Karalis: Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum had pretty good All-Star weekend ... plus ways to make the weekend better

The Boston Celtics checked off the most important boxes during NBA All-Star weekend: 

• Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum did some cool things and represented themselves well.
• Both walked out of Indy and onto their respective planes under their own power.

Anything beyond that was gravy. 

“All-Star Weekend is special, and it's always more special when you get to share it with a teammate or two,” Tatum said after the game. “I've been fortunate enough to share it with him three times now. It was great. … It's a special weekend for us, for our families, obviously for our team, the Celtics.”

Tatum didn’t do a whole lot this weekend. He casually dropped 20 during the game, which sounds good until you see that the East scored 211 points (we’ll get to that debacle later). He also made a cameo during Brown’s dunk contest while wearing a spectacular coat, which was maybe Tatum’s best highlight of the weekend. 

The weekend belonged more to Brown, who acquitted himself nicely in the dunk contest by making it to the Finals against Mac McClung. Yeah, there are some people who think the judging was tilted toward Brown, but that didn’t really matter much in the long run. 

“I had fun. I think that was what the ultimate thing was to go out and have fun. I accomplished that,” Brown said. “It was an honor. … I wanted to be creative and bring some more entertainment to show at the end of the day. I thought it was cool.”

It was. I know we have seen every dunk before, so it makes the contest setting a bit boring over the long haul. But if you just take the moment to appreciate how tough some of these dunks were, you’ll see that Brown did some cool things out there. 

He followed that up with 36 points for the East in what seemed like a push for the game’s MVP. That went to Damian Lillard, who was hitting half-court shots like they were mid-rangers, but Brown certainly did his fair share of cooking, and he did it in the same uniform as Tatum thanks to the return to the East/West format. 

“It was cool being on the same team as J.T. this time,” Brown said. “We got the win, and we had fun. I think it's just another platform to continue to raise for yourself but also raise for the city of Boston, just represent. I think that's what we kind of look at it as. That's what we've become.”

One of Boston’s biggest-ever stars was also a big part of the festivities. 

Indiana native Larry Bird was a very visible part of the weekend, and it led to the first-ever meeting between him and Tatum. 

It was a moment Tatum fully appreciated. 

“I got a chance to go meet him and tell him how much of an honor it was to meet him,” Tatum said. “He told me he was looking forward to meeting me. So that was crazy to hear him say that.

“He's a lot taller than I thought he was. But obviously what he means to the game, what he means to the city of Boston and the Celtics, he's the ultimate Celtic. It was an honor to meet him.”

I believe in All-Star weekend. I think the league putting on a show for the masses during a break in its hectic schedule is fun, it gives the players a chance to show off a little, and it gives fans a side of these guys they otherwise don’t get to see.

But the weekend is broken. 

We say the same thing every year. Dozens of people like me are putting out our solutions to the issue, so I figured why not join the herd? Except my ideas are going to be good. 

I think. 

Let’s take it from the top.

SKILLS CHALLENGE
Solution: Kill it. Replace it with a one-on-one tournament. 

The biggest issue with All-Star events is that guys don’t give it full effort. The skills challenge is already challenging from an entertainment perspective, but now the guys are all going half-speed. So I say it’s time to kill it and replace with something guys will absolutely try to win. 

The format will be a simple tournament style. Games are to 7 straight up (except the championship game will be to 11, win by two). Everything will be one point until the championship game, where beyond the arc counts as 2. One official is there to call the fouls, and fouls just result in possession. 

You’re telling me All-Stars wouldn’t want to be crowned a one-on-one champion? You don’t think Anthony Edwards would want to go against Jayson Tatum? Donovan Mitchell vs. Jaylen Brown? These guys would love the opportunity for bragging rights, and I think it’d be a lot of fun to watch. 

3-POINT CONTEST
Solution: (1) Passers (2) Real-game situations

The first round of the shootout should eliminate the racks for the shooters, move them inside the arc and have someone passing to the shooter for a catch-and-shoot shot. 

I don’t understand why a shooter is expected to perform in a way he doesn’t in games. There are no racks in games, there are teammates. So have someone out there to pass the shooter the ball so he can take a more natural shot. 

Then, in the second round, the shots should be more game-type shots. So instead of just a corner 3, the player has to run up to the break, touch a line, and then fade down into the corner to shoot on the move. With the new LED court, the above-the-break 3-pointers can be light-up spots where the player has to go to catch and shoot as well. Let’s work some real-life situations into this contest. A lot of people can shoot, now let’s see if they can shoot on the move. 

People want to see these guy show their skills, let’s see some in-game skills. 

DUNK CONTEST
Solution: Make it a game of H-O-R-S-E (or D-U-N-K)

No props, no jumping over people, just make a cool dunk and try to eliminate your opponent. Everyone gets one turn. No repeat dunks. If you repeat a dunk, you get a letter. 

This eliminates the judging and it eliminates multiple attempts by the dunkers. Put a clock on it, too. Once someone misses, you have :24 to get your dunk attempt up. It shouldn’t take you any longer than that. 

I think the anticipation of seeing players try to match dunks would be good for fans. There would be some level of investment, I think. 

ALL-STAR GAME
Solution: Four-team tournament (Rising Stars rules)

Expand the rosters to 14 so a couple more guys get in. Then the top two vote-getters in each conference are captains who pick four teams of seven. We can keep it East vs. West or go full league, it doesn’t matter to me. 

From there, there are two games using the Rising Stars format with a target score instead of time. The first two games can go to 40, then they take a break. Then the championship game goes to 60. 

The competitive nature will get guys to try when they're trying to hit a point total they’d normally get in a quarter or a half. Tie in a big charity incentive and maybe we’ll see some fun basketball. We won’t see it otherwise, as Brown admitted after the game when he was asked if guys had talked about playing harder this year. 

“Yeah, there were some discussions,” he said. “I'm not sure how successful that was, but there were definitely some discussions. I guess guys are trying to figure out how to do that at the same time as having fun, being safe, being injury-free. I guess more solutions need to be had to figure that out.”

Let’s give the tournament a shot. It’s obvious they need something to change, so let’s start seeing some meaningful changes sooner rather than later.