The NBA All-Star Game has always been more about scoring and showmanship than defense and fundamentals. But after watching last year’s 192-182 contest in New Orleans, which resembled a glorified layup line, there was a feeling in the league that things had swung too far in the wrong direction.
Among those unhappy with what they saw on TV was Chris Paul, who wasn’t chosen for the game last season. He called commissioner Adam Silver the next morning and discussed the need to make changes.
Particularly egregious, according to Ken Berger of Bleacher Report, was a play where Giannis Antetokounmpo had a fast-break dunk and Stephen Curry fell to the ground and covered his ears rather than try to play defense. Paul decided the game had turned into too much of a show, with not enough competition.
“For the first time, he actually just sat at home and watched it like a fan would watch it,” someone close to Paul told Berger. “I got the sense that he thought what everybody else thought; there’s very little competition. He’s an ultra-competitive guy. … I think he viewed it from a different perspective and was like, ‘We’ve got to do something.'”
Silver was glad to see the players adopt that position, and was even happier when Hornets owner Michael Jordan and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts added their support.
The first steps were to scrap the traditional East vs. West matchup in favor of two captains picking players from a pre-selected roster. Also, the prize money for each member of the winning team has been increased from $50K to $100K to provide more incentive.
We’ll find out tomorrow if these changes made a difference or if more needs to be done. But tonight we want your input. What should the NBA do to make its All-Star Game a better product? Jump into the comments section below and give us your opinion.
The dunk contest was awesome
Donovan Mitchell is a beast
Donovan Mitchell reminds me so much of Kobe the way he is ascending into stardom.
Awesome? It was horrible!!!
I thought Nance should’ve won but I’m definitely living in NE Ohio. Seeing Larry Sr and Jr in this took my heart strings. Although Mitchell was a freak as well.
I like it but can we get some actual judges in the future instead of DJ Khaled and Mark Wahlberg? On a seperate note, DJ Khaled shouldn’t even be famous all he does is yell “DJ Khaled” once or twice during every song he’s in.
That is what I said as they introduced the judges. I wanted actual basketball people like Dr J. Maybe add Shaq, VC, etc.
True about DJ Khaled
I say take the top 4 vote getters(2 from each conference) and have them each draft a team. Have both teams from the east and west play head to head and the winner from each conference plays in the championship. Offer prize money for the conference round win and double the prize money for the overall championship.
Sounds like fun for the fans and a lot more players get a chance to play. But respectfully, the idea of making AS weekend into a week would end up being AS month.
I’d do it like the NHL All Star game. Play all three games on one day but instead of a full 48 minute game, play 24 minute games.
It would look like this:
West Team 1 vs West Team 2 at 5 pm
East Team 1 vs East Team 2 30 minutes after conclusion of game 1
West Winner vs East Winner 30 minutes after that
The idea is actually pretty interesting, although what roster size would you suggest? I don’t think each team having 12 players each is sustainable as you’ll definitely have a couple of players making the All-Star game that would normally have no business being there.
I say you take 16 from each conference and do teams of 8.
Or make it a 3v3 tournament with each team having 5-6 players.
I think the change to the draft will add more competition and more reason to play hard, since players are playing with people they haven’t played with. The players should have fun in a competition.
I just hope it doesn’t fail like the NFL though. I was so happy when they went back to conference, after doing that team Irvin junk
Get rid of this captain bs and have the players don their own respective jerseys instead of different jerseys every year. East vs West format was perfect, Kyrie and Durant definitely showed no signs of being excited to play with Lebron. The introductions from Steph’s team were so much more fun also.
I got just the opposite. Team LeBron was meshing baby.
Plus I hate to tell you this genius l, but Kyrie would be playing with LeBron in your scenario. And Durant and Westbrook would be playing with each other and they the dudes from Houston.
I mean we have no idea how this format is going to work, but it seems like the players like it better. You can still have players wear their own team’s jerseys (just with one side wearing home jerseys and the other wearing away jerseys). In all likelihood, the league isn’t going to go back to that as the revenue they generate from the sales of the specialized All-Star jerseys would be lost. And they’re not going to sacrifice good revenue that doesn’t really need to be fixed without finding some suitable alternative.
The whole dog and pony show has just become too big for its britches. It’s unwatchable and they try way too hard …..
I think they need to have it earlier, specifically before the trade deadline. I am a baseball fan and a basketball fan and that is weirdest thing for me. The baseball All Star Break is full of trade rumors and discussions about what teams are going to go for it etc. and it feels like a midpoint to the season. Basketball, all the trades are done and teams pretty much have their rosters set for the playoffs. And instead of prepping for postseason runs with their newly revamped rosters, we are taking a weekend break right at the beginning of the playoff push. This should have happened three weeks earlier.
The NBA did start this years AS “week” earlier than the past. Also if it were 3 weeks prior, teams would be nearing the third part not half. I like it the way they did it this season. They still talked about the trades this weekend plus teams are not completely set yet. Cleveland for example has to come up with two more spots before Thursday to have a complete NBA roster. They traded 6 and got back 4. Buyouts are coming as well.
Buyouts are a joke.
The timing of it is fine. You don’t want trades overshadowing All-Star weekend. Not that a big time trade is going to happen every year, but Boogie Cousins got traded during All-Star weekend and that kind of overshadowed the events.
More social justice commentary please!
There’s no fixing all star games. Baseball tried with home field advantage and that was a joke. I personally I am overall not a huge all star game watcher. It’s a glorified popularity contest. Lou Williams has been better all year then 4-5 dudes that got picked. And Russell Westbrook should b a starter. He’s producing numbers and wins again. Probably missing more dudes but u get my point.
But I do like the “fantasy draft” thing. That makes it fun. But it’s still pretty much east vs west with like 3-4 dudes trading sides. My favorite part of all star weekend is the rising stars game. I doubt I’ll even watch the actual game tonight.
It’s basketball not a game of Risk. It’s fun and fast. Randomly reshuffle the rosters every quarter.