Why the NBA All-Star Game Doesn’t Need to be “Fixed”

I have heard and read several sports talking heads going insane talking about how the NBA All-Star Game is broken and needs to be fixed.  Most of these messengers are middle-aged to old men whose talking points involve that the players don’t care, it used to mean something, and nobody has ever gotten injured during an All-Star Game (my counter to that is that Kemba Walker was never the same after the 2020 All-Star Game).  That said, younger voices have not been loud with their criticism, and I agree with them.  I think these dissenting voices are missing the point of the game, and I would argue that the game itself isn’t broken, meaning it doesn’t need to be fixed.

Historically, All-Star games were created for the best players to play against each other for a variety of reasons, though often these sorts of exhibitions are often financial based.  As they evolved, many games became the only time other stars played against each other was in the All-Star Game.  That said, this has changed significantly in each league; for example, in the MLB, there is now interleague play, meaning the AL and NL plays during the season instead of just in the All-Star Game and World Series, rendering this meaning to be unapplicable.  In the NBA, to say that the point of the game is for the best players to play hard against each other doesn’t make sense given the accessibility of games on television.  Even if someone were to not have something like NBA League Pass where they could see all out-of-market games (the existence of League Pass shouldn’t be used as an argument, since not everyone who can afford cable can also afford this), there are now a large number of nationally televised games.  It is no longer true to say that this is the only time you could see Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid (when healthy) go against each other, as their teams play each other twice during the regular season.  Beyond that, the playoff games are more accessible than ever, so you’ll also be able to see the stars as they go deeper in the playoffs and care so much more.  If you want to argue that you want to see stars play with each other against other stars, my counterpoint is that you’re lucky that the Olympics are coming up this summer in Paris, so you can see all the U.S. stars facing off against international stars (of course, there will be people who think the U.S. should dominate since they’re oblivious to the fact that the rest of the world got much better, but that’s what you get when clueless or ignorant people get mics, kind of like this All-Star debate).  The point is that there isn’t as much value in this game, especially as more important games are more easily accessible.

I also think it’s important to discuss why there isn’t as much effort on the defensive end.  I think there are 3 major reasons.  First off, nobody discusses the fact that there isn’t a break prior to All-Star weekend.  The final regular season games occur on Thursday, the day before All-Star Weekend begins.  While you could argue that it is still a couple days off until the All-Star Game on Sunday (unless anyone in the game is participating in the events leading up to it, which people push for), the truth is that most teams and players need a break.  For example, even just watching the Celtics as the break approached, who were still playing like one of the best teams in the league, showed that they could use a break, and they were largely healthy.  Second, not enough people focus on the fact that while players aren’t playing as many minutes as they did in the 90’s, or example, the pace of play has increased significantly.  Even if we compare the league leader in MPG (DeMar DeRozan) to the player who had the second most in 2004 (Shawn Marion; Allen Iverson is credited as the league leader, but only played 48 games), DeRozan would play in 50 more possessions, despite playing 3 fewer minutes a game.  On top of that, offensive rebounds do not constitute a new possession, so the fact that the shot clock is reduced to 14 after those will also add up.  The change in style of play doesn’t help the amount of running needed either.  It does add up with the amount of running and jumping in a game.  Finally, many of the same people complaining that players aren’t playing hard in the All-Star game are the same who write off any event that isn’t a championship.  This is a toxic mindset since it suggests that winning a Championship is the only thing that matters.  Players hear this and decide to follow, only to not treat games like this as important.  With the increased pressure on the regular season as well, the All-Star Game has become less important, especially when they don’t have much a long break.

I will also say that having to change a game or “fix” it really isn’t that big of a deal considering how much of a joke some of the other All-Star games reached in the U.S. big-4.  The NFL might have the most laughable of them all, as they totally changed the game so that it is a flag football game, becoming largely the brunt of laughter for how much it has deteriorated.  The NHL found a strategy that it sounds like some like (I’m not well versed in hockey at all, so I could be wrong) by totally changing the format and making it a tournament.  While the MLB’s All-Star game is most similar to that of their regular season, they have always done hilarious substitutions throughout my entire life, with the starting pitchers almost often throwing at most 2 innings; that said, they had an issue with teams not wanting players to play in the game, resulting in them implementing rules to replace players that teams didn’t want to play, especially with pitchers.  The reason that I bring this up is to showcase that an All-Star game that is not competitive is such a minor issue compared to the issues that the other leagues have dealt with, especially with the NFL’s Pro Bowl being considered a joke.

In my opinion, the All-Star Game doesn’t need to be fixed since it is still entertaining, even if there isn’t defense played.  I would say the most obvious “fix” to make it more competitive would be to give a longer break so players can actually recover prior to the game and be ready to compete after (it would really backfire if they emphasized the All-Star Game so much that then players started taking regular season games off, which could happen).  That said, I don’t think this will happen, so the easiest option would be something I’ve alluded in the past on this blog:  embrace the highlight reel plays.  In addition to giving out an MVP, I think they should have a highlight reel committee to give the highlight reel award, which would be the MVP of highlights and trick plays.  The truth is that viewers would rather see exciting plays in this game than quality help defense; they are watching to be excited and to be entertained, not learn the x’s and o’s of basketball.  It has to be something different in this game in my opinion, so that is the easiest way to do it in my opinion.  On top of it, there are many ways in which a player can have a highlight reel play, including great dunks/layups, difficult shots, fancy passes, difficult blocks/steals, deep 3’s, or even effort plays. allowing for something more inclusive than the best dunker or shooter.  There of course will be players who don’t want to buy in to this, so I would argue that the easiest way to handle this is to do something that will embarrass them, like not letting them touch the trophy if their team wins, or have them wear something embarrassing.  I will give the caveat that this will never happen, but until the league realizes they don’t need to overhaul the entire All-Star Game, they will continue to be disappointed while realizing any “fixes” are just minor adjustments.

 

 

Bonus:  How to fix the other events of All-Star Weekend

I have an opinion that might be an unpopular opinion:  the game itself was the one of the best events that I watched of the weekend (I give that caveat since I forgot about the Rising Stars Challenge until after).  I think the bigger question that should be asked is how to fix the other events of the weekend.  I have included one fix to each event, with them ranging from a minor update to the event to a massive overhaul, depending on how desperate the event is for change.

 

Celebrity Game:  Determine the necessity and point of the game

I will give the caveat that I have never had any interest in celebrity type events, so I am not the target audience for this event (for instance, I had no interest when there were celebrities cooking on cooking shows).  As such, I’m not going to tell them to remove the game (I’m also not going to complain about the celebrities in the game; while I don’t know some of them, I’m not the target audience).  That said, is there a point to it?  It always seems like it is the least discussed aspect of the whole weekend, but that might just be my bubble of NBA related stuff.  I’m guessing the main reason is because someone buys the rights of the game.

 

Rising Stars Challenge:  Get rid of the G-League competitors

I will admit that I missed this event this year because I forgot it was on and I went to bed (yes, I often feel old by the end of the week).  That said, I think the tournament style of the game with shorter games is a good idea.  My one major qualm with the format is the presence of a G-League team in it.  I understand that they are trying to promote G-League Ignite, but there shouldn’t be a team for the G-League there.  My reasoning is simple:  there are players who made this team who aren’t prospects that didn’t make NBA rosters.  This year, this list included Oscar Tshiebwe, Alondes Williams, Emoni Bates, and Mac McClung.  Last year, it included Kenneth Lofton Jr., McClung, and Scotty Pippen Jr.  My issue with this is that many of these guys aren’t/haven’t been good enough to earn consistent minutes on an NBA roster, so it doesn’t make sense to incorporate them in the NBA All-Star Weekend.

 

Skills Contest:  Adjust the format

I’ll give the caveat that I am most cynical about fixing this event, since I have never liked this event.  While it was most successful when they implemented the bigs vs. not bigs, the only memories I have from this event are missed shots, players not being able to dribble, Joel Embiid cheating and not completing a pass, and Joe Ingles dominating the event (even though he never competed, so I have no idea where this memory came from or why I have it).  I feel like they have never been able to get a slate of guys who are skilled at everything, as they always wind up with a couple guys who can’t pass, shoot, or dribble, which makes the event a bit more painful.  They inexplicably changed it to a team format, which I have found even more painful.  They have had the hosting team include a team (which has won each year) and then had 3 other teams, which have included rookies, former top draft picks, All-Stars, and Giannis’ family (which also included Jrue Holiday one year).  In addition to the standard obstacle course, they also implemented rounds for passing and shooting, both of which are convoluted, chaotic, and a miserable watch, especially the latter, where we have seen several teams suddenly be unable to shoot or get overconfident and take bad shots.  The event is also too easy to tie, which happened this year, resulting in the most painful tiebreaker:  see who scores a half court shot faster.  When it reached the point that Scottie Barned threw a ball backwards over his head, I knew that this was not the right approach to any of this.

 

Three Point Contest:  Make sure the rules are being followed by the players

This event is usually the most exciting and fun event on Saturday.  I thought it was a fun event again this year, but there was one major issue:  Karl-Anthony Towns made several shots of the tiebreaker with his foot on the line, which wouldn’t be a 3.  The ref who was standing there tried indicating it at first, but gave up by the third one.  Something like this is largely inevitable, so maybe come up with a good way to deal with this in the future.

 

Steph vs. Sabrina:  Cut out the (not so) subtle sexism

I will start by saying that this was easily the best event of the entire weekend, and it absolutely lived up to the hype.  I hope that this can spur more competitions similar to this (maybe even having the NBA and WNBA winners compete against each other at both the NBA and WNBA All-Star Games).  Still, one thing that got a toxic response was Sue Bird suggesting they would have benefited from having a woman on the broadcast (while many online thought she meant that a woman should be granted a pity spot while she was arguing somebody who actually understands the WNBA), and I think she is right.  Instead, we were stuck with people who don’t know women’s basketball or Sabrina Ionescu’s game giving takes that were just stupid (most notably that it wasn’t fair for Ionescu to have to shoot from the NBA line when she often shoots way past the WNBA line) to ones that were ignorant (while some were subtle, there were some that were taking shots at Ionescu for thinking that she could compete with Steph, including some on the broadcast before the event).  There were only two things that the broadcast said that I thought was productive or helpful, which were Reggie Miller pointing out that one advantage Curry had over Ionescu was that he was in season whereas Ionescu wasn’t (he mentioned that even while she is still training and in amazing shape, there’s a different level of being in shape in season, which is something that is true that I hadn’t considered initially), and Candace Parker pointing out that both were cold since they had to stay in the back room for a couple hours…which she said after, because her voice was not incorporated during the event, where it would have been beneficial.   It really is the simplest thing to have done, yet leave it to a major broadcast to think that their popular NBA commentators must know all forms of basketball (which is also how we end up with ridiculous takes live in the NBA Draft or during March Madness).

 

Slam Dunk Contest:  Get better judges

At this point, somebody doing an homage to Michael Jordan and doing his free throw line dunk would not get a 50, and would probably get a 48.  The reason that I say this is because this happened in 2020 when Derrick Jones Jr. did a windmill dunk and stepped just past the free throw line.  That said, Mac McClung got the only 50 by doing an unoriginal dunk with a dunk over Shaq (while it was a nice dunk, it wasn’t the first time it even happened that night).  My point with bringing all this up is that the judges have not been good for a few years.  This year, the judges were clearly easily buttered up by Jaylen Brown pandering to them.  Further, they penalized for missing first dunk attempts, which they aren’t supposed to do, suggesting they don’t even know the rules of the competition.  Lastly, their judging abilities appear to compare them to past dunks that they either did, saw others do, or think that they could have done.  This pushes the narrative that every dunk needs to be totally original, which is a ridiculous standard that has infiltrated NBA fandom as well.  Ultimately, it should be judging based on how good the dunks are, which is something their judges have failed at.

What did you think of the All-Star Game?  What events did you enjoy most?  Let me know in the comments!