The All-Star Game and the NBA can thank Victor Vembanyama!

Anthony Edwards, MVP of the 75th All-Star Gamehad only one word to sum up the return of intensity to the floor of the great NBA basketball celebration. “Wemby!” He set the tone and that immediately got me into the game.”he said after the competition, without any hesitation. “ All three teams played hard, even the old guys! They really defended themselves. »

The Stripes team, who watched the first match from the locker room, quickly realized that this edition would be different. “There was intensity to start this match. Both teams played hard, they defended. Wemby blocked everything, Cade (Cunningham) too.”Kevin Durant confirmed.

For several weeks, Victor Vembanyama has been loudly proclaiming his own the desire to play this All-Star game the same way as the regular season game. “If I go to the floor, it means I’m 100%”he said Sunday night. By repeating this wish, the other All-Stars had to take it seriously or risk being humiliated in front of the whole world.

“We immediately understood that Victor did not come to joke”

“Obviously, that contributed to it”confirmed the Frenchman about the renewed intensity of this edition. “It makes the experience a lot nicer. I think we can be happy with the results. We had a guy like Kawhi score 30 points in one quarter, make all his shots. We offered good basketball to the fans. I think it was better than last year.”

Wemby therefore, he knocked down the first domino, scoring 7 points in the first two minutes of the first game.

“We immediately understood that Victor did not come to joke”exclaimed Danny Avdia, an All-Star for the first time in his career. “We gave him the ball and got out of the way.”

For the Zvezda team, Anthony Edwards, as he said, followed their example. He tied 8 points in a row to set the tone. The whole match turned into a clash of two stars until extra time. In the next game, LeBron James and Jaylen Brown tied. And in Game 3, Kawhi Leonard caught fire, scoring 31 points on 11/13 shooting to answer Wemby’s 19.

During each match, we were treated to duels between the stars: Wemby and Edwards, Edwards and KD, Kawhi and Wemby, Wemby and KD. It’s all the fans, media and some players have been asking for. Adam Silver and NBA executives can rub hands with him.

“After what happened today, I think everyone can see that we can make the All-Star Game competitive. We did the work, there was effort, intensity. I hope everyone enjoys it.”said Karl-Anthony Towns after his team’s elimination.

The New York native also suffered Wembey lightning after his defensive lapses against Anthony Edwards and Scotty Barnes led to two 3-pointers: one sent the first game into overtime and the other won the game.

“I expected us to be smarter on these two drives. We knew they needed the 3-point shot, we told ourselves we weren’t going to let them shoot 3s, so that was disappointing.”

A new popular format

“It was a great honor for me to play with the flag of the Dominican Republic on my jersey”shared the KAT in the mixed zone. “That’s probably the best All-Star game I’ve ever been to.”

While last year’s edition in San Francisco featured teams with identical themes, this year’s All-Star Game marked the formalization of the USA vs. World format. If old-timers like LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard were nostalgic for the classic East-West format, initial feedback on the new format was positive.

Webb’s warnings, national pride, but also generational pride, encouraged the players to be more serious. “In our locker room, everyone agreed. We wanted to play hard, we wanted to win, KD first,” De’Aaron Fox confirmed.

All smiles with his MVP trophy at his side, Anthony Edwards, and his big mouth, quickly added fuel to the fire of the rivalry between the United States and the rest of the world.

“Beating the world team is more satisfying”he says with a big smile. “They keep saying they are the best players in the world… Beating them was the best feeling in the world!”

Edwards also appreciated playing only twelve minutes to help the intensity. The only drawback: not all players were aware of the rules.

“We didn’t know we had to play the whole 12 minutes. We thought he was the first to score 40 points.”laughs the Wolves star. “When I hit a 3-pointer against the Stripes, we got to the 40 and we thought the game was over. They kept playing, Fox made a 3-pointer at the buzzer and they won the game. We felt like we got robbed!”

“I hope we can continue this momentum next year to make the event even more competitive and help fans enjoy it even more.” finished Danny Avdija.

The NBA can thank Wemby.

Comments collected in Inglewood.