NEW YORK—The heavily hyped and eagerly anticipated — at least by us — DEGREE “Battle of the Game Changer” went down at Madison Square Garden this afternoon. John Wall ending up beating Stephen Curry, but only because he stunk less than Curry.
After the Western Conference squad got put through some drills, Wall and Steph met at mid-court with Kristen Ledlow and the contest began, with various trick shots unveiled — similar to H-O-R-S-E.
Except neither player could find the bottom of the nylon, casting the Game Changer designation further and further in doubt.
They bricked it from their butts.
They bricked the bounce shot from the free-throw line.
Both bricked the blind shot from the charity stripe — which MJ hit as a lark.
Finally, Michel Rappaport — who Ledlow introduced as the “quintessential New Yorker” — stepped to the microphone at center court and made things even more confusing by selecting a final shot voted on by fans. Whoever hit a crossover into a jumper would win, and break the exciting 0-0 stalemate.
The catch? Rappaport would pretend to play defense against both fo them. Steph missed, and Wall took his time knocking it down.
John Wall is your 2015 DEGREE NBA Game Changer, but no one watching has any idea what happened.
John Wall is your @DegreeMen #GameChanger Champion! #NBARapidReplay http://t.co/dfOrVRL0SK
— NBA (@NBA) February 14, 2015
[GIFs via reddit)