The NBA continues to tinker with ideas to produce a more competitive All-Star Game, but nothing seems to be working. Scoring records fell Sunday night as the East defeated the West, 211-186, in Indianapolis, but there was little celebration afterward from players, fans or media members following another year of minimal effort and virtually no defense.
As commissioner Adam Silver said dryly at the MVP presentation (video link), “And to the Eastern Conference All-Stars, you scored the most points. Well … congratulations.”
Silver, who had predicted a more watchable contest during his annual All-Star Game press conference, was clearly annoyed by what took place, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. Bontemps notes that Silver and NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars have been stressing the need for effort in one of the league’s signature events. Instead, the players produced a lackluster series of dunks and long three-pointers that again raises questions about the future of the game.
LeBron James, an All-Star for the 20th time, summarized the problem of trying to make players care about the outcome when there are no real stakes involved.
“I think it’s something we need to figure out,” said James, who was dealing with a sore left ankle and didn’t play in the second half. “Obviously from a player’s perspective, it’s fun to get up and down. But at the end of the day, our competitive nature don’t like to have free-flowing scoring like that. But I think the good thing that came out of tonight was none of the players were injured, and everybody came out unscathed or how they were before the game started. So it’s a deeper conversation.”
After years of experimenting with having captains choose teams, the NBA went back to its traditional East vs. West format this year. The “Elam Ending” which brought novelty to the game when it was first introduced by setting a target score for teams to reach, has also been dropped.
Several scoring records were set Sunday night, although none of them were all that thrilling to witness, notes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. The teams combined for 397 points in the game and 193 in the first half. They also made a record 67 three-pointers on a record 167 attempts. The East made 42 three-pointers and scored 104 points in the first half.
None of it seemed to captivate the crowd or even the players, as Anthony Davis told reporters that he felt the highlight of the night was a dunking exhibition involving hype teams from the Pacers and Bulls before the start of the fourth quarter.
“For me, it’s an All-Star Game, so I will never look at it as being super competitive,” Anthony Edwards said. “It’s always fun. I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive. I don’t know. I think everyone looks at it … it’s a break, so I don’t think everyone wants to come here and compete.”
It’s not a problem that’s exclusive to the NBA, as other sports have made changes to their All-Star contests over the past decade in an effort to make them more watchable. Some have suggested adopting a U.S. vs. international players format. Some believe the game should be scrapped entirely.
We want to know what you think. Are there changes the NBA can make to improve its All-Game or is the league stuck with an noncompetitive exhibition every year? Please leave your comments in the space below.
A 2 on 2 tournament. A guard and a big.
Ridiculous, awful. Can’t stand watching it. Just give the players a vacation. Figure out something else to make money for the week off.
Some of the stuff like Luka and Joker doing a no dribble break was fun, and some of the crazy passes. What gets me is the just letting guys take wide open normal 3s or basic layups. Like dont hurt a guy trying to do a 360 dunk, but get in front of a guy doing a basic no effort layup. And to the players when nobodys trying to guard you put on a better show.
KAT was the clear highlight where he came to entertain and did.
If the players don’t consider it an honor and a privilege to participate, then stop choosing all stars in the first place. Just do away with the entire concept. No more all star game. Just send them a nice certificate with a box of chocolates in the mail.
Make the winning conference have home court during the finals…I think baseball did something similar.
Was a disaster in MLB and they dropped it.
Random in game bounties
100k for next to make 3 straight 3’s
Stuff like that
Make every shot only worth 2 points.
Have a four-team tournament somewhat like the World Baseball Classic: North America, Central/South America, Europe/Asia, Africa (or some competitive geographical setup). Semifinals on Friday, Finals and consolation game Sunday.
The skills competition could be Saturday.
It would be a fun weekend and get buy in from the players.
That’s a cool idea, could help eventually sell the game abroad or to more fan bases too.
If basketball were a thing in more places than North America and southern Europe, maybe. But what you’re proposing already exists. It’s called the Olympics.
What motivates NBA players and man as well for that matter? Money.
Have each team contribute a million dollars to the winning squad. That’s $30 million bucks split amongst 12 guys. That might work?
It might work for rookie salary players but players already making 20+ mil won’t try cause they’re already rich.
They might prefer a status symbol like a limited edition car rather than the cash?
Choose all stars but don’t bother playing the game. Retool the futures game and make it worth something to the winning conference. All stars should be rewarded with a week off for playing well in the first half.
Personally, I don’t think there’s anything you can do to make it better. Let’s just call it for what it is, a over hyped glorified exhibition game with little effort and zero pride/passion. The product of this game is arguably the worst concept in all of the big 4 all star games.
I think I would do something like a 5 on 5 game for the starters for 24 mins, and the other 24 mins I would play the bench versus the bench for both teams.
“Instead, the players produced a lackluster series of dunks and long three-pointers that again raises questions about the future of the game.”
The league has changed the rules of the game to favor/enhance highlights, offense and high scores to sell more, and now they complain about that during their exhibition game? If players are not encouraged/rewarded for playing defense during the entire year, why would they do so during an exhibition?
Basic layups and uncontested corner 3s arent fun for anybody. At least try and do some stuff you wouldnt do in a regular game like and ally oop to Steph lols…
Basketball is a team sport. NBA basketball is a highly skilled, very complex and very competitive team sport. The All-Star Game is an exhibition with minimal teamwork. In my opinion the All-Star game is antithetical to real team basketball. All the All-Star events are exhibitions. The NBA should stop pretending the All-Star weekend is anything else other than a bunch of exhibitions.
Also, the All-Star weekend does next to nothing to promote the game of basketball as it really is. Except for TV money, there is little reason for it to exist.
Maybe scrap the all star game and replace it with the in season tournament’s final four (semis and finals)? This could allow the in season tournament to start a little later and/or include more games.
How about we just give the players the week off, and not do any All-Star game or events whatsoever. Just put G-League games in normal NBA television slots. Do the week off at the 41-game mark of the season. The whole weekend has become silly, and the NBA is intent on saving it with digital floors and silly graphics that distract from watching what are supposed to be the best in the world competing against each other.
Or completely eliminate the break and get rid of back to backs entirely.
Don’t play the game, but I doubt that will happen.
Okay, this isn’t going to happen either, but what if points were awarded for rebounds (1 point) and turnovers (3 points). In other words award defensive stops.
If you still want the offense then make the 3 point shot worth 2 and all dunks and layups worth 1.
Okay I’ll stop now.
Even if only blocks were awarded a point, it’s a start. I’d be interested to see a game played when the offense must pass for the point to count, and make it worth more points for each pass made….just to see if it would work.
“USA vs The World” is the only immediate way to fix the All-Star Game.
But, I’m not sure if the Commissioner and the NBA are ready to accept the results of the World beating the USA on that stage…
so I don’t think they’ll do that.
Would love to see it tho!
Wouldn’t change the effort expended. Why do you think they’d care about playing in that kind of format?
Welp… there you have it again…
The Hoops Rumors commenters know better and are much more knowledgeable than the current and ex-nba players I mentioned this idea to a couple years ago (and during yesterday’s game) who thought this was a good idea, one that’s been talked about (hypothetically) in nba lockerrooms already.
But, hell, what do they know. They’re not on here to see what the real experts think.
That solves nothing. Out of the NBA All-Star rosters this year there were 7 players that could be considered for a “World” team. So you’re leaving off deserving guys just to put more foreign guys on a roster. Secondly, that doesn’t change the format of the games, its still going to be almost a 400 point game, there’s no incentive to play as they just don’t want to get hurt; they don’t care about having USA or World on their jersey during a mid season basketball exhibition. Lastly, the USA has won 16 of 20 all time Olympic basketball gold medals and the last 4, putting the best foreign players on a roster just to “Beat” the USA doesn’t prove or accomplish anything
You also have the problem of getting to equal rosters for both with unequal distrobution of players from both. At least when picking from the east and west they are the same size.
Like you cant choose allstars as they do now and just hope you get equal numbers of USA vs World players…
Who watches this mess?
Exactly. How do you fix something no one cares about?
Giving a f…about all-star games is so 9os.
Three personal fouls in an entire game? There’s your problem. No defense at all. It’s a practice. A showcase. The current generation of look-at-me players. No real stakes involved? How about pride? Like the greats of the past had. Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson didn’t need cash waived in front of them. They wanted to win for their conference. And play defense. Here’s your answer: Cancel it. For good. The players obviously don’t want it. Just get rid of it. As with the NFL’s Pro Bowl, it’s become a dinosaur.
Get rid of it. Mlb is the only sport with an allstar week that isn’t a complete joke. I don’t watch hockey so that could be a good one too, not sure.
What is the ideal situation? The best players in the league playing a competitive game.
Ok, so then for what? Money? Prestige? Incentive is obviously important, but what are you incentivizing?
IMO players move around so much that the novelty of seeing them team up is lost, and I doubt many people have pride for a conference. So then even at its best is East vs. West relevant?
I think honoring the players with selections and giving them a break is the best move. Keep skills stuff as they seem to be into it. Any 5 on 5 should highlight either g leaguers/rising stars or even celebrities.
Especially with selection being subjective, there should not be objective awards (home court advantage, even money to some degree).
I don’t think they should scrap the whole weekend but it needs to change.
Have them play flag football.
I’d rather watch nba play flag and nfl play basketball then what they’ve put out for 5 or so years.
Imagine having tournament for 50m$.
And tell players.. Make you own teams.. With your own sponsors.
Every year the same hilarious conversation, no matter what sport just had its all-star game. The issue isn’t the game itself. It’s that it uncomfortably forces super fans, once a year, to come to terms with the fact that professional athletes aren’t nearly as competitive as our fandom asks them to be. That sports is just a show and very little else, no more or less than a movie or TV show, and really doesn’t merit caring all that deeply who wins. During the playoffs it gets papered over because winning a championship is in fact something that’s hard to do, so players try. And during the regular season the league (like all leagues) works very hard to train players to pretend they care. But at the all-star game they can’t do that.
In Europe fans are super passionate during the games but in the end don’t care very much who wins. Only in the USA is there this demographic that lives and dies by whether their particular group of overpaid kids — none of whom are actually from their city — scores more points than some other group of kids.
American professional sports are a bargain between those kids and the leagues/owners, in which the players agree to pretend they are trying to win every game, in exchange for millions of dollars. That’s it. Joke’s on us.
What? Lol
lol, you don’t think people in Europe care about whether their soccer team wins or not?! People get death threats for screwing up …
Some wild ideas… Suspend the losing team for 1 game or incentivize the win with more money. Have the win determine the all Star game location (or at least conference) for next year (2, 3 years ahead, w.e amount of planning time they usually require) dunk winners, 3pt winners, etc all make up the bench of their respective conferences. Minutes restrictions for each player, to help avoid injuries and to make sure there’s a minutes crunch challenge since nobody fouls or fouls out. Do not go back to player drafts or the Elam ending. Experiment with a 4 point line and possibly adding value to made shots in the final 2 minutes of each half. You either have to make it competitive or interesting and it’s neither right now.
Make the players of the losing team work regular jobs for two weeks in the offseason and the effort level will surpass anything we’ve seen in the NBA finals.
LeBron’s on point here. “But I think the good thing that came out of tonight was none of the players were injured, and everybody came out unscathed or how they were before the game started.” The first time a player jumps the lane and plants his feet to take a charge or a player lands on someone else’s feet and either scenario culminates with a season ending injury all these same fans complaining about a lack of competition will be whining about how some players take it to seriously and that it’s just an exhibition game.
All-Star games are an American invention, but American culture has changed so the All-Star games need to change. Just turned that weekend into a celebration of the game have different skills competitions between old stars new stars, retired stars, stuff like that
I think winning conference gets bonuses from top down. A lot of all-stars make good money, but their teams don’t always. Would be pressure to help some of the young or underpaid guys.
I like this idea and sharing the bonuses with the non-players on payrolls in the winning conference. I also like money going to the favorite charity of each player on the winning team.
Another thought… two make a wish kids – only one gets their wish. Losing team has to suffer with the thought they didn’t play hard enough to make a kid happy in their last weeks of life. They’ll get sent a plaque with the child’s face and birth-death days with the allstar logo to remind them.
Lol
It’s not a real game, quit trying to treat it as such. Target millennials and the home court market, nobody else cares. The players today don’t play hard in regular season games, not about to start in a showcase fake game. All of a sudden, the nba is worried about Defense. It’s just a cringe worthy event full of self promoting egos in every aspect of the all star weekend. It’s can’t be fixed.
Again. Make the 4th quarter a target score one of 40 points where you have to win by 2.
To Juice it only 5 three point shots count toward the final target score.
People will be all in on that action.
These contest inspired me to extend to the first three quarters the following.
1st quarter all shots within 10 feet. 2nd 10 – 20 feet. Who has the best perimeter game? Only threes in the third.
It will keep people interested with lots of speculation on whoms should be playing each quarter.
I can’t bring my self to watch it. I would not play gane if I was an all star. Make the losing conference have to play more back to back games. Or the losing side has to play 70 games to make All NBA the winning side only 60.
I can’t bring my self to watch it. I would not play gane if I was an all star. Make the losing conference have to play more back to back games. Or the losing side has to play 70 games to make All NBA the winning side only 60.
Anyone else annoyed at perineal Cabo-ers using the All Star game as their finals moment? Why the hell does Kat have 35 shots? Nobody else in the West even had 20. Dame would have done the same for the East if Brown didn’t need to prove himself after dunking over a 5’5 man sitting in a chair
Anthony Davis put it the best that its just a break for the guys. And it should be treated as such. I don’t know why people get so worked up about it.
And as for the “no defense” is being played in todays NBA: I’ll say this again: Todays NBA players are stronger and more skilled than any era. Todays players would literally run circles around players in the previous eras. No so-called “tough defense” is stopping them.
This old head nonsense has to stop. Every sport evolves and athletes get better with time due advancement in technology. Players are better today than decades ago.
have a pool of all star nominees. 4 team tournament. losers are not all stars. winners are.
The All-Star game is simply the end-result of a strategy by the NBA to emphasize offense and quick-tempo, in order to cater to the short attention spans of the lucrative Millennial and Gen-Z viewers league sponsors crave.
Adam Silver himself admitted in an interview during the All-Star weekend festivities that the league is having conversations with the NCAA and amateur basketball organizations about the need to emphasize the development of defensive skills. Many of the players coming into the league now lack the ability to defend with any consistency and put their teams at a disadvantage.
To avoid the kind of unwatchable event the All-Star game had become, the league is going to have to do a couple of things (at least on a trial basis). First, time to go back to disallowing zone defenses and bring back penalties for guarding (or not even guarding) a spot instead of a player. Also, consider eliminating the three-point shot, so that — combined with players having to play man-to-man defense, the offensive players will have to work harder for a shot.
The league needs to decide the purpose of the ASG, and by the league I mean all the PTB, including the player’s association. Traditionally, ASGs were for the fans.
The NBA ASG is no longer that. It’s really just for the players, and a very narrow part of the fanbase composed mostly of celebrities and fanboys. A weekend reprise before the season’s stretch run. I don’t have an issue with the league using the game for this purpose, but, as long as they do, it’s disingenous for them to pretend they want it more fan friendly. It’s NOT a sporting event at all, so it can’t be made a competitive one.
If they want a midseason event that people care about, then cancel this exhibition, and use the weekend for a final four for Silver’s silly in-season tournament, which, despite what the league chose to report, garnered very little fan interest in its current form. Or, have NBA teams (real ones) play foreign club teams. Yes, these things require the players work the weekend. But that’s what basketball fans watch. Basketball players at work.
No All Star game is good in any sport. This is becoming a tiring media argument “How do you fix it?” you don’t! You either watch it or you don’t, it has never been competitive and never will. It is an exhibition game so it means nothing and shouldn’t be tied to meaning anything in regular season or playoffs for any sport(since MLB tried to before).
The Saturday Night is the best part.
Saturday night has meaning as a competition…
Each player has a reason to put on a show…
The All star game is an honour but meaningless once you are selected…
Booing hard
The All Star game has long been a holiday weekend were NBA players mingle with celebrities for a weekend…
It has always taken a true rivalry to be entertaining… Because then players take it seriously…
The true spectacle of the weekend is saturday night… Most of the players in those competitions want to have that trophy… It’s never mattered who won the All star game…
East vs West never made it magical, neither did captains picking their squad… Although that added the wrinkle of the player picked last wanting to put on a show…
The Elam ending worked for that one year, largely because of Kobe… The players wanted to respect him…
A glorified exhibition game is not enough to entice high stakes competitors to play at a high level… They want to be healthy for the playoffs…
The players need to BUY IN to the all star game. Whatever way the nba was/is using to make players buy in isnt working anymore. I think cp3 once said that the nba makes the all star looks way too “entertaining and fun” and it gives off that impression to the players, as something that isnt serious.
So they need to find a way to make the even seem/be serious to the players.
They need more incentive to play an exhibition game, for which they’re paid millions of dollars. Yet more than willing to play pickup with randoms whenever they feel like it. Cut the bs. Vote new players in.
NBA all stars vs G League all stars. They’d have to try at least a little to avoid getting embarrassed
So, we nearly hit 400 points combined this time. So, to incentivize defense a bit, try this:
Every player on the winning team gets $1000 x (400 – combined score). So this year, the East players would each have gotten $1000 x (400-397), or $3000. You can’t even pay a fine with that. But if they’d played some defense and we had something like 140 – 115, then the winning team would have gotten $1000 x (400-255), or $145k each. That is still chump change to most of those guys, but probably at least a little more appealing, right?
These athletes are to spoiled. We need to pay them less until they appreciate their opportunity