More all star game thoughts

I have a few more comments:

1. If you want people to play hard in the All Star games, then you have to make it worth their while. Play for money. a big pile of money, and make it winner takes all. A $10 Million purse for the all star game and $4 Million for the Rooks/Sophs game should do the trick. And Stern would have no problem in getting sponsors.
   
2. Get rid of East/West.. Just do Skins/Shirts, like Wilbon says. So instead of picking the starters for the East & West teams, the public should pick their top 8 favorite players, regardless of position or conference. The top two vote getters become the captains of their teams, and select the rest of their teams, just like a Skins/Shirts game. The other 16 players and say 4 alternates are selected by a combination of players, coaches & gms. The two coaches with the best winning percentages after 50 games coaches. abolish the consecutive year rule. coaches choose the starting lineup & get a cut of the purse if they win.
   
3. I've said this before, but it bears repeating: get rid of all the 3-pt, skills & dunk contests. These are just incredibly lame. Replace them with a $5 Million purse, winner takes all, 16 or 32 team, 2-on-2 mini tournament. Limit participation to bench type players. Play the final at the half time of the all star game.
4. The All Star weekend would look like this:
1. Friday would be the 1 st & 2nd round (if 32 teams) of the 2-on-2 contents. Make it 1st to 11, and each games lasts about 10 mins. If you have 32 teams, there are 24 games, so this would take about 4 hrs
   
2. Saturday would be the Rookie/Sophs game. Play the quarters of the 2-on-2 before the rookie game, and the semis at 1/2 time.
3. Skins/Shirts All star game. play the finals of the 2-on-2 at 1/2 time.
4. There would be a pre-game show, say 1 week before, where the pairings for the 2-on-2 and the lineups for the all star game are drawn.
   
5. I hate the fricking half time shows.. especially the *lame* choreography. Don't need dancers with paintbrushes, and for you to trot out the kids to pluck on our heartstrings. Dr John, Allan Toussaint, Harry Connick Jr. and two Neville Bros should be enough musical entertainment for anyone.
   
6. The oh-so-fake-sincere NBA cares PR bs... "Thank God the NBA's here.. it's gonna be all right." Spare me.. Appearing at some site in New Orleans to bang some nails in some wood for a few hours is not going to fix the problems caused by Katrina, regardless of how much like Superman you think you are. Either do something truly meaningful to help, or get out of the way and let people do their job. These people in New Orleans are busy.. they don't have time for inspiration.
   

The point of all of this, is that we would get rid of all the extraneous and non-sensical crap, and actually get some decent and competitive basketball. I know the all-star game is for the fans, but I for one do not need to be patronized by David Stern. Make the games interesting, show us something we wouldn't see during the regular season, and the rest will follow.