The NBA’s Latest Attempt To Solve the All-Star Game Conundrum

Commissioner Adam Silver has not shied away from admitting the league has a problem on its hands with the NBA All-Star Game—and he has been open about searching for ways to improve the format in recent years.

“I haven’t given up yet on the All-Star still being competitive for fans,” Silver said in January.

Throughout the past decade or so, the prestige of making the game has remained for players and fans, but the game itself has become increasingly unserious. Defense has gone from optional to nonexistent: Last year’s game produced a record 397 points—with many walking up and down the court launching halfcourt bombs and throwing endless alley-oops.

For many years, the NBA’s exhibition was a legitimate tradition, as the top stars like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant would battle in earnest. During this golden age, the All-Star Game MVP was a coveted award. The idea of showcasing the league’s top talent has been lost to lackluster effort as players try to protect their bodies for the rest of the season.

The NBA’s ongoing experimental phase is not unlike those of other major North American leagues. The NBA included a draft from 2018 to 2023 and the Elam ending from 2020 to 2022 (which, in fairness, did create an exciting finish in its first year). 

But nothing has stuck. Fan attention continues to wane. Last year’s game averaged 5.4 million viewers, the second-lowest viewership for the game ahead only of the previous year (4.6 million).

So this year, the league made its most drastic change: A four-team tournament in which each game is the first to score 40 points. The idea was to create shorter games in a streetball-like atmosphere to generate more effort from the players.

Awkwardness will not help the latest edition become more than a stopgap: The rosters were picked by the talent of an outgoing rights-holder, and the highlight of last year’s All-Star Saturday Night has been nixed.

Player Buy-In

Silver said he consulted the National Basketball Players Association and many “perennial All-Stars” including Steph Curry on the change. Curry said he “likes” where Silver landed on for this year’s format, which will be hosted by the Warriors in the Bay Area. However, LeBron James and Kevin Durant, the two other members of the trio dubbed by the league as the “NBA OGs” don’t share similar sentiments.

In December, after the rules were announced, Durant called it “terrible.”

“I hate it. I absolutely hate it. … We should just go back to East-West. I think we’ve been trying to bring that flair back somehow with the All-Star weekend, but I think we just keep it traditional,” Durant said.

James was more in favor of change, but said he wasn’t consulted by the league and is unsure about the effectiveness. “It’s different. … I don’t know. I have my ideas of what could possibly work,” James said in December. “We gotta do something. Obviously, The last couple years have not been a great All-Star Game that Sunday night.”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP front-runner appearing in just his third All-Star Game, said the changes are “expected” to try to get players to compete.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to where the players want to go at it. And I would love to see that. Love to be a part of that, for sure. And hopefully it happens,” the 26-year-old  said ahead of the NBA Cup final in December.

Saturday Woes

All-Star Saturday Night, typically highlighted by the Slam Dunk Contest, has also lost its luster, largely because it has been unable to attract top-level names. Four-time All-Star Jaylen Brown participated last year, but before him, the last player who was an All-Star and dunk contest participant in the same year was DeAndre Jordan in 2017.

This year, the pool consists of two rookies (Matas Buzelis, Stephon Castle), a second-year player (Andre Jackson Jr.), and two-time champion Mac McClung, who has played in just five NBA games. Like Sunday’s game, top players have shied away from competing in the dunk contest to avoid injury risk.

It doesn’t help that two of the recent names who legitimized the contest—Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon—ended their legacies on a sour note. After winning back-to-back dunk contests in 2015 and 2016, LaVine felt the need to prove himself more as an overall player. After Gordon failed to win on three different occasions, he said in 2020 that he was “done” competing and “should have two trophies.”

All-Star Saturday Night finally got a jolt last year with the three-point challenge between WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu and Steph Curry. The night averaged 4.57 million viewers, up 33.6% from the previous year, and peaked at 5.4 million during the three-point duel. But that overall number is still the third-least-watched All-Star Saturday Night.

The NBA tried to revamp the shootout this year by adding viewership darling Caitlin Clark to the fold, but she declined to participate. (Her representatives told ESPN that she would like her first three-point contest to be at the WNBA’s All-Star event.) On Thursday, The Athletic reported that Curry and Ionescu would not hold a rematch of their competition from last year.

“We weren’t able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off of last year’s special moment. We all agreed not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday’s new format,” NBA executive vice president and chief communications officer Mike Bass told ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania on Thursday.

Swan Song?

Incorporating the most popular NBA studio talent was a no-brainer. Last week, Inside the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley picked three of the teams for the All-Star Game (Candace Parker will manage the fourth, made up of the winners of the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday). But their first year as All-Star GMs may also be their last year as broadcasters for All-Star weekend. 

The NBA legends, alongside Ernie Johnson, have been TV staples since TNT took over coverage of the NBA All-Star Game in 2003. However, the NBA’s next media-rights deal kicks in next season, and TNT is out of the picture. NBC and Amazon are the league’s new partners, with the former taking over the All-Star weekend rights for the duration of the 11-year contract.

It’s not clear whether O’Neal, Smith, Barkley, or Johnson will find their way back to the All-Star Game in some capacity. Inside the NBA still has life as ESPN and TNT agreed to a “rights swap” that will have the famous studio show air on ESPN next season. 

But NBC would have to make a similar deal with the team for them to call the All-Star weekend, or they would have to somehow create deals with each individually. Barkley already said earlier this month that he declined NBC’s offer to join its NBA coverage next year.

The four-team format may be a hit at best, and a topic of debate at worst. As for creating a new, lasting tradition, expect more trial and error.