James Harden Probably going to be leading in those votes, but All Star Game as we know, going to look a little bit different this year.

It's going down in a TL during the first weekend in March, but Atlanta Mayor Kesha Lance Bottoms has made it clear people should not come to party due to Kobe concerns.

Now this is already on top of the fact that players like LeBron, Hawaii and Yannis have already spoken out about having the game in the midst of a pandemic.

Also, just a really packed and busy season.

So Stephen A Should the All Star Game just be canceled this year?

Believe it or not, I'm I'm of that mindset right now.

I do feel that way.

Um, I'm not happy about having to say that because I support the MBA on its players and everything that they try to do, but they're not on the same page with this.

Clearly, the players don't want this game, and clearly the league feels compelled to do so for monetary reasons.

Eso You can look at it from that perspective, understanding that the league collectively bargain toe have this kind of power that it's really not a choice of the MBA.

Uh, you know, Chris, Paul and those and those guys.

Everybody's been pointing the finger at the Players association as if they've agreed to this.

No, they have no choice.

It's been collectively bargain, and as a result, they can negotiate stipulations and things of that nature to make sure safety protocol on safety measures are exercise and things of that nature.

But the bottom line is they don't have any say as to whether or not there's gonna be an All Star Game.

The league has say over that, and obviously they're trying to appease the networks.

To some degree.

We get all of that.

But here's the reality.

The players and the league are not on the same accord in this regard.

And now we have local government officials speaking out against this game taking place.

When you see Atlanta mere, uh, echelons bottoms.

Alright, Speak out and talk about how she has concerns.

She's spoken to the league and etcetera, and she knows that they're going to do that.

But you're encouraging people not to come to Atlanta.

You're encouraging people not to party and things of that nature, not toe have a festive kind of atmosphere, which we totally understand.

There's a very responsible thing for her to do on her part.

If you're the N b A.

You're standing alone on an island here.

You're flying guys in the night before on private jets and things of that nature.

They come in and have a game, the slam dunk contest of three point contest, whatever, with no fans in attendance.

Remember, the weekend is supposed to be for the fans to celebrate the athletes and the athletes to celebrate with the fans and a star studded, weakened gala.

That's really what it's supposed to be.

How does that happen without the fans?

I don't see that.

And I just think that there's too much noise has been made about this, and it might behoove them to just decide not to have the All Star Game.

That's just my feelings on it right now.

Well, Stephen a.

Stephen A.

I started out disagreeing with you about this even before the show, but one thing I've considered has actually changed my mind.

But I'm gonna play devil's advocate here, and I want to tell you the one consideration I Why I agree with you.

The reason I agree with you is because what occurred to me probably too late in this game, thinking about it was this is not like, Well, they're playing games all over the place.

What's the difference?

The difference is from 30 different cities from 30 different teams.

People are gonna be there, and then they're all going to go back to those places.

So it creates a situation where the game could be a vector for the disease in a different way.

For Cove, it in a different way than a normal N B a game or even a playoff game could be in the absence of a bubble.

And that may be the deciding factor for me, especially since the players don't seem to have any enthusiasm for it.

But now I want to play devil's advocate because with the exception of that thought, the fact that they then they all come together and then they all go back.

So if anyone has it with, you know and and and it spreads its spreading everywhere, and we're in the middle of a pandemic still, But let me Here's the devil's advocate position, and I think it's persuasive.

With the exception of what I just said, the All Star Game, you could talk about festivities all you want.

The Atlanta mayor didn't say, Don't have the game.

She said, Don't travel to the game and for the media a lot of the time and the players, the people involved in the in the festivities, I think and whatever fans air there, I don't want to dismiss that.

But whoever is live there, it feels like that's what it's all about this weekend.

But in fact, it's a TV show.

The vast majority of people participating in it from a consumer point of view consuming it, watching it, watching it on television.

It's a TV show.

And the MBA is dealing right now in a pandemic where interest in sports broadly has diminished because there have been bigger things going on in the world.

Here is a chance for the league to showcase its greatest talents and yes, if they're showing no enthusiasm for it, that's bad.

But hopefully they would Hopefully they would actually participate in the festivities, so to speak on TV because as a TV show, I enjoy watching it.

I like watching the slam dunk contest three point contest, the the All Star Game, right?

Like the game itself.

It's a fun it's not.

It's not the greatest event of all time.

It's not the N b A Finals, but it's a fun, you know, a television show to watch in the absence of other stuff on, especially.

And since the league needs it right now and we're talking about, as you said Stephen, a everyone's flying in on private Jets and then flying back out again.

To me, that is a really good case for playing this game and bolster on boosting the league.

Well, I think it's a stupid idea and I think that the NBA really dropped the ball on this one for a number of reasons.

One is obviously win the pandemic okay and the league is struggling to like right now to keep games going in the regular season.

We just had a game get postponed last night because of the pandemic and the virus and guys were having to sit out.

So that's one thing.

The second thing the league is breaking, the trust that they was developing with the players Association and the players.

If we go back and look at what happened in the bubble, it was a beautiful thing to see with me how the Players Association and Adam Silver and the NBA were coming thio together to make things happen being on the same page.

It was something that I've never seen in my 14 years of plan and now something that I've never seen with me.

Being on the other side is how they came together, hand in hand, toe work things out.

And so, before the season started, the MBA told the players that they was not gonna have All Star weekend and that they were gonna have this time to take off.

And now you break that trust because you pop this on them at the last at the spur of the moment and said, Oh, yeah, we have an All Star weekend.

It breaks the trust.

So just when the n B.