Shaquille Oeal’s team, named the OGs (Classic), beat the Global Stars on Sunday in the final of the renewed NBA Star Game, in which Stephen Curry was chosen Most Valuable Player in front of his fans from San Francisco, California.
The owner of the Golden State Warriors led the 41-25 win against a combination that brought together Serbian Nikola Jokic, Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, who premiered in this type of meeting.
This edition, on the other hand, was the first absence of LeBron James in 21 years and ended a 20-year streak as a headline.
The veteran Los Angeles Lakers leader, who hasn’t missed a date since his second year in the NBA in 2004, announced his discharge shortly before kick-off due to some foot and ankle discomfort.
After a failed 2024 return to the classic conference duel between East and West, the NBA experimented this time with a four-team scheme.
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Three of them were chosen by former Shaquille Oeal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith, a popular trio of television commentators today, and the other was made up of players newly arrived in the league.
The combined clashed in two semifinals and a final whose winner was the first to reach 40 points.
The NBA’s great annual show this time had a little more intensity than in previous years when the lack of effort of the players was pointed out by the league itself and interest plummeted to record the worst audience data.
“I think today was a little more competitive than previous years and that’s the main thing,” said owner Damian Lillard at the end of the game.
In turn, to prevent boredom, the NBA introduced distractions of all kinds this year during games, as a challenge to triples that Lillard lost to a fan amid jubilation in the stands.
In the midst of so much disruption, the stars struggled to leave plays for the memory beyond a stunning triple from the middle of Stephen Curry’s track.
In the first semifinal, the Global Stars team led by Barkley beat Kenny Smith’s Young Stars 41-32 with 14 points from Gilgeous Alexander and 11 from Jokic.
In six minutes on the pitch, Wembanyama added four units and placed a monumental stopper to Cade Cunningham in an attempt to dump.
Tyler Herro, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley scored six points each for the Young Stars, who had their figure Anthony Edwards’s last-minute drop due to groin problems.
In the second semifinal, the O.Neal OGs beat a combined rookie and second-year players who on Thursday prevailed at the Rising Stars (Emerging Stars) event.
Curry scored eight points but only hit two triples in eight attempts. The top scorers were Lillard and James Harden, with 10 so many.
Lillard, last year’s MVP (Most Valuable Player), was in charge of nailing the triple-winner after numerous failed attempts by his team, including a basket entry by Kevin Durant for which he claimed missing the referees.
Curry did lift his audience out of their seats at the start of the final with an acrobatic triple jumping to one leg and then another from the middle of the field.
Jayson Tatum seconded him with eight points in a row that gave O’Neal’s team an 11-0 lead.
The Global team reacted with two baskets in a row from Wembanyama, the top scorer of his squad with 11 cartons, but Curry had already taken off and settled the triumph with two more triples for a total of 12 so many.
His final exhibition earned the base the second MVP prize of his career after the one achieved in 2022.
“I’m very grateful to have played with these guys for as long as we have,” Curry said after hugging Kevin Durant.
“We had an obligation to give a good show and I thank you for helping me do it at Golden State, a lot of history has happened here,” added the owner, winner of four rings with the Warriors.
