NBA fans loved All-Star weekend; consensus building around top 2020 awards

The NBA is a very fun league to watch. Set aside the discussion of TV ratings, player empowerment, China, and all of the other nonsense that has distracted from the most wide-open season this league has experience in years and embrace this: The NBA rules.

All-Star weekend solidified nothing if not that simple fact. Kurtis Blow was right. And most of you agree with him, according to this week’s NBA FanPulse results.

The vast majority of respondents to this week’s national FanPulse polls believe the NBA fixed the All-Star game with the Elam Ending and you guys had some TAKES on the Dunk Contest.

My vote would have been yes, for what it’s worth. I don’t think the ending should be used in regular-season or playoff games, but in exhibition games and things like that, go for it. Use the Elam Ending when NBA teams travel overseas during the preseason, use it in Summer League — heck, try it in more G League games. It’s fun!

As for the Dunk Contest, I can’t muster up the same conspiratorial sentiment that reverberated across NBA Twitter on Saturday night when Dwyane Wade seemed to rig the scoring for Derrick Jones Jr. (and I’m as big a DJJ fan as anyone).

But you guys were not very kind to the former Sun.

As for the awards stuff (it’s time to start paying attention to that, too) I’ll just leave my votes here and then unveil yours.

MVP: Giannis Antetokounmpo (and it IS NOT close)

ROY: Ja Morant (and it could get close)

That’s all for this week, but let me just say now that All-NBA is going to be an awesome battle. Start doing your homework for these polls, guys. Don’t embarrass Bright Side by tweaking these results in a dumb direction.

Enjoy the week.