If you saw the celebrity game, which kicks off All-Star weekend, and expected to see stars, you feel cheated (ironically, Common is one of the more famous folks). If you took in the Rising Stars game that followed on Friday night, you feel similarly swindled. Jeremy Lin played under 9 minutes, which was less than any of the other 18 rookies and sophomores who participated. Blake Griffin played a tick over 10.5, meaning the two most popular players people were tuning in to watch spent the least amount of time on the floor, which floored us. At least Griffin gets to showcase his skills in the All-Star game as well, so resting him was somewhat reasonable - although it's not as if there's any expectations on defense during these exhibitions - but there is no acceptable explanation for making an exception by including Lin late and then burying him on the bench. He did hoist a lovely lob to Griffin early on; who knew that would be his only highlight of the night? If this is Lin's 15 minutes of fame, we want him to at least be granted 15 minutes of playing time.
The All-Star game will be on at the same time as the 84th Academy Awards. We know those audiences likely don't have much overlap, but moving the game back to the late afternoon when it used to be broadcast (and on a national network, instead of cable where far fewer eyeballs will gaze at it) would've eliminated the conflict, thus not forcing viewers to choose between Moneyball and basketball. For us, it's no contest; the only Oscar we're familiar with is Robertson (well, and the Grouch).
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