New All-Star Format Produces Same Desultory Results
At least some of the players tried some of the time.
Sadly, that is the best that can be said about the NBA's new All-Star Game format featuring four teams playing a mini-tournament consisting of games that are each an untimed race to 40 points. TNT's Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kenny Smith picked the rosters for three of the four teams out of a player pool consisting of this year's 24 NBA All-Stars. Barkley's Global Stars included players with an international connection, O'Neal's OGs included veteran American players, and Smith's Young Stars included young American players. Trae Young was selected by Commissioner Adam Silver as a replacement for the injured Giannis Antetokounmpo on the Global Stars, and Silver tapped Kyrie Irving to replace the injured Anthony Davis on the OGs. LeBron James (OGs) and Anthony Edwards (Young Stars) waited until the day of the game to decide that they could not play, and thus no replacements were selected for either of them. The fourth team, Candace Parker's Rising Stars, included rookies and second year NBA players who won the Rising Stars event on Friday night.
I've been following the NBA since the 1970s, and the NBA All-Star Game used to be one of my favorite events, but recently it has become something that I watch more out of a sense of duty than a feeling of joy; during the 1980s, I loved watching the East's Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, and Isiah Thomas compete against the West's Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and George Gervin because the players had fun and showed off their individual skills while playing to win--but in recent years the All-Star Game has featured various gimmicky formats while the only thing the players competed at was showing who was least interested in playing hard.
Last night, after numerous breaks in the action for Kevin Hart to ham it up, the OGs defeated the Global Stars 41-25 in the championship game. The OGs raced out to an 11-0 lead and never looked back. Bay Area hero Stephen Curry was the inevitable choice for the Kobe Bryant All-Star Game MVP award after he scored 12 points on 4-8 field goal shooting (attempting no shots inside the arc), though a credible argument could be made that Jayson Tatum (15 points on 6-7 field goal shooting, three rebounds, two assists) had a bigger impact. The Stephen Curry All-Star moment that I will never forget--and that symbolizes how far the All-Star Game has plummeted--did not happen in 2025, but was when he lay down on the court in 2017 to permit an uncontested dunk.
The Global Stars qualified for the championship game by defeating the Young Stars 41-32, while the OGs beat the Rising Stars 42-35. It would have been fitting if the Rising Stars had won against an OGs team packed with star power, but the OGs closed the game on an 18-9 run after the Rising Stars enjoyed a brief 26-24 lead. The OGs played some defense down the stretch, but still flirted with disaster by missing four three pointers after scoring their 37th point before they closed the game out with a Kevin Durant dunk and a long Damian Lillard three pointer; it never seemed to occur to the OGs to take two easy two pointers instead of firing away from long range, which says a lot not only about the All-Star Game but also about the way that "stat gurus" have skewed basketball with their emphasis on "advanced basketball statistics" as opposed to sensible basketball strategy focusing on attacking the paint, defending the paint, and not relying on high variance long range shots. The Rising Stars played hard but just did not have enough talent to match up with a squad featuring four players on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
Recent All-Star Games have been defined by the players jacking up three pointers and playing no defense, culminating in last year's fiasco featuring 168 combined three point field goal attempts and just five combined free throw attempts. This year, some players--most notably Victor Wembanyama of the Global Stars and Jaylen Brown of the OGs--played defense, but in the championship game the teams combined to attempt 33 of their 59 field goal attempts from three point range while shooting just four combined free throw attempts. Wembanyama scored a team-high 11 points on 5-7 field goal shooting in defeat.
The inescapable conclusion is that some of these players do not want to participate at all, and most of the players refuse to play hard. During the 2025 Legends Brunch--the highlight of the weekend--Rick Barry reminisced about the 1967 NBA All-Star Game, a contest during which the teams combined to attempt 63 free throws. At that time, the players had enough personal pride to compete against each other, but that started to fade in the early 2000s after Michael Jordan retired, and then in the past 10 years or so it completely disappeared. None of the NBA's experimental All-Star Game formats have worked because no amount of begging or extra money will induce these players to compete.
There is only one solution, and I proposed it during my 2024 All-Star Game recap: get rid of the All-Star Game. The players don't want to play, and I can't imagine that many fans enjoyed watching these choppy games interrupted by goofy skits (though it was fun watching a fan win $100,000 after making one half court shot before Lillard could make three half court shots). The NBA should not only stop having an All-Star Game but it should restructure existing contracts that have bonus clauses for being selected as an All-Star, and those bonuses should be tied to objectively measurable performance goals combined with a minimum number of games played. If the NBA thinks that fans just want to see three point shooting interspersed with musical performances and comedic skits then the league should end the pretense of calling that event an All-Star Game and instead just have an "NBA Entertainment Extravaganza" featuring those things.
It was hilarious to hear Draymond Green--a guest commentator on TNT who is preparing for the next stage of his life when he can no longer bask in Stephen Curry's reflected glory--complaining all night about the All-Star format. He whined that the All-Star court is "sacred" ground and that the Rising Stars have no right to even set foot on the court, and he griped that the new format prevents players from ever breaking single game All-Star records. Charles Barkley challenged Green, bluntly declaring, "His generation messed the game up." As noted above, I don't like any All-Star format other than East versus West with both teams playing hard, but Green has no credibility criticizing anything in the NBA; he is lucky to even be in the league--let alone featured as a commentator--after a career that includes numerous dirty plays and violent actions. If modern All-Stars had taken the All-Star Game seriously then they would not have had to worry about their "sacred" ground being sullied by the presence of basketball players who are not superstars.
Note that the 2025 All-Stars were given the opportunity to play for more money in a shorter format; players on the winning team received $125,000 each, an increase from the $100,000 that each player on the winning team received last year, which was an increase from the $50,000 that each player on the winning team received prior to 2018. Yes, All-Star Game winners receive more money for a few hours of "effort" than most people earn in an entire year--and that money is on top of their huge salaries, plus the six or seven figure bonuses that many players get just for being selected as an All-Star.
No, Draymond, we don't feel sorry about "sacred" ground being sullied, but many of us are offended by the combination of greed and sloth displayed by so many players. Unlike some people, I don't have a huge issue with the general concept of athletes making a lot of money: they are the best in the world at what they do, and what they do generates billions of dollars in revenue. However, I am increasingly offended by the entitled attitudes of so many players who want more and more money for doing less and less work, and who have no compunction about breaching their contracts on a whim when they decide that they would prefer to play somewhere else. For those of you who do not understand contract law, teams have the legal right to cut or trade players (and the players with guaranteed contracts still get paid anyway), but players do not have the legal right to get out of shape and stop playing hard if they decide that they don't like their current employment circumstances; the notion that teams "have no loyalty so it is OK for players to have no loyalty" reflects a misunderstanding of the employer-employee dynamic. If the players want the absolute right to play or not play whenever they want, then they should agree to not have their contracts guaranteed. Then, guys like Jimmy Butler and James Harden can stop getting paid right after they stop playing hard, and guys like Joel Embiid can get paid if and only if they show up for work.
Green was not content to rain on Silver's All-Star parade. Green provided more comic relief than Hart, declaring that the Golden State Warriors will win the 2025 NBA title. When Joe Namath made his famous guarantee prior to Super Bowl III, he was the best player on the New York Jets and arguably the best player in pro football. In marked contrast, Green has never been better than the third best player on his own team except for the one season when all of the great players left or got injured, after which Green led the Warriors to a 15-50 record while posting his typical "triple single" averages. Adding Jimmy Butler should make the Warriors a better team in the short term, but the Warriors currently are clinging to the 10th seed in the West; if they move out of the Play-In Tournament field and into the top six that would be an accomplishment, and if they win a playoff series that would be a surprise--but imagining them winning four playoff series is delusional, and making such a prediction as the team's third best player is absurd and delusional.
If Commissioner Silver does not cancel the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, then he should at least put a clown's hat on Green and replace Hart with Green so that the audience understands that Green is there for comic relief and not serious commentary.
Recent NBA All-Star Game Recaps:
The 2024 NBA All-Star Game Descends to New Lows as Any Pretense of Defense is Abandoned (2024)
"The 2023 NBA All-Star Game may have been not only the worst NBA All-Star Game ever, but possibly the worst basketball game ever played by high level players--until the 2024 NBA All-Star Game sunk to a new low: the teams launched 168 three point shots while attempting just five free throws as the Eastern Conference All-Stars routed the Western Conference All-Stars, 211-186. That is not competitive basketball, and it is unrecognizable compared to what the All-Star Game used to be: in 1994, the East beat the West 127-118 in a game featuring a combined 60 free throw attempts but just 30 three point field goal attempts; there was no shortage of highlight plays/moments but the most important thing is that the players competed.
During the wonderful 2024 NBA Legends Brunch, Larry Bird praised today's players and made a request: "The one thing I would really like to see is they play hard in tonight's All-Star Game. I think it's very important when you have the best players in the world together you've got to compete and you've got to play hard."
Instead, the players disrespected themselves, the sport, and the legends who built the game that provides them with the opportunity to receive generational wealth. No one is expecting the All-Star Game to resemble game seven of the NBA Finals, but the refusal of the modern players to even pretend to want to compete is sad...
We hear so much about how great Commissioner Adam Silver is, but it appears that he is praised because he tends to let the players do whatever they want, in contrast to his predecessor David Stern, who viewed himself as a caretaker of the sport as a whole.
Considering how little today's best players care about putting even
forth minimal effort, the NBA should get rid of not just the
All-Star Game but even the concept of being an All-Star: retain All-Star
Saturday Night (it could be renamed something else, like NBA Showcase
Saturday) and of course retain the Legends Brunch, but the All-Star Game
serves no purpose, and being selected as an All-Star in today's NBA has
no meaning. Only the awards given after the season matter, so let the
players grumble about having to play at least 65 out of 82 games--oh,
the suffering!--to be eligible to win those awards.
Here is
the challenge to Silver: fix the All-Star Game, or have the intestinal
fortitude to not only get rid of it but to publicly say that he is
getting rid of it because the players do not take it seriously enough to
deserve to have it and to receive the bonuses associated with being
selected for it."
The 2023 NBA All-Star Game May Have Been the Worst Basketball Game Ever (2023)
"The 2023 NBA All-Star Game was not only the worst NBA All-Star Game ever, but it may have been the worst basketball game ever 'contested'--and I use that word with hesitation--by high level players. Denver Nuggets Coach Michael Malone, who coached Team LeBron, made this statement after Team Giannis prevailed 184-175: 'It's an honor to be here, and it's an honor to be a part of a great weekend with great players, but it's the worst basketball game ever played.' Malone also admitted that he has no idea how to fix the game.
The NBA All-Star Game began its horrific slide to irrelevance several years ago (see game recaps appended to this article for more details), but yesterday the league's showcase midseason event descended to a nadir from which there may be no recovery.
At its best, NBA basketball
is about the world's greatest athletes competing at a high level at both
ends of the court while working together to help their team win. At its
worst--and its worst was on full display last night--NBA basketball is
about players flaunting their individual skills without any connection
to team success while their 'opponents' step aside and watch instead of
competing on defense. The 2023 NBA All-Star Game was such an abomination
that it is difficult to decide which moment was the worst."
NBA Formally Honors the 75th Anniversary Team, Stephen Curry Wins the All-Star Game MVP (2022)
"How much has the All-Star Game devolved from an actual competition featuring the league's best players to an exhibition of players demonstrating individual skills devoid of competition or team play? Free throws are a quick way to gauge physicality/defense. The 2022 All-Star Game included eight fouls, four of which were called in the fourth quarter, and Team LeBron shot 2-2 from the free throw line while Team Durant shot 7-7 from the free throw line. This season, NBA teams average a little over 21 free throw attempts per game, so it is obvious that the All-Star Game featured few fouls, few free throws, very little physicality, and token defense compared to a normal NBA game.
All-Star
Games used to be played much differently. In the first NBA All-Star
Game, the East beat the West 98-93 in overtime in 1954 with the East
shooting 36 of 44 from the free throw line and the West shooting 17-26
from the free throw line. In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain set an All-Star
single game scoring record (42 points) that stood for 55 years.
Chamberlain shot 8-16 from the free throw line, and his East squad shot
24-43 from the free throw line. The West, which won 150-130, shot 36-51
from the free throw line. Chamberlain's scoring record took place during
a competitive game, and the record stood until long after NBA All-Star
Games ceased to be competitive; his record is so exceptional that even
in an era during which it is much easier to score in All-Star Games only
two players have surpassed the standard that he set--and Curry did so
by making a bunch of uncontested three pointers.
"Giannis Antetokounmpo did not have the first perfect shooting performance in NBA All-Star Game history--Hal Greer shot 8-8 from the field en route to scoring 21 points and winning the 1968 NBA All-Star Game MVP--but he set the NBA All-Star Game record for most field goals without a miss (16), and he captured his first All-Star Game MVP by scoring a game-high 35 points as his Team LeBron routed Team Durant, 170-150. Antetokounmpo played just 19 minutes, so he scored nearly two points per minute. Most of Antetokounmpo's shots were lightly contested--if not uncontested--dunks, but he also shot 3-3 from three point range. Each team shot 3-5 from the free throw line as both teams spent most of the game not even pretending to care about defense. Perhaps the league and/or the players think that the fans want to see uncontested dunks and wide open three pointers, but I think/hope that true basketball fans want to see competition. A contested dunk is a great play; an uncontested dunk is just performance art."
"After
three quarters, it seemed that the new NBA All-Star Game format had not
inspired many players from either team to even pretend to play at a
fraction of their full capabilities. Fortunately, the fourth quarter--a
race to 157 points based on adding 24 points (in honor of Kobe Bryant)
to the 133-124 lead enjoyed by Team Giannis over Team LeBron at the end
of the third quarter--featured high level play as both teams looked
fully engaged: Team Giannis' Kyle Lowry seemed to try to take a charge
on every defensive possession, players from both teams contested almost
every shot, and the level of physicality ramped up to top notch regular
season levels, if not even first round playoff levels.
It is mystifying that most NBA players seem to need external motivation
to play their best in the All-Star Game, but with a substantial portion
of the weekend's festivities dedicated to the memory of
Bryant--including naming the All-Star MVP award for him--it would have
been a travesty for the players to just sleepwalk through the entire
proceedings. Kawhi Leonard is a pioneer of the less than commendable
load management scourge, but at least he always plays hard when he is on
the court. Leonard scored a game-high 30 points on 11-18 field goal
shooting (including 8-14 from three point range), grabbed seven
rebounds, dished for four assists, and received the first Kobe Bryant
All-Star Game MVP Award as his Team LeBron won, 157-155."
Kevin Durant Wins his Second All-Star MVP as Team LeBron Overcomes 20 Point Deficit to Defeat Team Giannis, 178-164 (2019)
"The All-Star Game sunk to such depths a few years ago that there were
even whispers that it might be discontinued. Instead, the league changed
the format from East versus West to a format in which the top two
vote-getters conduct a draft consisting of a pool of other All-Stars
selected by fans, coaches and media members. LeBron James faced off
against Giannis Antetokounmpo in this year's All-Star draft. Popular
consensus was that James, whose draft strategy seemed to be focused on
acquiring every major player who will be a free agent soon, got the
better of Antetokounmpo--but it did not look like that initially, as
Team Giannis led 53-37 after the first quarter and 95-82 at halftime.
Antetokounmpo scored a game-high 38 points on 17-23 field
goal shooting, including 10 dunks. He also had 11 rebounds and five
assists. He set the tone in the first quarter with 16 points.
Antetokounmpo's
Milwaukee teammate/All-Star teammate Khris Middleton added 20 points on
7-13 field goal
shooting, including 6-10 from three point range. Middleton scored 12
first quarter points.
To coin--or repeat--a phrase, it seemed like Team LeBron was in 'chill
mode' during the first half, but in the second half they exerted at
least some defensive effort and they rained down a barrage of three
pointers. Team LeBron outscored Team Giannis 96-69 in the second half
while shooting 22-49 from three point range. The teams combined to
attempt 167 three pointers during the game, compared to 108 two pointers
attempted.
Kevin Durant earned MVP honors by scoring 31 points on 10-15 field goal
shooting (including 6-9 from three point range) while also contributing
seven rebounds. He had 11 points on 4-4 field goal shooting in the
fourth quarter. Durant's Golden State teammate Klay Thompson finished
second on Team LeBron with 20 points on 7-16 field goal shooting (6-12
from three point range) and he had eight rebounds and four assists as
well."
LeBron James Earns Third All-Star Game MVP as Team LeBron Outlasts Team Stephen, 148-145 (2018):
"LeBron James scored a game-high 29 points on 12-17 field goal shooting,
grabbed a game-high tying 10 rebounds and dished eight assists as Team
LeBron defeated Team Stephen 148-145 in the first year of the NBA's new All-Star selection format;
instead of the traditional matchup featuring the Eastern Conference
facing the Western Conference, a team of All-Stars picked by LeBron
James faced a team of All-Stars picked by Stephen Curry. The NBA tweaked
the All-Star Game in the wake of several subpar All-Star Games,
culminating in last year's farce.
Before the 2018 All-Star Game, James already held the NBA All-Star Game
career scoring record (314 points) and yesterday he surpassed Julius
Erving (321 points) to set the record for most points scored in ABA and
NBA All-Star Games combined. Bob Pettit (1956, 58, 59, 62) and Kobe
Bryant (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011) share the record with four All-Star Game
MVPs each, while James joined Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and
Shaquille O'Neal as three-time winners; James previously earned the
All-Star Game MVP in 2006 and 2008."
The NBA All-Star Game Has Become a Farce (2017):
"The Western Conference's 192-182 victory over the Eastern Conference is
without question the worst NBA All-Star Game that I have ever watched.
Other than the MLB All-Star Game that ended in a tie (and many NFL Pro
Bowls of recent vintage) it may be the worst major professional league
All-Star Game ever. When the reigning two-time regular season MVP
literally lies down on the court instead of attempting to play defense,
you know that the event has jumped the shark."
Labels: 2025 NBA All-Star Game, Charles Barkley, Draymond Green, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O'Neal, Stephen Curry, Victor Wembanyama
posted by David Friedman @ 12:56 PM
