When John Stockton and Karl Malone hit home runs during the 1993 All-Star Game

This all-star game, played on February 21, 1993, although not the most famous of the 1990s, unlike 1992 with Magic Johnson or editing 1998 with the duel between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryantremains a very good vintage. Historically even at certain points.

Because for the first time since the beginning of the All-Star Game in 1951, there are no Celtics or Lakers players! Next, Isiah Thomas finally makes an appearance among the All-Stars, while Shaquille O’Neal arrives for the first time. In the middle, Michael Jordan plays his final All-Star game before his first retirement.

“It was a good experience and I think I did things well,” declares Orlando’s rookie pivotthe author of 14 points and who played little in the second half. “I think Pat Riley wanted more experience to finish the game. It was very enjoyable and Shaq will be back, don’t worry. Next season, I’ll still be here.”

Serious and close game

If, like every All-Star Game, the defenses were logically less involved, like every All-Star Game this decade in the 1990s, the meeting was serious and interesting to watch, a far cry from the basketball parodies of the 2010s and 2020s. Despite the criticism of Bill Walton, who commented for NBC, or the comments of Charles Barkley after the meeting.

“I heard Walton say at halftime that nobody’s going back on defense. I don’t know what game he was watching, but I think both teams were in it.”replied Paul Westfall, coach of the West, at Los Angeles Times. “I never defend in these games” assures Charles Barkley, now in Phoenix and who played in the West for the first time. “I’m here to have fun, I’m on vacation and I never take this meeting seriously unless it’s close at the last minute.”

And it was. In the last minute of the game, Michael Jordan (the game’s top scorer with 30 points), Mark Price and Patrick Ewing allowed the Eastern Conference to come back from a five-point deficit. After a pass from Jordan, the Knicks center is left alone at mid-range, scores and sends two teams into overtime (119 all) as Tim Hardaway misses the match point.

The New York star would be his team’s main threat in the extra five minutes, but Dan Mayerle and Barkley’s game-winning baskets, plus John Stockton’s points, would give the Western Conference a 135-132 win.

John Stockton and Karl Malone, the second award-winning duo in history

Who should have been elected MVP and thus succeed Magic Johnson on the list? Karl Malone with 28 points and 10 rebounds has the right profile, especially since he is a local star. And finally, the Jazz interior will share this trophy with his lifelong teammate, John Stockton, the author of the game with 9 points, 15 assists and 6 rebounds.

“I have to give credit to Jerry Sloan, I just had to steal his systems. have fun Paul Westphal. “They had the support of the people of Utah and maybe that helped them do their best. But no matter where the game was played, they would have been voted MVP.”

The two were not far from this feat in 1989, in Houston, when the “postman” was crowned with 28 points and 9 rebounds ahead of Stockton’s 11 points, 17 assists and 5 steals. But doing it at home, in Utah, is much more symbolic and powerful. The story is beautiful. “If we wrote a movie about it, that’s how it would end.” Karl Malone will explain. “We always want to be good for the All-Star game at home.”

The two Olympic champions from Barcelona in 1992 also join, in recent history, Tom Chambers and Jordan, also crowned in front of their home crowd in 1987 in Seattle, then in 1988 in Chicago. But above all, they became the second duo to share the All-Star Game MVP trophy after Elgin Baylor and Bob Pettit in 1959. They have since been imitated by Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan in 2000, then again by O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in 2009.

https://vvv.youtube.com/vatch?v=VAEuIJIv6v4

Photo: USA Today