The agreement to which the NBA has arrived with the NBPA, the players’ union, to host an All-Star of Circumstances, a one-day event at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta on March 7, the main protagonists have not liked. There are still details to close and that is why it is not official, but as it is already public knowledge the players themselves have been asked their opinion about celebrating something with such a festive and uncompetitive component in a year in which the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hit the world hard without the United States being an exception.
In the last hours, after knowing the news, there are three fairly clear testimonies that are positioned frontally in relation to the All-Star NBA. They are as follows.
LeBron James: “I have zero energy and zero desire for an All-Star this year. My teammates and I have had little rest, 71 days, between season and season, and at the beginning they told us that there would be no All-Star and at least we were going to have a little relaxation. For me it was an opportunity to calibrate the second part of the campaign. And now we are thrown into an All-Star who breaks all those plans. Well, I take it as a slap in the face. We continue to deal with a pandemic. Are we going to bring the whole NBA to a city that is open? Obviously I’m not happy about it. I will go if I am elected, but I will be physically and not mentally. “.
Joel Embiid: “It depends on health. I am not sure that I will go”.
De’Aaron Fox: “If I’m brutally honest, I think it’s stupid. If we have to wear masks for a regular phase match, what’s the point of doing this match? Obviously money is what makes the world move and this is what it is. Yes. They vote for me, fine; if not, then, too. And I would have to play because you get a fine if you decide not to and it is not because you are injured “.
The conditions will be revealed soon. The idea is to add the contests to the game that same March 7 in Atlanta, which is welcoming fans to the pavilion despite the sanitary conditions.
What had come to the players is that the starters and substitutes would be chosen for contractual reasons but without the event being held, something that has changed over the weeks.