Here we have the "NBA Awards 2017" and NBA stands for National Basketball Association of course, but I am sure everybody who reaches this title page here is very aware of that. And this is an awards ceremony that gave out the awards for the best players in specific categories in the year 2017. In summer 2017 to be precise, so this was held a little while after the NBA season 2016/2017. It ran for slightly under 100 minutes, but this does not include commercial breaks, so if you really watch the exact original broadcast and have no chance to fast-forward, then you may want to plan for over two hours duration here. The host is successful musician Drake, definitely an inspired choice because he has no real connection to hosting and also his only connection with basketball is that he likes to play it himself. If that is even the case. So if you are more critical, you can also call it a stupid choice. But he was alright I suppose. Did what he had to and he was as solid as the rest of the show. I think it is good and helped the organisers here that there weren't that many categories, so they went for an accurate running time and got most of it in. No danger for this to become too short or too long. By the way, the writers and director were all fairly experienced with directing stuff like this, also scored many Emmy nominations for other projects. So experience was one key in making this event happen. I think it is an annual event. Or at least, the awards happen annually. Gotta admit this is the first broadcast I have seen as they are not particularly easy to find. But it is nice. You have all these NBA players there and also see a bit of a private side of them, even if they only sit in the audience. But still. I was very interested in the NBA like a decade ago or probably even longer, but my interest has gone back a bit over the years. Still it was nice for me as a German especially to see Nowitzki there and even receive an award and give out an award. I think everybody kinda likes him and I still find it ridiculous how people are always forgetting about him when they are talking and thinking about the best and most successful German athletes. Probably because he delivered in a team sport. Oh well, he is my number one perhaps even. Also, with my aforementioned background, nice to see some older athletes here. The really old ones like Abdul-Jabbar or Russell, but also some younger ones like Garnett and Shaq and Barkley and Robinson and many others. Would be easier if they got the names here on the page, but I guess nobody found the time or motivation to include them. I'm sure they all have imdb profiles. Duncan sadly wasn't there. My favorite. Kobe also absent. LeBron and Antetokounmpo also absent. The former probably because he was not winning anything. The latter despite winning Most Improved Player. These days he is an MVP contender. They both are. Anyway, there are three names listed here. Drake I already mentioned. Nicki Minaj I have never liked and could have done without her music performance, but at least she only showed up once, even if she sat in the audience for the rest of the show. And Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift? I don't really think she was part of the show. Unless you count Minaj's "Swish Swish", but no clue why Swift is included here. I did not see her, but well maybe I missed her. Her inclusion also would have been a bit strange because really the big majority people you see in here are Black, which is no surprise because the majority of NBA players are. So next time people complain about the NHL being too White or anything, take a look at the NBA. It's all cool. Balance restored.
Now a few more words on aspects of the show. I am not interested enough to elaborate on how deserving the awards are, but I guess it all fits. Never been too big on Westbrook, but honestly I don't know that much about him either. His speech was good though. And maybe he is the better choice than Harden, who was probably the biggest rival. Never too sure about Harden in terms of if I like him or not. Maybe I liked him more during the earlier stages of his career. One I found really cool that night with how he was acting and talking and also with what he was wearing was Draymond Green from the Warriors and truly nice to see him take home the Defensive Player of the Year Award. Also, he is unusually small for the PF position isn't he? Makes it an even bigger achievement. It's just statistics anyway. Barely knew Green before and now I turned into a bit of a fan. But it was not a perfect show. Like did they include the award for Best NBA Coach? I might have missed it, but if not then big boo! Thhis really should have been included, even if many in the audience maybe find the coaches not as fascinating as the players. Also all three nominated coaches were White, maybe they did not like it that much and wanted to avoid controversy. No need to really because there are enough Black coaches in the NBA too, ust seems none of those were as good as these three back in 2017. Rookie winner was Malcolm Brogdon and honestly he is not a big name or anything at all. I guess he was one of several candidates and they really liked the idea to encourage older rookies who get picked in the middle of the second round and thus handed him the award. It also helped that, even if some had massive breakthroughs in the last three years, it was probably not the most talented rookie class in 2017. Embiid from Philly, who may have had the best stats, did not play that many games and it backfired and reduced his chances to take hom the prize. Brogdon is also a decent choice though and he still seems to be on the rise. Steady worked and improvement apparently. Now they also included this panel of four people who always talk about the NBA games it seems and always also show a lot of banter. They did so during this awards show too and I kinda liked that they included the fan awards there and announced them. Good idea. Nonetheless, they were already featured so heavily during these over 1.5 hours, way more than the host for example, that it felt a bit too much that they also gave out key awards. I mean let Barkley and Shaq do it for all I care, but that is enough. Or even better: Pick some folks for the audience. There were so, so many NBA players there that night, both retired and active. And it would have been a nice way to bring back some familiar faces. Like Iverson for example. He was there. Like you did with Grant Hill. But please, please do not pick the likes of Jada Pinkett Smith of all people. Why oh why, come on? If you really wanna go for women, then I don't know, pick WNBA players or so, even if it is not a perfect solution either because they were not given any awards. Just go with the guys okay? Pinkett Smith may have been there only very briefly and did not have any impact whatsoever, but she always stays in the mind for least likable as far as I am concerned. Right next to Minaj. As for Drake, I already mentioned he was not the center of the evening, but he still had a great deal of screen time. Maybe a little less would have been more here. Never been much of a fan. At least this one long video with him could have been left out. Keep it essential. Will Ferrell was included here too and he was fun as (almost) always. The Monty Williams tribute was nice too and I found it heartfelt the way it took place. Definitely a better idea than giving out a random icon awards or something like that, also with the interviews before that. One thing that could have been handled better was the in memoriam part I think. I mean there are many really good NBA players dying every year, also many who scored like 20 points per game during several seasons and do not have their jerseys retired or anything, maybe because they switched teams too often, maybe because they were simply not impactful enough. But their inclusion in a better in memoriam segment is something that can definitely still be improved in the future for other editions. Man I really wish it was easier to find them. Kinda got me curious about other NBA Awards shows. Okay, I already said that I am not a big fan of a random icon award, but luckily this was also not part of the show here. What they did with Bill Russell, also how they brough out several other icons to honor him, was handled very convincingly. I applaud the writers for that. Just like for what they did with the show in general. A little joke by Russell there was among the lighter moments of the evening, but it's okay. I don't need permanent forced humor or anything, especially as the panel delivered enough comedy. And there is no denying how deserving Russell is/was of this honor. Not the slightest. I mean look at his number of titles. Jordan and LeBron can only dream of that. Don't be mad, fans of those two. I appreciate them too and they deserve all the good coming their way. Finally, one thing that came to my mind here is how literally every single recipient thanked God here. Not sure if it has to do with their color, but it's something you do not really see this often at other awards shows honestly. I like it though. Never been against religion or anything. Everybody as he pleases. But I am drifting a bit away now from the core here. At the end, let me say that I give this awards show a thumbs-up without any real hesitation because I enjoyed the watch and even if you have not really followed the NBA in detail in years (just like I haven't), this is still a positive experience we have here. Pretty cool watch. Go for it if you get the chance. Oh and the trophies are also really cool. Also nice that they all look different.
Now a few more words on aspects of the show. I am not interested enough to elaborate on how deserving the awards are, but I guess it all fits. Never been too big on Westbrook, but honestly I don't know that much about him either. His speech was good though. And maybe he is the better choice than Harden, who was probably the biggest rival. Never too sure about Harden in terms of if I like him or not. Maybe I liked him more during the earlier stages of his career. One I found really cool that night with how he was acting and talking and also with what he was wearing was Draymond Green from the Warriors and truly nice to see him take home the Defensive Player of the Year Award. Also, he is unusually small for the PF position isn't he? Makes it an even bigger achievement. It's just statistics anyway. Barely knew Green before and now I turned into a bit of a fan. But it was not a perfect show. Like did they include the award for Best NBA Coach? I might have missed it, but if not then big boo! Thhis really should have been included, even if many in the audience maybe find the coaches not as fascinating as the players. Also all three nominated coaches were White, maybe they did not like it that much and wanted to avoid controversy. No need to really because there are enough Black coaches in the NBA too, ust seems none of those were as good as these three back in 2017. Rookie winner was Malcolm Brogdon and honestly he is not a big name or anything at all. I guess he was one of several candidates and they really liked the idea to encourage older rookies who get picked in the middle of the second round and thus handed him the award. It also helped that, even if some had massive breakthroughs in the last three years, it was probably not the most talented rookie class in 2017. Embiid from Philly, who may have had the best stats, did not play that many games and it backfired and reduced his chances to take hom the prize. Brogdon is also a decent choice though and he still seems to be on the rise. Steady worked and improvement apparently. Now they also included this panel of four people who always talk about the NBA games it seems and always also show a lot of banter. They did so during this awards show too and I kinda liked that they included the fan awards there and announced them. Good idea. Nonetheless, they were already featured so heavily during these over 1.5 hours, way more than the host for example, that it felt a bit too much that they also gave out key awards. I mean let Barkley and Shaq do it for all I care, but that is enough. Or even better: Pick some folks for the audience. There were so, so many NBA players there that night, both retired and active. And it would have been a nice way to bring back some familiar faces. Like Iverson for example. He was there. Like you did with Grant Hill. But please, please do not pick the likes of Jada Pinkett Smith of all people. Why oh why, come on? If you really wanna go for women, then I don't know, pick WNBA players or so, even if it is not a perfect solution either because they were not given any awards. Just go with the guys okay? Pinkett Smith may have been there only very briefly and did not have any impact whatsoever, but she always stays in the mind for least likable as far as I am concerned. Right next to Minaj. As for Drake, I already mentioned he was not the center of the evening, but he still had a great deal of screen time. Maybe a little less would have been more here. Never been much of a fan. At least this one long video with him could have been left out. Keep it essential. Will Ferrell was included here too and he was fun as (almost) always. The Monty Williams tribute was nice too and I found it heartfelt the way it took place. Definitely a better idea than giving out a random icon awards or something like that, also with the interviews before that. One thing that could have been handled better was the in memoriam part I think. I mean there are many really good NBA players dying every year, also many who scored like 20 points per game during several seasons and do not have their jerseys retired or anything, maybe because they switched teams too often, maybe because they were simply not impactful enough. But their inclusion in a better in memoriam segment is something that can definitely still be improved in the future for other editions. Man I really wish it was easier to find them. Kinda got me curious about other NBA Awards shows. Okay, I already said that I am not a big fan of a random icon award, but luckily this was also not part of the show here. What they did with Bill Russell, also how they brough out several other icons to honor him, was handled very convincingly. I applaud the writers for that. Just like for what they did with the show in general. A little joke by Russell there was among the lighter moments of the evening, but it's okay. I don't need permanent forced humor or anything, especially as the panel delivered enough comedy. And there is no denying how deserving Russell is/was of this honor. Not the slightest. I mean look at his number of titles. Jordan and LeBron can only dream of that. Don't be mad, fans of those two. I appreciate them too and they deserve all the good coming their way. Finally, one thing that came to my mind here is how literally every single recipient thanked God here. Not sure if it has to do with their color, but it's something you do not really see this often at other awards shows honestly. I like it though. Never been against religion or anything. Everybody as he pleases. But I am drifting a bit away now from the core here. At the end, let me say that I give this awards show a thumbs-up without any real hesitation because I enjoyed the watch and even if you have not really followed the NBA in detail in years (just like I haven't), this is still a positive experience we have here. Pretty cool watch. Go for it if you get the chance. Oh and the trophies are also really cool. Also nice that they all look different.