Anthony Edwards: “No shade towards Luka and Jokic but like they two of the best players in the league they not trynna play in the All Star game”
This is good. Now trying is cool and not trying will get you shaded. This is how the ASG culture can change
Wemby set the tone, Ant responded and is shouting it out
It takes more than one competitive star setting the tone to change the culture. You also need a few guys to back him up and magnify the tone, both through action and verbally. That’s what’s happening here :‘)
Edit: I watched the whole interview and this quote had a different motivation when you hear it in context. The interviewer said “everyone thought Team World would win”. Ant chimed in that “well SGA did injure his achilles…and no shade but Luka and Jokic are the two of the best players but they’re not here to play the all-star game”. Completely changes the motivation of this quote. Ant was essentially saying “to be fair, it wasn’t a real Team World vs USA game”
I recall Giannis being a couple years early on the trying thing and this whole sub clowned it
People were not happy with how he was trying on defense back in like 2019. Guy was just a little bit ahead of his time. Imagine if we got to watch a decade of prime Giannis and prime Wemby battling it out looking like goddamn Ghidora against Godzilla.
Imagine if Giannis could have played with Wemby today instead of Sengun smh
Why is Sengun even the replacement. Lauri/Franz/Joel/Brooks better.
How tf did sengun get in over Lauri anyway. Lauri is averaging almost 27 points a game
utah bribing voters to keep Lauri from hitting any major contract incentive kickers
Gotta get that soaking tithe
Don’t slanger sengun. He’s been very good.
It’s the ref incident lol. That pissed off Redditors so now they will rewrite his entire season performance lmao.
I do think Lauri should have made it over him though.
Very good is a stretch. He has been solid, but is shockingly inefficient for his position/role. He needs to be 60%+ to be very good, imo. He is below league average efficiency as a center, which isn’t great. But Lauri is pretty similar on a tanking team, so I am taking Sengun over him as an all-star every time.
If one stood the other’s shoulders, they could rebound the Moon.
Giannis’ legacy got super hurt by the pandemic. He was on pace to get a unanimous MVP the year he got MVP + DPOY and then the lockdown happened and people were considering giving MVP to Bron because he played his ass off for a week. Still the wildest reactionary switch up in the narrative ive seen. Mightve even been a weekend not even a week of insane hoops, but quarantine destroyed my sense of time.
Eh, far be it from me to downplay Giannis’s greatness, but the shutdown may have actually helped Giannis’s MVP case there. I agree that most of LeBron exploding as a contender was off of a brief period of play, but right before the shutdown, the Bucks had started to struggle a bit and Giannis himself was expected to miss several weeks. Other contenders, in addition to LeBron, could’ve potentially pulled up next to him during that stretch.
Yeah the shutdown helped Giannis for MVP. Killed the team though, that was pretty comfortably the best iteration of the Giannis Bucks IMO but they looked more like the current team the whole bubble.
It still makes me sad. That 2019-2020 was borderline historically good. They were blowing out legitimately good teams by 40.
I was at Lakers Bucks right before the shutdown. LeBron was playing out of his damn mind and Giannis was keeping up until he pulled up lame on a play he was fouled on. I might be biased but the way LeBron was playing was more in the realm for heating up and he may have ran away with the MVP race if not for the shutdown since to your point Giannis was expected to miss multiple weeks. LeBron took down that Bucks team and a hot Kawhi led Clippers back to back though and eventually led the Lakers to a championship so no I don’t think his hot week was blown out of proportion.
This is revisionist. At the time, people were talking frequently about LeBron getting better as the season went on (and he had already started off great) and the games just prior to the shutdown magnified that. Giannis got hurt against the Lakers and was expected to miss multiple weeks (which didn’t happen because of the shutdown) while LeBron and the Lakers had just put up double digit (but hard fought) wins against the Sixers, Bucks, and Clippers all in a row before dropping a nail biter to the Nets.
If the shutdown doesn’t occur and LeBron stays healthy, he probably wins MVP but who knows if they win the title (I think they were the clear best team in the league regardless, but others may disagree). Conversely, maybe the Bucks would have never lost their momentum and would have made it to the Finals (if Giannis returned without further injury).
Giannis needed an Ant. A guy to back him up and shout him out
It takes a competitive star setting the tone + 1-2 other guys backing him up and being willing to join in to change things
Someone below said it best: the brave person who dances alone won’t get a dance party going. It also takes the guys willing to join in to get things moving
Same sub complains about the slam dunk contest lacking any stars or even starters but clowned Jaylen Brown for attempting it a couple of years ago
great point. sad truth of internet and social media, you’ll get clowned for something either way
Eh, 7 years of people increasingly phoning it in can shift public opinion.
You guys are late. It was really Westbrook, and before that Kobe.
Kobe played with the legends who always tried. Kobe locked up lebron and bron didn’t go back at him. That’s where it was lost
eh, you’re being disingenuously selective here - that was one or two plays where Bron was passive against Kob. There were plenty of times where Kobe and Lebron went at it, I think it was 08 or 09 where they went back and forth for like half a quarter. Bron’s goofy but he always tried during All Star games, unfair to pin that competive shift on him
Nah it was lost when everyone got shook by Paul George breaking his leg in an exhibition game happening at the same time as the 3pt era boom
This sub (Reddit) can’t think for themselves. Go against the crowd you’re downvoted to hell
Spurs fan here and I love wemby to death. But it’s time for Ant to put his foot forward and embrace the “face of the NBA” talks. He always defer to Wemby as the face, but man, knock it off you are too talented and likeable to not be in the mix. Your competitiveness, humility, and humor are too much to ignore. You are THAT guy ant.
Ant and Wemby gonna make this league fun for the next 5-10 years.
He doesn’t want the scrutiny that comes with it. He sees what Lebron had to deal with. The giant microscope on your life. But if he starts winning titles and MVP’s he’ll have to deal with it.
From your lips to God’s ears
I genuinely think Ant has so much potential to be the face of the NBA, but I think what’s stopping him is his degeneracy off the court.
Which is why he keeps deferring to Wemby. Dude goes to China to be a Shaolin monk and shit.
I mean, Jordan was a pretty big degenerate with the gambling, as well as very publicly cheating on his wife. It’s not unheard of.
In the age of social media, I think MJ would have had … a rough go as a player
MJ agrees with you, he’s said multiple times that he’s glad he doesn’t have to play in the social media era and that he would not have been Michael Jordan if he had to play under the same scrutiny.
The NBA actively hid it though. 2026? Everything is out in the open.
Yeah, look at LeBron’s life. Squeaky clean- married his high school sweetheart and never stepped out on her. No shady tree company sponsorships. For 2 decades.
Ant is not gonna do that. Hell, I doubt he can get past no nut November.
She me da video
Spurs hater here. I now have wayyy more respect for Wemby
There is no way to not love Wemby. Everything about him is awesome.
wait….why? you of all people should know wemby is a competitive nutcase. the dude rage plays against chet for a loss 7 years ago.
This will change the attitude over time. Until people start trying and someone gets hurt. Then the pendulum will swing back again.
When did a player get hurt when the ASG was competitive? It never happened. Players in the last 10 years were just being lame.
I remember Wade hard fouling Kobe and breaking his nose, but has there ever been a severe injury in the all star game since its inception in 1951?
Glad to see a change of attitude form Ant compared to previous All-Star Games in which he was one of those who didn’t care. It’s not too late for the others to change too.
Ant always seemed like a socially oriented guy who responds to energy. Energy of the crowd, energy of a teammate, energy of an opponent, energy of a heckler. All that is very effective to get him going. He can both set the energy of a team and quickly respond to it
In previous ASGs, he wasn’t a starter. When the oldheads came out lackadaisical, he responded with similar energy. This time he started and when Wemby came out guns blazing, that woke him up and he further spread that energy
I hope regardless of the future format, both Wemby and Ant start the games
I totally agree but it does feel a bit unfair for Luka and Jokic since they’ve been out injured. As a Lakers fan I didn’t even want Luka to play.
I love Jok and Luka. But you and Ant can call them out as much as possible but neither of them would deny it and if you told them the consequence was they’d get zero all star appearances going forward, they’d agree to that as well.
They might get their jab back at Ant in a regular season game if he shades them but if you confronted or shaded them to get them to try harder in the ASG, it just won’t happen.
Jokic literally told the Nuggets fans in a post game interview to not vote him into the ASG 😂 he cares so little about that shit.
Disagree on Luka. Getting most fan votes meant alot to him. He shouldnt have played today because of his injury, but spoke publicly up front that he was going to play a couple min because it was important.
I was super confused about the format (multiple US and multiple World teams playing single quarter games…or something?) but I did watch the final “game” between the young guys and the old timers and the young guys definitely wanted to put the old guard in their place. Really put a beat down on the guys they likely grew up idolizing.
I enjoyed that.
Oh damn you missed the first 3 super epic games! It’s worth a rewatch
I was on the edge of my seat.
Yeah it was a mini tournament. Each “game” was 12 min so basically like a quarter. Easier to go hard for 12 min than 48 min
The switch up from “it is what it is” to this is crazy.
I think the players were just sick of that tired question
Yeah the format still seems goofy but even last year it seemed like it had a good shot of working. It was just all the extra tnt stuff that messed up the all star game last year
Dudes seemed like they were into it last year but there were so many stoppages it just killed everything
Right. People forget about how last year really went. The TNT stop took the players out of the game.
Genuinely the worst shit I’ve ever seen. Silver is laughably out of touch most of the time it seems.
Like a 3 hour event for 30 min of hoops lmao
Silver really mismanaged a perfect situation. The NBA eclipsed the NFL in popularity among young demographics back in the late 2010s and they guy just killed the momentum.
They are now behind the MLB. A bunch of Nepo babies in the league who can’t be arsed to show some enthusiasm from time to time the others load manage to elongate their careers. People lose interest if they see that even the players aren’t interested.
He is honestly a bad commissioner and I’m tired of pretending he isn’t. He is just there because of his connections.
They’re not really “behind” the MLB. It just so happens that the Dodgers have been in the playoffs the last couple of years so the entirety of the LA metro region is watching the playoffs which is of course going to be a boon to viewership. But in terms of popular culture, it’s kind of crazy how so few people can name star players. It’s kind of like that in the NBA as well, but at least Jamal Murray and Tyrese have New Balance ads and Ant was Sprite Santa. So many people legit don’t know who Mookie Betts or Bryce Harper is which is kind of shameful tbh.
Well there’s the Japanese guy, and then…the other Japanese guy? And…Mike Trout? Is he still a thing?
The MLB thing is funny because I was the biggest NBA fan during the 2010s but now I prefer the MLB. No cap but even with that teams have more of a shot than the NBA and they’ve made amazing changes with things like the pitch clock.
Silver just gives me corporate overlord vibes. Out of touch. Not to mention zero backbone. Tanking for example is a joke Stern would have this shit sorted out by now.
7 different franchises have won the last 7 Finals I think. And you think MLB has more parity with the Dodgers running things? Not sure if you are out of touch or just delusional.
We watching the same sports? The Dodgers doing what they’re doing, and MLB teams have better chances than NBA teams? Agree to disagree I guess.
The craziest thing about spending 30 fucking minutes sucking TNT’s dick is that Inside ended up being the exact same show, made in the same studio, by the same people, just on a different TV channel lmao. They literally ruined a promising all-star game for nothing…
Mr Beast segment was crazy that he is an awful commentator/host, dudes had years to perfect it, just a robot going through the motions with no emotion.
Oh man, I forgot about that. That dude is awful.
It was the first and last time I actually saw him live. Before that I’ve heard of him. I remember thinking who the f*** is this awkward guy ?
Wasn’t it Dame or someone who had to bail him out and salvage that whole segment too?
They’d score like 10 buckets then Kevin Hart comes out to clown them
I hated last year because they added the rising stars to the game and a lot of first time all stars got like 4 minutes for their accomplishment.
I don’t know, it made it entertaining to see the rising stars play the all stars to me. If the all stars wanted to get more playing time, they need to play harder to advance in the tourney.
It was nice not having Kevin Hart inserted into the games today
I actually thought last year’s format was genius. Have the winning team of the rising stars tournament play the all stars. You get to see the best of the youth play against the all stars and try to underdog their way to the top. If all stars don’t play hard, they’ll look like fools. And if they kept doing it, one day the rising stars would win.
I think it’s a shame TNT ruined it with their ads.
He said that Wemby woke him up
Shout out to Wemby.
Wemby changed this man
I guess he had a “Road to Damascus” moment today
He responded to the energy
When the giraffe starts hoopin on you, you gotta do something damn 🤷🏾
The switch up in this sub to people caring about the all star game is the same 180 he did.
people have been complaining about the ASG on this sub for YEARS. there wasn’t any switch up smh
Luka and Jokic don’t care about the all star game nor do they care about allegations that they don’t care about the all star game.
But do they care about Redditors who say they don’t care about the all star game
Luka is driving the oceanside in a million dollar convertible. Jokic is touching himself thinking about his horses. No, they don’t care about the all star game or what anyone says.
Luka asking haters what color their Bugatti is
Nah touching himself while thinking about horses is crazy
I would bet they don’t know what Reddit is.
“When is parade? What is a Reddit?”
Where is alien? I want alien
I’ve seen these two sleepwalk into 40 points in a regular NBA game, and you expect me to believe they’d put effort into an all star game?
Lmao
I’m still not fully convinced that Jokic is sentient most of the time he is on a basketball court cause sometimes he is just out there doing shit that makes no fucking sense but it totally works for him.
I love Ant and Wemby for bringing some competitive spirit back to the ASG, but it’s pretty convenient that the one time Ant finally tries in the game he’s now calling out Luka for not trying when he’s literally coming back from injury.
And I don’t think they’ll ever care about it. And they’ll keep being selected because their 2 of the best players in the league
That’s the problem, Sherlock
DID HE SAY ANYTHING BUT THE TRUTH?!
HE IS THE TRUTH, JUST ASK OBAMA
BARACK OBAMA IS SCAAARED OF ME
CAUSE I DONT SWALLOW KNOWLEDGE I SPIT IT FOR FREE
unexpected Community
Guerilla Payday marketing
UHHH LET ME CLEAR MY THROAT
Kawhi: AHEUNGH-AU-HA-HAUAA
I don’t know what that was..
I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT WAS
AND JESUS WEPT
I actually love that he called them out by name. Luka and Joker have been top 3 players in the league for years now. At the end of the day all star game effort starts with them setting the tone and they’ve never done it. it’s was nice seeing other young guys who are the future of this league set that tone instead today.
Anthony Edwards literally only shot with his left hand like 2 years ago so he has ALSO never taken it seriously until today…
Yeah and he fully admitted to Wemby waking him up. Now he’s backing Wemby up and magnifying the competitiveness
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
This reference sent me 20 years back in time
Luka literally missed the last few regular season games before the break with a hammy injury. Would be stupid for him to play heavy minutes
Joker has much less of a good reason
The problem is neither of them have ever tried in the ASG.
Neither had any of the players in this game prior to today lmao. The last 10 years plus has been a joke outside of a couple plays at the end of one of the games
Did none of y’all see the wrist brace he had on all weekend?
Jokic and Luka obviously do not give a fuck every year, but if luka is getting the benefit of coming back from an injury, shouldnt jokic get one too considering he also came back from an injury, and didn’t look good in the games after he came back?
Huh? Jokic had played like the last 7 games coming into the break. Just bc his shot was off in the knicks game doesn’t mean he was still injured. He has 4 straight triple doubles and played 45 min in a back to back so clearly he’s not injured
Using his platform for good
Ant is pure chaotic good in the best way possible lmao
Send da video
Hell nawl
Nawl makes me laugh every time
can’t do dis
Idk about that one chief lmao
Drop the good. He is chaos incarnate. Don’t matter if it’s good or bad.
Chaotic neutral, the hardest alignment to be.
Nah this dude is chaotic neutral
Good. Ant. No no no. That guys a fucking whirlwind. Causing chaos everywhere.
No he is fucking not lmao
Yeah just ask his kids
he’s definitely Chaotic Neutral, the hallmark of everyone’s first D&D character alignment
I love Jok and Luka. You can call them out as much as possible but neither of them would deny it and if you told them the consequence was they’d get zero all star appearances going forward, they’d agree to that as well.
Yea, it’s pretty much a work “mandatory fun” event for them and they act like it lol.
Yeah exactly. People screeching at the void whereas the dudes being called out would wholeheartedly agree. It’s a meaningless game in its current form that gets the respect it deserves.
Fuck playing a game, let’s have more contests and shit like that. Let’s see a dope ass horse tournament
It seemed to me that Luka sat out the last 4 Laker games, including the most recent one against the Mavericks specifically so that he could still safely fulfill some of his All Star obligations. That’s the reverse of how it usually goes so I’m not sure he and Jokic are the in the same bucket here.
In general I think Luka and his camp have shown to be a little more like a traditional superstar in that they care about selling jerseys, shoes, being popular, that sort of thing. You compare his shoe commercials with Jokic’ shoe commercials and there’s a stark difference. Luka’s has paid actors, high production value, carefully timed and orchestrated social media campaigns, all the bells and whistles.
Obviously that hasn’t translated to effort in the All Star game, but I don’t get the sense that he would actually want to be excluded from All Star weekend.
Damn, by name
Wemby gave a shit and put his pride on the line and took the loss like a fucking man.
Those two don’t deserve to share the court with him.
He dealt with a hard-fought loss in the best way you can: by chewing out KAT for a flubbed defensive assignment.
Well to be fair that is one of the most common traditional ways.
luka is injured
Luka literally has missed the last 4 games with a hamstring injury but still played because he felt he owed it to fans who voted for him.
I actually cannot believe people take an all star game this seriously
The comment you replied to is one of the dorkiest comments I’ve ever read on Reddit
holy hell this sub is so fucking corny
[removed]
Don’t know exactly why you’re calling them out but the hater in me appreciates the pettiness
They were spamming me with messages telling me that I was rage baiting and saying lies for saying the exact same thing Ant said.
Wow not by name…omg, how will jokic and doncic deal with this going forward?!? 😓😰😰😂😂😂😂😂
I loved that it looked like Wemby was trying to use tonight as a way to really put himself near the top of the totem pole. It didn’t quite work out, but if they somehow weren’t already, I think the league is on notice.
I’d say that it did exactly what it needed to. Even though his team lost, he put up an insanely impressive performance. He was far and away the best player on the World team and if this was the first time somebody was watching him play, they’d walk away talking about him, Kawhi, and Ant tonight.
I mean he was fucking awesome and everyone is saying he set the tone. It definitely worked out imo.
For sure, just meant that he didn’t end up actually winning, which is what I’d imagine his #1 goal was.
The funny thing is Luka nor Jokic care about being called out like this either
They really would rather like not playing at all but are forced to participate.
Adults are really just screeching into the void mad that players don’t care about a meaningless game for children.
“Shocking development: Man who makes $45 million per year and can’t get fired doesn’t give his all at a mandatory work event when he would clearly rather be on vacation!! More at 11:00”
Can we get a more cynical take than this? You win the thread sir. Shut all star weekend down forever it’s a pointless mandatory work event.
They hated him because he spoke the truth
“No shade” but proceeds to being very shady ahhahahah
shade would be him passing judgement on them, here it just seems like he’s pointing out a fact to answer a question
This might work on Luka, maybe. This will not work Jokic, I promise he will never care about the all-star game.
He should just do what everyone does and only shoot 3’s truly competitive.
isn’t jokic recovering from injury?
Luka has missed the last 4 games with a hammy injury, too.
Yup, was questionable for a game on Wednesday lmfao.
Luka and Joker are incredible players but they clearly don’t care about the All-Star game.
Just restating what Ant said
I’ll be the first to say that Luka and Jok don’t really care about the ASG even though they’re some of the best in the league.
To piggy back on this, no shade intended but the Nuggets center and the Lakers point guard are just seemingly not interested in the all star game despite being players at the top of the league
Just remember Ant was the player shooting threes left handed in the skills challenge.
And then last year didn’t play. Now he tries for the first time after never caring his entire career and starts calling everyone else out, pretty wack
Trying to find that onion article that was like “man who learned something 15 minutes ago can’t wait to be smug towards people that don’t know it”
They deserve all the shade.
Luka has missed several actual games and we knew going into to this he wasn’t going to play much
So has jokic, but come on they should have replaced them
Did you not see the wrist brace on Jokic all weekend? Lmao
Nah dont u see Joker’s supposed to risk another injury while trying to stay healthy for the playoffs
good to call them out, big nuggets and jokic fan but wemby deserved better, he actually saved the allstar game with his effort and he got fuckall from his bench
He made a fan of me.
A fan of Wemby is a fan of what the NBA could be.
why are people in here acting like this isnt the general consensus on the subreddit already
“they hated him because he spoke the truth” rofl
Bruh this comment section is fucking hilarious with all the neckbeard comments
exactly, type of people to say “i know this is controversial but..” and it’s the most obvious shit ever, yet triggers something in people’s brain like “oh i don’t wanna be a sheep lemme follow you on that wild take (Ialready agree with because it’s so basic)”
Jokic just played 34 min the other day. He definitely could’ve played more than he did today.
He’s not supposed to be playing all those minutes though
To be fair he’s looked like Jahlil Okafor with passing chops since he came back I don’t think he’s necessarily to the point where expending serious energy in a game like this was on the table
(It does not change the fact that he has a sustained history of not giving a damn in All-Star games though)
TELL HIM WHEN HES TELLING LIES
Just give the guys that don’t want to play an out.
They should just do jokic vs luka as the coaches next year, have a draft and have them do some silly competitions against each other. Would be great
I thought most ppl here who are part of any workforce are supposed to relate with attending mandatory company events they don’t give af about
They need to bring in those Balkan coaches for the all-star teams, and have them yell at the players for giving shitty effort.
Lol Ant tried for the first time in his career and immediately started talking shit. He didn’t play at all either last year and the year before that was when he was very public about only shooting left handed
Both guys have had injuries recently
Why would they care?
why would players risk injury in an ASG?
Luka has literally been out the past 4 Lakers games with a hamstring injury.
Should’ve called out Jaylen Brown for playing in that last one too
Funny how he only called out the two Euro players when for the past 10 years all the American players have been playing buddy during the entire season.
Who cares. People don’t even show up at the stadium to watch some boring all star game.
KD called out both Jokic and Luka by name before the game in the interviews so if the two of them wanted to beat the allegations they could’ve proved it during the game by playing ‘harder’ than they usually do at All Star weekend and they didn’t lol. So as far as I’m concerned this criticism is very valid and they should take it on the chin.
Luka is injured… he only played a little today specifically because he didn’t want to not play at all being the leading vote getter…
i mean they both had injuries so it’s the best decision, but i love this since this all star was amazing
this is not a controvesial take, idk why everyone literally agrees in the comments yet claim this is some wild but true statement… they wanna feel like they on some exclusive opinion group thing.. it’s not, they don’t care everyone knows this
Can only speak for Jokic, but after his first or second all-star game he had a quote about how his game doesn’t fit the All-Star game (mostly dunks and deep 3s), so he doesn’t really know what to do out there. He’s basically been goofy about it since. I find any insinuation that Jokic and Luka are the ones who did this to the game pretty funny, as they clearly arrived to a game that was played a certain way, and acted accordingly, but I have zero problem if guys want to call other guys out.
It would be great if the game became more serious, and that will die literally a year or so later when somebody has any type of minor injury. The ASG in any of these major sports is an event for a time that hasn’t existed in a long time, and people want to hang on, but facts are the game is more physically demanding than ever (injuries through the roof this year), and you can watch anybody you want basically any night. Back in the day, this may have been your chance to see certain guys.
ASGs are made for the athletic wing who can shoot or fly. Good for Edwards for going for it.
All that said, glad to see people enjoyed it this year. Cheers.
Facts, so much lazy commentary this entire weekend when two of the biggest stars in the game could give two fucks.
Only a problem when it’s the white guys I guess lmao
I don’t care about the game either.
It’s a friendly match, of course they’re not trying. Trying or playing against someone who is trying gets you injured.