2025 NBA All-Star Weekend: Yay or nah?

BY GAVIN PATRICK

Sports Editor

Today’s NBA can be defined in a multitude of positive ways. Offensive prowess is at an all-time high; two-way players have become a commodity; TV deals are about to bring in 76 billion dollars; Adam Silver has been outstanding in his 11 years as commissioner.

The All-Star Game is not one of those things.

There have been a lot of opinions flying around the internet and in league circles about the action from this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend. But first, it’s important to understand the new format Silver and company deployed.

Instead of the traditional Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference game, this year’s action had four teams play in a three-game, bracket-style tournament -- each winner being the first team to score 40 points. The 24 All-Stars split into three teams of eight players (one for veteran, international and young players), and the fourth team comprised top first- and second-year NBA players and standouts from the NBA G League.

The new format was designed, in part, to massively cut down scoring, which had gotten out of control in recent years. Last year’s contest had a combined record 397 points, with 94% of the 289 shots taken either inside the paint or beyond the 3-point line.

The league kept the traditional dunk and 3-point contests, along with the skills challenge and celebrity game, all of which played out like normal -- except for one thing. Spurs’s duo Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama were disqualified from the skills challenge for trying to hack the rules, purposely missing all of their shots to save time.

The clip went viral on the internet; one, because it was funny and two, because the antics (once again) robbed the fans of quality basketball.

Which is a perfect segway for the big question…

THE BIG QUESTION… Did it work?

To quote the great minion Stuart from “Despicable Me” -- “ehhhh, no.”

Like I alluded to up top, All-Star Weekend still needs attention from NBA leaders because the product of the past few years just hasn’t cut it, proved by the fan reaction and massive dip in ratings.

To be fair, some players, like Stephen Curry -- who helped design the new format -- voiced support for how the changes played out. Curry saw the action as a “good step in the right direction,” also suggesting that it’d be wise to continue adjusting the format until it’s in the best place it can be. Kevin Durant said he saw “the competitive nature” start to creep back in and that “guys were trying to play hard.”

I’ll go ahead and stop the compliments (or pity-ments) right there, though. 

“You have to start somewhere” is what Durant essentially implied, to me, because his comment also sums up the third-world problem that has infected this billion-dollar organization in the first place.

Now, I’m well aware that Durant doesn’t appreciate when people put words in his mouth, so I hope he never sees this. But this is a valid point that needs to be made.

The overwhelming message fans have been getting from players is that the All-Star Game doesn’t matter anymore. Last year, we saw Luka Doncic sheepishly chunk up a 70-foot jumper in the first half; Donovan Mitchell threw a 50-foot underhand inbounds pass; Tyrese Haliburton attempted five 3-pointers in a 92-second span; players repeatedly shot the ball from half-court or longer; and, one time, Doncic and Nikola Jokic went the entire length of the court without dribbling, passing the ball back and forth to each other every two steps as their opposition jogged along smiling.

That’s a long way to say, no defense was detected that day. And, no, it’s not as poetic as it sounds.

Are the players just trying to have fun? Probably. But for my taste, they should save that behavior for their backyard, not for national television. It’s turned the game into a joke. Players don’t care about winning; they just want to fool around and hope the people watching can appreciate it. Did I mention the ratings plummeting? I don’t think many people are appreciating it.

Even for the 4.7 million who saw this year’s antics, they had to sit through several extended lulls in the action.

In between the first and second game on Sunday, there was a shooting competition between Milwaukee Bucks All-Star guard Damien Lillard and a college student (which actually turned out to be a cool moment) And, in the middle of the final game, there was a 20-minute tribute to the TNT broadcast crew and the network’s 40-year run covering the NBA, which ends after this season.

Both were moments worth watching, but they threw off the rhythm of the games. The TNT celebration actually took longer than the final game itself. It was well-deserved, just misplaced. 

Other breaks included comedian Kevin Hart entertaining the crowd with playful banter and commentary and a 7-minute concert by Bay Area artists. I understand the need to fill air-time, and some of the breaks were entertaining, but none of them were considerate of the players. Although (ha), I guess they didn’t care much about the game anyway.

How can the All-Star Game improve?

The first thing I would like to see from the All-Star Game next year is more physically from the players -- meaning moments of opposition. There were some nice defensive plays this year, like when Jaren Jackson Jr. and Victor Wembanyama denied baskets at the rim. But there were only a few of such instances, so acknowledging them kind of feels like pity points.

There was still too much lollygagging and players removing themselves from the paint. They obviously don’t want to get injured with a long season ahead, but that was never an issue with previous generations. Plus, the game is less physical now than it was then with rule changes and more 3-point shooting. Maybe it’s because I didn’t play the game, but I don’t think it’s necessary to be that worried about being injured.

One thing that could improve players’ willingness to get “dirty,” in a sense (if they won’t do it themselves), is increasing the stakes of the game. The biggest thing that drives exhibition games is bragging rights, as lame as that sounds. But in the best cases, those bragging rights really mean something.

Look no further than what the NHL did this year with their All-Star format. The league used a system called the “4 Nations Face-Off” in which players from the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden each formed their own team and clashed in a round-robin style tournament. At times, the physicality was heightened from a normal NHL game, and there was a real pride from the players representing their home countries.

In the words of sports media pundit Rich Eisen, the “Face-Off” involved players literally trying to rip each others’ faces off.

Compared to what the NBA had in the 1990s and 2000s All-Star games, today’s players have completely lost that edge. No one’s asking for three fights in nine seconds or a visit to the hospital, but there needs to be a level of intensity that makes the game feel like it matters again.

There are absolutely enough international players in the NBA to make for an ultra-competitive “Team USA vs. The World” All-Star match. That’s what I want to see. So do many others, including media pundits, fans and even NBA players.

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, a native of Greece, said he’d “take pride” in playing that format. Wembanyama, who grew up in France, thinks it would appropriately raise the stakes.

Even some around Tarleton State University voiced their support for a “Team USA vs. The World” format.

“The game is just not competitive at all [right now], and I feel like that would lead to players having more of a motive to try to play hard and make it entertaining for the fans,” sports communications major and Dallas Mavericks superfan Drew Lawton said.

Riley Hetherington, also a sports communications major, added that the NBA should do away with the target score of 40 points because it lowered the stakes and limited the potential to break scoring records.

“If you look at the history of the All-Star Game, you have all these legends show off their craft and score 40, 45, 50 points. And now since they have this target score, you don’t get the chance to see these players play at their best,” Hetherington said.

He has a point about the statistical limitations. Curry, the tournament’s MVP, only scored 12 points in the final game.

Everyone I’ve heard from supports the idea of pitting naive and foreign players against each other, but that’s not to say it won’t have its fair share of controversy. A senior NBA writer for ESPN, Tim Bontemps, raised the probability that adopting this format, with 12 American and 12 international players, would “leave out even more deserving candidates” than usual.

It makes sense in that a 13th American or international player could be plenty good enough to make the cut in a normal format. But that’s a good problem to have, in my estimation. Assuming this ‘USA v. World’ game would mean something even remotely close to what hockey had, it could raise the stakes of early regular season games, with players trying hard to earn their spot on the team. Now, perhaps players will be incentivized not to sit out as often for “rest.” (Talk about killing two birds with one stone.)

I’ll close with this: the best basketball I’ve ever seen was this past summer at the Paris Olympic Games. Players take great pride in representing their home countries, and I know not just by their words but by how they follow through on the court. I also know that today’s NBA players have it in them to play just as physically as they did in the Jordan and Kobie eras; I just saw it six months ago.

Sure, there won’t be a gold medal on the line, and the international players won’t be playing for a specific country. But it’s reasonable to think that this format would at least raise the stakes and intensity of the game, bringing a better chance that fans will see “real basketball” again in the All-Star Game.

And like Curry said after this year’s action, if it doesn’t work, “then you tinker with it again next year.”