Millimetres. That was the difference between one apex athlete and another, between two of the most utterly unique humans ever produced on this earth. One, LeBron James, six-foot-eight and 240 pounds when he was 18 years old and still a superhuman blend of size and speed at 35, possessing a mind that can solve spatial problems at breakneck, real-time speed. The other, Giannis Antetokounmpo, an elastic super spider, capable of covering an entire court in two dribbles, with hands the size of frying pans at the end of octopus arms.

And with both somewhere close to their maximum, the difference between LeBron getting the ball to the glass before Giannis could reach it was so, so small. The best sports do that: They distil all the gifts, all the work, and all the instincts into the smallest differences. Giannis, as it turned out, got to the ball first. It was reminiscent of LeBron’s famous block of Andre Iguodala, except that was in a Game 7 of the NBA Finals. But by sheer athleticism and desire, this one wasn’t miles off.

It was a highlight of an NBA all-star game that somehow gave the world — most of the world, at least — something it had never seen before. Team USA has been filled with pros since 1992. Spain and Argentina and the former Yugoslavia have had golden generations since.

But this? The best in the world going hard, barking at referees, exploiting matchups, taking charges — in fairness, there was only one guy taking charges — and extending themselves to the fullest? When has basketball ever seen that?

“That game brought back memories,” says Wayne Embry, the Raptors senior adviser and Hall of Famer who played in five all-star games from 1961 to 1965 with Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Bob Cousy and more. “Because they were getting after it.”

In Embry’s day, the game was pure pride; it wasn’t even televised until the year players threatened not to play until they got their pensions. But they competed. In the 1964 game, West, Robertson and Russell each played 42 of the 48 minutes. Embry, now 82 and still going to the gym, watched and remembered.

But the idea of the truly snarling all-star game has been gone for a long time, so it was almost like opening a forbidden door. When Giannis bodied up LeBron on a different fourth-quarter drive and blocked his shot, it was the real stuff. When Giannis tried to drive on Kawhi Leonard at the other end and was devoured by Kawhi and a crowd, that was the real stuff, too.

And that was the best part. With charity money on the line and Kobe Bryant’s legacy in the air, it became the rarest thing: a real game, with the best players. There was a legendary Dream Team scrimmage in 1992 in Monaco, detailed by Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated, that pitted Magic, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Chris Mullin and a young Christian Laettner against Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, and an old Larry Bird. But there’s only one videotape. Jordan’s team won. As Jordan told McCallum, “in many ways, it was the best game I was ever in.”

This was in front of everyone. You could see that Joel Embiid can back down almost anyone from the three-point line and bully his way to an occasionally balletic shot; that Boston’s Kemba Walker can get switched into bad defensive situations on pick-and-rolls, and that he can be guarded. You can see that Giannis’s much-vaunted three-point improvement isn’t durable, and that his mid-range game isn’t, either. If he doesn’t trust it in the all-star game, he probably won’t in the playoff furnace, either.

For the Raptors, it was reinforced that Kyle Lowry was a baller, but you could also see that Pascal Siakam was a little hesitant in posting up James Harden in crunch time, even if he drew two fouls, and that his own midrange-to-three-point game isn’t purely durable yet, either. You were also reminded that Lowry isn’t a great bet one-on-one with LeBron, and still can’t generate the shots the best players can.

As well, you could see that the Raptors legally tampered with Giannis by playing the fourth quarter with Siakam and Lowry instead of Giannis’s Bucks teammate Khris Middleton, who was 2-of-7 for five points in 23 minutes, two of which came off a Lowry alley-oop pass. Sources indicate Lowry managed to place his locker next to Giannis over the weekend. Bless him.

You could see who had nerves. (Harden, for one, passing on a late open layup.) You could see the hierarchy of offence. You could see that Embiid and Ben Simmons belong on separate teams. You could go over that fourth quarter possession by possession and find so much fun every time, right up until the point that Anthony Davis was too big for Lowry, and canned the winning free throw as a result.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

It was a marvel. They should adjust the Hunger Games-style choirs of charity kids who were either elated or crushed as the money for their charities was decided by the result of each quarter; it’s also possible the NBA will have to tamp down the competitiveness, because eventually someone will get hurt.

But the NBA fixed the all-star game, and gave everyone something old. And something new, too.

Read more about: