{"id":604076,"date":"2026-02-15T06:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604076\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T06:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:04:13","slug":"southwest-notes-durant-irving-all-star-weekend-nbpa-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604076\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Notes: Durant, Irving, All-Star Weekend, NBPA Officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rockets star Kevin Durant<\/a> doesn\u2019t buy the argument that players used to compete much harder in the All-Star Game, according to Devon Henderson and Eric Nehm of The Athletic<\/a>. Sunday will mark Durant\u2019s 16th appearance in the contest, so he has a lot of personal experience to offer a comparison. In addition, he told reporters on Saturday that he watched \u201cat least the first quarter of every All-Star Game from like the \u201970s up until the late \u201990s\u201d to see if there was a noticeable difference in the level of play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been watching All-Star Games and the intensity the older generation been talking about,\u201d Durant said before trailing off and shaking his head disapprovingly. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henderson and Nehm note that ratings for the game have been falling dramatically amid the perception that the players don\u2019t really care, with last year\u2019s contest marking a 13% decline from 2024. However, Durant believes the players are easy scapegoats for the public\u2019s waning interest in the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel like fans and media need something to complain about, and the All-Star Game don\u2019t make them feel like it made them feel back when they were kids, so they need something to complain about,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s that big of a deal, to be honest. The All-Star Game, the All-Star Weekend, it\u2019s here to celebrate the game of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from the Southwest Division:<\/p>\n

Posting on Twitch, Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving<\/a> said he\u2019s planning to provide an update after the All-Star break on his recovery from ACL surgery and the possibility of a return this season, relays Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link<\/a>). There has been speculation for months that Irving may be able to return around this point of the season, but the team hasn\u2019t announced any sort of timetable. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to come back from any injury,\u201d Irving said (Twitter video link)<\/a>, \u201cbut you gotta be mentally, spiritually, physically ready and the frustrating portion has been not being able to push myself to that brink, where you\u2019re just dog tired.\u201d
\nDamichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/a> (subscription required) asked Grizzlies players for their suggestions to improve All-Star Weekend, which include convincing star players to compete in the Slam Dunk Contest and adding a one-on-one tournament to Saturday\u2019s schedule. Rookie guard Jahmai Mashack<\/a> believes the addition of an international team this year will help to boost interest. \u201cI like the idea of USA versus World,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s really cool. I just think players got to be more competitive. Once you go out there, you got to treat it like a real game. Maybe have the stakes be a little bit higher and give them something to compete for.\u201d
\nThe Grizzlies\u2018 Santi Aldama<\/a> and the Pelicans\u2018 Trey Murphy III<\/a> have been selected as vice presidents for the NBPA executive committee, Cole tweets<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rockets star Kevin Durant doesn\u2019t buy the argument that players used to compete much harder in the All-Star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,294,15744,938,967,293,177,4070,6,1185,4203],"class_list":{"0":"post-604076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-memphis-grizzlies","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-grizzlies","10":"tag-jahmai-mashack","11":"tag-kevin-durant","12":"tag-kyrie-irving","13":"tag-memphis","14":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","15":"tag-memphisgrizzlies","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-santi-aldama","18":"tag-trey-murphy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116073140389143996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}