NBA HORSE Competition-Was it worth watching?

I have to admit, as a basketball-starved fan, I was looking forward to the NBA Horse Competition on Sunday night. Normally, I wouldn't care about former players against current athletes playing H-O-R-S-E, considering that's something most of us grew up playing (or P-I-G if you were in a hurry).

Some of these guys had serious home-court advantages. Mike Conley had a gym in his house, while everybody else had basketball courts outside. Did anybody really want to see Chauncey Billups, Tamika Catchings and Paul Pierce play, I mean shoot or compete, against current NBA players? There was no dunking involved, that gave no advantage to Zach LaVine, likely the only participant who could dunk with any authority.

As it turned out, Billups beat Young, after being down three letters to none, but the "old man" game worked out. Young played outside in a basket that looked as though it was bought at "K-Mart" back in the day or now "Target". Billups had the better basket and decided to use the one-leg and opposite hand approach. He hit a three-pointer from the top of the key off the backboard to win. Young's backboard didn't give on his attempt. Winner: Billups.

Catchings is a 10-time WNBA All-Star and daughter of former NBA big Harvey Catchings and unfortunately had to take on Conley. That's the Conley of the indoor basketball court, who happens to be ambidextrous. She had no chance, though at least she gave him the letter "H". Conley hit a couple of shots behind the basket and Catchings didn't have the fortune of doing so considering she had to go through several poles in her setup. Winner: Conley. He'll advance to face Billups on Thursday night.

LaVine took on "The Truth" Paul Pierce, in the most lopsided matchup. LaVine is a ridiculous athlete and very good shooter, playing on a very nice outdoor court in the state of Washington. Pierce was playing in a court with a Celtics' logo somewhere in Southern California. But it doesn't appear that Pierce has played a lot of basketball since retiring. LaVine smoked him, not even picking up a letter. Winner: La Vine.

In the final and most interesting quarterfinals matchup, All-Star point guard Chris Paul faced Allie Quigley, a current WNBA player. Quigley started off using the same Billups' strategy of going off the glass, but from the free throw line. Quigley had the court in the front driveway, while Paul had the gated court in the back. That didn't help as maybe his son Chris Jr. or even Cliff Paul might have performed better. His son actually talked trash to him for saying the only thing he could make was a layup. It actually was a close competition but Paul couldn't even make a left-handed scoop shot. Quigley beat him HORSE to H-O-R to advance to face LaVine. Winner: Quigley.

ESPN's Mark Jones kept the banter going, though it was strange that right before Catchings went to shoot her shot to match she had to answer a question about growing up in Italy with the late Kobe Bryant. But I guess that the's new normal during times of quarantine. Talking to Paul about dealing with his family during the quarantine coming back from commercial made a little more sense.

This was mildly entertaining, especially the Paul vs. Quigley matchup. Some of the video quality early on was rough and the delay didn't help, but it was worth watching if you could have cut the thing to about an hour. But of course, commercials are needed for a little revenue. It would have been more interesting if you would have had current NBA guys going against each other. But they were probably limited in who they could pick, who had decent courts and well, the WNBA factor had to be included.

Give it to Quigley, one of the WNBA's best three-point shooters for beating one of the favorites and if you bet her early on, you have a shot to make some dough (she was +1000). Conley looks like the favorite right now with his homecourt and ability to shoot with either hand. LaVine used his athleticism and not sure why Paul didn't try a few fancy 360 layups, but he seemed to be sort of disinterested.

The semifinals will be on ESPN on Thursday at 9pmET and while there is only so much they can do with production from I-Phones and I-pads, the coverage should be a little better and the excitement level up a bit. We'll have predictions with odds very shortly.