HORSE Gets Heave-Ho at All-Star Weekend

When the NBA announced its list of contestants for this year's Foot Locker Three-Point Contest on Tuesday, there was one name that didn't seem to fit as well as the others. Defending champion Paul Pierce and teammate Ray Allen were obvious selections, and three of the other four -- Daniel Gibson, Dorell Wright, and James Jones -- are all shooting north of 40 percent from downtown on the season.

But Kevin Durant?

Sure, Durant is the league's leading scorer, a legitimate MVP candidate, and one of the game's brightest stars. But from three-point land he's shooting under 35 percent, which is good for somewhere in the neighborhood of 92nd place in that category this season.

So on the surface, Durant's inclusion in this event doesn't seem to make much sense -- until you realize that the event he has won at All-Star weekend for each of the last two seasons will no longer be taking place.

As I tweeted Tuesday night and as the NBA confirmed to Tom Ziller at SBNation.com on Wednesday, there won't be a H.O.R.S.E. competition this year. That left the event's two-time (and only) winner without a presence at All-Star weekend (other than the game itself), so it's not exactly crazy to believe that they gave Durant the opportunity to participate in the three-point contest as some form of consolation.

Win-win for the league and Durant I suppose, and from the fan perspective, it was no big loss to see the league's most recent incarnation of this event canceled altogether.

There were several problems with the way that H.O.R.S.E. was constructed from an entertainment perspective. You had the event taking place on a court in an outdoor parking lot in Phoenix in 2009, then over at center court of the Jam Session fan-fest in Dallas last year. On television to the vast majority of the people watching, the location may not matter. But from the perspective of media or fans on site and in person, it was odd to hold the event right before All-Star Saturday night's events, and to do so at an alternate venue.

And speaking of the timing, it was absolutely terrible. There are already four events on All-Star weekend's Saturday; cramming a fifth in there, and not even giving it the opportunity to finish to what would be its natural conclusion, made little to no sense.

As time was running out before the main events last year, Durant and Rajon Rondo were forced to end things by doing nothing more than shooting three-pointers to determine a winner. This was obviously not very entertaining, and wasn't at all in line with the spirit of the event, which is to force your opponent to make a difficult, and somewhat tricky or unorthodox, shot to stay alive.

While I kidded Rondo beforehand about whether or not he might be worried about this turning into a free throw shooting contest (based on his dismal .621 percentage last season, and seen in the video clip below), no one watching is interested in seeing things decided by contestants trying to make these relatively pedestrian shots.



When you combine all of this with the fact that there was virtually nothing creative or memorable about the players' attempts over the last two events, it's not a surprise that the league bailed on something that, looking back, seemed a bit forced. At least Durant got the chance to remain involved in one of the weekend's more recognizable events, and hopefully he can make us all forget the fact that he has a lower three-point shooting percentage than that of any of his five competitors.