The short answer is no, as players are too scared to do so. But I would see this catch on if there was a trophy and a cash prize. Maybe this could happen in Ice Cubes 3x3 league with older players. Who could not deny this would be more fun than the skills challenge, the team challenges and dare I say it the celebrity game most times. Dreams and whims are free I guess.
Agreed that they are scared to do so. Imagine player A losing to player B and if both are high profile players, the legacy of the loser will be "tarnished". Dream scenario for me is a player like Har'en losing to an ordinary All-Star calibre player. I doubt he or his marketing team would subject his product to that possibility, let alone just considering to join to begin with. IMO, Magic, Bird, Dr. J, and the like would have loved to play against each other for the competition, but players nowadays (even the lesser-known ones SMH) are too entitled to engage in anything that would make their fanbase think any lesser of them.
And that is where the pressure comes in. I would agree that KD is a gun tower that can shoot over (and a good clip) over most people, and has the speed to counter those who are his height. But I could see him feeling the pressure and having a smaller player pick off his handles, as can happen when he tries to do too much. I was excited to see the Cousin vs Durant one on one practice clip (the dunk) that we saw recently. I could see ex-players have a one to one, and a fan vote that could determine the first bouts, and while there would be a danger of people voting to see Brian Scalabrene vs Giannis or some such nonesense, I would love to think how cool it would be to see a feud (I am thinking in WWE terms now I fear) settled by having two ex-team-mates play against each other or having a Laker rep play against a Celt rep. The permutations would inject some CPR into a dull all-star match up. I would love to see horse games as well, but this is my absolute must.
I don’t really care much for what happens at the ASG, especially the dunk contest. But I’ve enjoyed the 3-point competition and this 1on1 sounds awesome.
Yeah they should do 3 contests of this kind : -PGs -Wings -Bigs Would be GREAT , however as you said it : too much ego
I'd love to see this actually. This and 3-point contest would a must to watch every single year. Nothing else.