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Wade laments how ASG devolved into non-competitive 'dunk show'

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

Dwyane Wade, in his older years, misses the old days.

The latest round of All-Star voting has Wade in line for his 13th straight trip to basketball's biggest showcase, but the Chicago native feels like the game doesn't mean as much as it once did.

"I don't know what year it changed," Wade told ESPN's Nick Friedell on Thursday. "But my first couple years, I remember A.I. (Allen Iverson) and those guys, we had some barnburners. We went down to the end on a couple of them, and then at some point it just changed and it became a dunk show."

The All-Star Game has historically featured an abundance of showboating and little to no defense, but the balance has swung entirely toward offense in recent years. A faster pace combined with more 3-point shooting and even less defense has produced increasingly ridiculous score totals. Last year's game saw the West emerge victorious over the East by a score of 196-173.

Wade laments the lack of competitiveness, of which he attributed to a number of factors working against the All-Star Game.

"We play so many games. You've got a lot of great players on the court. It's not like you have continuity, you can't run plays like that," Wade said. "You (lack) a defensive scheme in. So there's not a lot of comfort like with a regular team where you know your defensive schemes, you know your plays. Outside of that, man, guys try not to get hurt. You're just trying to go out there and put on a show.

"But I don't know, I go back and look at the games in the past, sometimes they'll be on, and they were some good games, very competitive. So I don't know, it just changed at some point. So I don't know what can happen."

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