The NBA found the winning formula.
Fresh off a banner weekend that saw the Association restore their lacklustre All-Star Game to must-watch status, praise has poured in from across the sports world for the league’s willingness to experiment with the game’s format, and the success of the one they eventually rolled out.
Team LeBron’s squad took the 2020 iteration of the All-Star tilt on Sunday, besting Team Giannis and its trio of Raptors — Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry and head coach Nick Nurse — after a wildly competitive fourth quarter.
But while the Toronto trio came up short, they were effusive in their praise for the new format and the hard-fought game that ensued because of it.
“There were talks about, you know, ‘We want to win, we want to win.’ But watching other All-Star Games, I didn’t know what to expect. But it was pretty intense, man,” Siakam told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on the All-Star Game episode of The Woj Pod. “It felt like a playoff game out there. Everyone wanted to win. It was a fun atmosphere.”
Nurse concurred, shedding some light on the chatter that filled the locker room behind the scenes pre-game and at half-time.
“There was some good talk in the locker room prior to the game, even some of the players saying, ‘Hey, let’s go set a tone, don’t worry about what they do. If they don’t want to play hard, we’re going to play hard,'” Nurse told Wojnarowski on the same episode. “You could sense a lot of that building as the game went, and that was continuing in the half-time locker room and timeouts.
“But man, that was awesome. What a competitive ending. Crowd on their feet. That was a pretty good night of basketball.”
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The Raptors bench boss made sure to do what he could to liven things up as well, even throwing down an All-Star coach’s challenge.
“I was planning on using it, whether it was going to be for real or not for real. But I saved it all the way through there and used it on the very last play of the game,” Nurse told Wojnarowski with a chuckle. “But I mean, it was playoff basketball, man — guys were guarding, every call was contested by both teams, every player on the floor. It was playoff basketball.”
While the format was a winner, it was also desperately needed, with the game going the way of most leagues’ All-Star festivities — becoming an afterthought.
“That was a big leap forward. Because I think the game had become almost unwatchable, to be honest,” Nurse said. “And it’s gone from unwatchable to must-see, almost.”
For the veteran of the Raptors trio, Lowry, the All-Star Game was another in a long line of accomplishments. For Siakam and Nurse, it was something novel — not simply a foray into foreign territory among the game’s elite, but the culmination of two long, winding paths that few would’ve assumed would pass through the bright lights of All-Star Weekend.
The moment certainly wasn’t lost on the ever-rising Siakam.
“It felt amazing, just thinking about the hard work and everything that I’ve put in — not just me but my whole team. Just a lot of work, man — blood, sweat and tears,” Siakam told Wojnarowski. “Being three years in, and being an All-Star — man, it means everything. And I just want to continue to get better. It shows me that I’m unstoppable, nothing can stop me.
“If I put my mind into it and I continue to work the way I am, you know, the sky’s the limit.”
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