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Ever since the NBA decided to play with the All-Star format and give Team Captains the power to pick their teams just like in streetball, the idea of the draft being televised had been making the rounds of social media.
Eventually, the league gave in to the enticing concept of the captains from the respective conferences sitting down and building pick-by-pick, their own super team, from a mixed pool of All-Stars of both the conferences. And, boy, it was entertaining!
LeBron and Giannis sat down on NBA TNT a couple of days ago and messed around with Ernie Johnson en route to giving the world its first ever televised NBA All-Star draft and trade. Since this was the first of its kind, nobody.- and that includes the NBA itself - had any idea as to what they should expect. Moreover, the recent trade window buzz and the occasional tampering fines by the NBA had rendered the atmosphere a bit edgy than it usually is.
While the show didn't even last half an hour, it did leave behind some prominent talking points worth revisiting. Let's dive in to analyze the dynamics that ran this exclusive draft and the three most itching yet interesting questions it left behind.
#1 Did LeBron have an ulterior motive behind picking future free agents?
James had the first pick of the starters, and as revealed by his answer to Ernie's question, he picked Kevin Durant as his first pick for a second straight year. Following that, he went on to include Kyrie, Kawhi, and Harden(in order of pick) in his starting lineup, making it three of four players slated to become free agents this summer.
LeBron is known to have a great business mind and is widely rumored to be fairly competent to run teams on his own if push comes to shove. Giving him the power to impose his will on a certain group of players in the process of a light-hearted draft was all that was needed.
Moving on to the reserves, throw in AD and Klay, and it was clear as day that Bron is out on a mission. All these players have been linked with the Lakers at some point in time in the recent past and The King just cashed in on the same.
When Barkley roasted LeBron by asking Giannis to trade his whole bench for Anthony Davis, James' laughed nervously, cognizant of the limits his front-office was willing to cross in order to get the generational talent just this past week.
#2 So the NBA is finally cool with players recruiting players on All-Star weekend?!
Ernie: “You sure you want him(Anthony Davis) to be your teammate?”
James: “I’m very sure of that.”
Antetokounmpo: “Isn’t that tampering?”
James: “Tampering rules do not apply on All-Star weekend.”
The above thread of conversation followed LeBron picking Anthony Davis as his first pick from the All-Star reserves. As strict as we've seen the league be on the ones even remotely enforcing tampering (Davis was fined $50,000 for openly requesting a trade out of New Orleans), this draft shed some positivity on the lighter side of things from the NBA's perspective.
There was always a decent likelihood with James drafting and Davis on the board, that things might start to reflect what has been happening for the past week. However, what softens up the narrative is that Adam Silver and co. were aware of the same and still decided to go ahead with it.
It can be only situational that the easy All-Star Weekend mood follows the ruthless trade deadline horrors on the NBA calendar. And yes it helps to know the league can adapt to the weather changes along with the players. After all, we only have until June.
#3 Did the first ever All-Star draft trade make sense?
One noteworthy aspect of the first ever televised All-Star draft was the trade of Westbrook for Simmons. James suggested the said swapping in order to facilitate having Westbrook and Embiid(who have had their tussles in the past) on one team.
In his words,
"Since it's that time of the year Ernie, and we know Giannis would like to see Russ and Embiid be teammates because we know how much they get along ... I'm proposing a Russell Westbrook for Ben Simmons trade"
To everyone's delight, James' proposition met the Freak's approval
“I know Ben Simmons is your guy,” Antetokounmpo said, “so I’ll do it.”
Well, some things don't necessarily have to make sense to be good. This was just entertaining television. James got his guy, Giannis got Westbrook in return and we all get to see Brodie and JoJo "get along" on the same team.
This was a LeBron-like move - diplomatic, aesthetically correct and working to his self-interest at the same time.
Guess the Lakers players!
