The NBA has tried just about everything. It had the fans pick All-Star Game captains, who in turn selected their team playground style for a game that had a target-score ending. Last season they went back to the old school East vs. West. The league has upped the amount of money going to charity based on the game’s outcome.
Nothing has made the NBA All-Star Game competitive or compelling. It has remained a defense-free zone of dunks and uncontested 3s, an exhibition without stakes that has little to interest fans outside of the raw star power of the event.
That hasn’t stopped the league from trying to find the secret sauce — and they will try something new this season.
“We’re looking at different formats for this year’s All-Star Game. So it’s not a traditional game format,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Saturday in Mexico City, referring to the game coming on Feb. 16 in San Francisco.
What will that game look like? Good question. That’s still being discussed.
“We’ve had direct conversations with Steph Curry. It’s a home game for him. I know he’s very prideful and wants to make sure that the players put their best foot forward, so we’re looking at other formats,” Silver said. “I think there’s no doubt that the players were disappointed as well in last year’s All-Star Game. We all want to do a better job providing competition and entertainment for our fans.”
The highlight of last February’s All-Star Weekend, what generated the most buzz, was the 3-point shootout between Curry and WNBA star (and now champion) Sabrina Ionescu. That will be back in some form and likely expanded, Silver said.
“Sabrina Ionescu is from the Bay Area. Of course as I said, Steph is going to be there, and I can’t remember if they’ve formally committed or informally committed but they know they’re going to be doing this again. They are looking forward to it,” Silver said. “I think as soon as they walked off the court after the competition last year, in fact they said we need more than one round to make it even fairer. So we’re going to be doing more things.”
More skill-related competitions could be fun, but the Sunday All-Star Game itself may be unsalvagable.
Ask the players about why it’s so non-competitive and the first thing that comes up is the injury risk — elite NBA players are not going to take charges, play physical defense, dive for balls or do anything else that risks injury for a meaningless exhibition, especially one that falls right before of the final push to the playoffs. These players carry their respective teams, they aren’t going to put those goals at risk for an exhibition. Players are more concerned with getting the weekend done, fulfilling their league and sponsorship duties, and then getting to a warm sandy beach for a few days of rest before the grind of the season starts again.
The NFL has done away with the Pro Bowl game for much the same reason, the game was uninteresting as players strived to avoid injury. It has gone to skills competitions and some flag football. The NHL, like the NBA, played around with formats and settled on a 3-on-3 tournament (last season with players drafted onto one of four teams), a much more wide-open style of game with less contact.
Silver doesn’t seem ready to give up on the All-Star Game idea yet. He ultimately may not have a choice.
This year, however, we’ll get some other funky format. Apparently.
