Having made changes in recent years to the way that All-Star rosters are built, the NBA is now tweaking the format of the All-Star Game itself, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The league has confirmed the news in a press release.
As Reynolds explains, each of the first three quarters will essentially function as its own mini-game, with the score reset to 0-0 at the start of the second quarter and again at the start of the third quarter. The team that wins each of those quarters will earn $100K (up to $300K in total) for a Chicago-area charity of its choosing.
At the start of the fourth quarter, according to Reynolds, the cumulative game score will be restored and the team that’s ahead will need to score 24 more points to win the game, a tribute to Kobe Bryant‘s uniform number. For instance, if Team LeBron is leading Team Giannis by a 100-90 margin after three quarters, the first team to 124 points would win the game — and an additional $200K for its charity. Unlike the first three quarters, the final quarter will be untimed.
According to Reynolds, the idea of a target score at the end of the game – a variation of The Basketball Tournament’s “Elam Ending” – is something NBPA president Chris Paul has suggested in the past. The hope is that it will make the game more competitive, since there will be something at stake in each quarter and the losing team will be more incentivized to make defensive stops as the target score nears.
“We’ve been very focused on making it more competitive, making it more exciting and making it fun,” NBA president for league operations Byron Spruell said of the All-Star Game, per Reynolds. “And we’ve had a great collaboration with the union. For this year’s game, we really focused on what new things we could do to make it a really competitive game where each quarter mattered in this case.”
Tying the target score to Bryant’s number is just one of a number of tributes the NBA has planned for All-Star weekend, as the league honors Kobe, his daughter Gianna, and the seven others who died in Sunday’s helicopter crash in California.
According to Reynolds, the format change is just a one-year experiment for now. However, the NBA is hoping that both the quarter-score for charity aspect and the target-score ending will become fixtures in future All-Star Games.
They should change the 25-second shot clock to 24 seconds and the 10-second backcourt violation you 8 seconds to honor him.
What the hell are you talking about?! Or are you trying to be ironic?
I have no idea what he’s talking about
Nope. He’s just being stupid.
He wore the Jersey numbers 8 and 24……
Lol. So funny.
1/10 on the horrible troll job.
Well at least they didn’t make it convoluted or anything. The charity thing is nice and all, but come on. This is ridiculous.
What’s ridiculous about it? The more ways to honor Kobe, the better, imo.
please
That sounds REALLY fan friendly. Who in the world comes up with these “improvements”??
The answer to your question is literally in the article you just read.
The people mentioned in the article are management people. My experience tells me that management people rarely come up with any idea on their own. They simply run with the ideas of other people.
The quarter games is good change regardless. The ASG hasn’t been a basketball game for decades. Maybe the players will take quarter games seriously, and, who knows, maybe even defend for a possession or two.
Do a lot of people watch the ASG? I haven’t watched it since the late 90’s/early 00’s….
Will be tuning in to the 4th quarter
Kobe undoubtedly deserves some kind of tribute during the All-Star weekend, but these changes are puzzling. They have been trying to revamp the devalued AS game for a while, but I’m not sure the changes are making things any better.
Good thing Kobe’s jersey wasn’t 4. That fourth quarter would be pretty short.
What if it was 00?
Why do they have to do this gimmicky nonsense? This isn’t how they should honor him randomly putting his jersey numbers into things. How about they make a nice elaborate pregame ceremony spot to remember him? I think something thoughtful and touching would be not only better but more appropriate.
They are like almost to the point of taking something to honor him and commercializing it.
That sound better there this all star stuff
I mean was it too hard for someone to say ok
Team a wears only #8
Team b wears only #24
Like everyone wears 42 on Jackie Robinson day in the mlb ……
I don’t even know how to feel about this , even after I was told how to feel about this
With due respect, Kobe Bryant isn’t the first and won’t be the last former player to die. A tribute is fine and well-deserved. But this re-tooling of the game, which has been garbage for years, is absurd. It’s almost a mockery. MLB didn’t turn their all-star game into “First team to score 16 runs wins” as a tribute to Jose Fernandez. Go back to a regular game with players selected by the fans and coaches. East vs. West.
Little known fact:
Kirk Heinrich is immortal.
Lesser known fact:
It’s spelled Hinrich!
The only problem I see with the new format is:
Team A is down 90-105, after the third quarter. They score 24 points before Team B. Except Team B still has more points.
114-115, Team A wins? But not really?
(Team A scored 24 points sooner, but Team B scored ten points, yet loses despite having more points, which traditionally means they’d win the game.)
No, get would add 24 points to team B’s score making a total of 129. First to to reach 129 would then win.
Who is the troll? What is anyone talking about? I think readers are stunned.
Changes:
The “24” tribute to Kobe;
Money given out;
Division into quarters;
3 qtrs timed but the last 1 to a set goal.
This has fine potential, kind of surprisinly so given Silver’s awkwardness. It will provide something to talk about during the game anyway. There’s no reason not to experiment with the ASG.
The 24-pt 4th qtr is a bit short but the team behind may have much more to go than 24, so it averages about right.
BTW it’s a timer not a clock that is counting the game down. Maybe this is a chance to have it said it right.
I actually like the idea of 4 separate quarter-games. But all the Kobe nonsense is silly. His loss is devastating but I don’t need 50 gimmicks related to him.
What I want to see a proper tribute/ceremony, him in the HOF, and his number retired.
Are they moving the game to Colorado as well? Or are we still pretending that didn’t happen?
Who cares what happen?