this All-Star.