The league is really lost on the All-Star game. They should just keep it the classic way it's always been. It is imperfect but also enjoyable, a tradition, a part of the game. These new versions are invariably worse and forgettable; they're killing it.
I think you're forgetting how bad things got with the normal format. I don't blame the league for trying to do something.
I didn't have a problem with last year's format; there was just too much time between games, too much Kevin Hart, and too much "Inside the NBA" crew.
The league is really lost on the All-Star game. They should just keep it the classic way it's always been. It is imperfect but also enjoyable, a tradition, a part of the game. These new versions are invariably worse and forgettable; they're killing it.
I think you're forgetting how bad things got with the normal format. I don't blame the league for trying to do something.
I didn't have a problem with last year's format; there was just too much time between games, too much Kevin Hart, and too much "Inside the NBA" crew.
Yeah the format wasn't the problem. It was all the bullshit surrounding the games
All-Star Weekend is a lot of money for the league and a great way to reward their corporate partners, but it's been shit for years.
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Patrick Fertitta [“Tilman's 30-year-old son and ownership's day-to-day presence in basketball operations”] and Stone had to convince Tilman Fertitta, a billionaire who bought the franchise when the Rockets ranked among the NBA's elite teams, that intentionally bottoming out was Houston's most realistic path back to being a contender. They also had to talk Tilman into sticking with the plan at times during the ensuing three seasons when Houston won a total of only 59 games.
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It's not just the Allstar game that has issues.
1998 Finals series averaged 29 million viewers.
2024 Finals series averaged 11 million viewers.
The population of the US increased by 51 million during that period.
LeBron James killed the dunk contest, and Kobe Bryant killed the All-Star game. Kobe was the last guy of the previous generation to maintain a minimum level of competitive pride in any basketball game. The biggest stars of the subsequent generation don't have the right mix of appeal, competitiveness (for an exhibition), and support from the league to sustain All-Star game entertainment value over recent years.
The NBA needs to continue to seek out player-focused incentives that cultivate intrinsic competitiveness, and I don't think cash prizes are the only answer. Dividing All-Star teams in a manner that promotes competitiveness is definitely a step in the right direction, but there are numerous ways the NBA can still manage to screw it up, such as the asinine idea of having TNT guys draft teams. I think they should try to push the envelope a bit and do something like designate 4 ASG team captains early in the season and put them in charge of recruiting their 8-man squad for two months prior to All-Star Weekend.
The league must implement a scheme that challenges players egos enough to make the game entertaining, otherwise just cancel the damn thing and lean into individual competitions and corporate parties.
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I don’t think LeBron killed the dunk contest…we’ve had some pretty great dunk contests(AG vs LaVine) that happened well after LeBron. I guess he did make it ok for the top guys to skip the dunk contest though. Biggest problem is we’ve just seen almost everything now and have been desensitized to it.
You'll never talk me off of that LeBron take. The dunk contest has been largely terrible since Vince Carter. LaVine and Gordon did a good job, but that was short lived. Everything else has been corny or outright embarrassing.
Think about this, he's arguably the most explosive and athletically gifted NBA player ever and he will have never participated in a career that will have spanned 20-plus seasons. We're approaching the end of the "LeBron generation" of NBA history and the dunk contest died during that time.
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Ya I see the argument… I guess I’m not convinced things would be different now if Lebron competed, but it might’ve been. We probably at least would’ve seen Ja, Ant, Zion, etc compete, so you might be right.
LeBron James killed the dunk contest, and Kobe Bryant killed the All-Star game. Kobe was the last guy of the previous generation to maintain a minimum level of competitive pride in any basketball game. The biggest stars of the subsequent generation don't have the right mix of appeal, competitiveness (for an exhibition), and support from the league to sustain All-Star game entertainment value over recent years.
The NBA needs to continue to seek out player-focused incentives that cultivate intrinsic competitiveness, and I don't think cash prizes are the only answer. Dividing All-Star teams in a manner that promotes competitiveness is definitely a step in the right direction, but there are numerous ways the NBA can still manage to screw it up, such as the asinine idea of having TNT guys draft teams. I think they should try to push the envelope a bit and do something like designate 4 ASG team captains early in the season and put them in charge of recruiting their 8-man squad for two months prior to All-Star Weekend.
The league must implement a scheme that challenges players egos enough to make the game entertaining, otherwise just cancel the damn thing and lean into individual competitions and corporate parties.
As much as I didn’t like it at the time, I think MLB did the right thing tying home field advantage in the finals to the winner of the all-start game. Maybe the NBA could do something similar.
