Basketball On The Internet.

THERE wasn't a single blocked shot in yesterday's NBA All Star Game in New Orleans.

For the first time in the history of the annual mid-season showcase, no-one even bothered to go through the pretence of playing any actual defence anymore, hence the 163-155 final scoreline to the East.

Phil Jackson, the 11-time NBA Championship winning coach of the Chicago Bulls (6) and Los Angeles Lakers (5) tweeted: "All-Star game is a poor example for young players about how this TEAM sport should be played. No wonder the Spurs win with >|< talent!"

Yeah, no wonder indeed.

Truth is, no-one wants to get hurt anymore, rendering the contest meaningless. It's now a case of "stand clear and let's watch another dunk".

This is where Major League Baseball has it all over the NBA.

The MLB All Star Game counts for something, the winning conference owning home field advantages in the playoffs.

That's why they still get real games that are worth seeing and aren't a turn-off the way the NBA's match is to most basketball fans except, probably, 15-year-old boys who want to compare dunking notes.

Instead of supporting the millionaires earning a major cash prize as their All Star Game incentive, how about new Commish Adam Silver taking a position similar to MLB and declaring the Conference which wins the game wins homecourt for the Finals?

Let's apply the theory retrospectively to see what you think.

Now, instead of Eastern Conference leader Miami Heat's 66-16 record giving it homecourt last season over Western Conference leader Oklahoma City's 60-22, the Western Conference would have had the homecourt advantage for winning the All Star Game.

What do you think? Would San Antonio Spurs having Games 6&7 at home have made any difference to the Championship series outcome?

Even if your answer was "no", it still spruced it up some, right?

Unless the ASG stands for something, it will just continue its degeneration into an entertainment showpiece for the uninitiated. And if that's all you want, the Harlem Globetrotters are still touring.

LET me say up front (again) in my humble opinion, LeBron James at his best is the best player in the game today.

That 45-point game for Miami after a 30-point first half against the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals is stuff for the time-capsule.

Back-to-back Championship MVPs ... the list of his achievements and greatness continues to grow.

But! His penchant for flopping takes the gloss off him for me and his now annual pre-All Star Game weekend training "dunk shows" also leave me unimpressed.

You know the ones, where he does all sorts of wild and whacky dunks at Heat practice in the days before the annual ASG weekend and which always somehow end up on ESPN and Youtube.

Funny that.

I am in no doubt it's LeBron's way of saying he could win the Dunk Contest too - and here's how ... just watch these dunks.

But it leaves me cold.

Go in the contest in the way Michael Jordan did, or Julius Erving, or Spud Webb etcetera.

Do it on THAT stage. Or get over yourself.

AND, in case you missed the latest good news for Matthew Dellavedova, check this out: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10462804/saint-mary-gaels-retire-matthew-dellavedova-no-4-jersey?