The NBA All-Star Game: Time for a Format Change?

Early morning on February 20, 2017 in Spain, Anthony Davis raised the now called Kobe Bryant trophy, recognizing his performance as the best player in the All-Star Game with his 52 points. At that time, the center was the star of the Pelicans. That weekend, coincidences of life Abrines and Willy, teammates this season at Barça, shared a team with the last two MVPs, Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid. Few people would imagine that that day would be the last edition that we would see an East-West conference matchup. In recent years, criticism about the players’ lack of intensity has led the NBA to begin considering a big change in the current format. Adam Silver spoke about the possible return to the format that from 1951 to 2017 was held uninterruptedly, with the exception of the 1999 season due to the lockout, although it ended up being held in 2002.

The current format

In 2018 the captains’ team format would be born. The two players most voted by fans to participate in the All-Star would become captains of the two teams. As a draft, the captains would choose their teammates, who had previously been chosen to participate in the game, until they formed their team. In addition, each team will choose a charity to which they will donate as a result of the prize received for winning the match. The first captains would be LeBron and Curry, with victory for the Cavaliers player, in addition to receiving the MVP of the game. The following year with the same format, Giannis would replace Curry as captain, in the edition in which Nowitzki and Wade would join the teams symbolically, since both players would retire at the end of that season.

In 2020, same captains, but the format would receive changes in rules and scoring. The team that scored the most points during three first 12-minute quarters received a cash prize, which was donated to a charity. The last quarter, without a stopwatch, is decided in favor of the first team to reach or exceed a “target score.” The final target score is determined by taking the total cumulative score of the leading team for three quarters and adding 24 points.

In the next three years the changes would continue and criticism about poor performance and defensive involvement would lead to a possible change in format. The audience is proof of this, the NBA All-Star Game with the smallest audience in history. The 2023 All-Star Game averaged 4.6 million viewers, 27% less than the previous year’s edition and 22% less than the 2021 game, considered, until now, the NBA All-Star Game with the least following in history, with 5.9 million viewers.

New way?

Adam Silver has recently mentioned that they are looking at and considering possible changes to the All-Star format, perhaps returning to something more traditional. The loss of audiences jeopardizes the current format, created as a tribute to the number Kobe wore in the Lakers. Some ideas that were launched to encourage increased competitiveness of the players are to give the home field advantage to the team from the winning conference that manages to reach the final. We certainly could have seen the latest edition of this “target score” format last season. The most nostalgic fans dream of the possibility of seeing the east versus west duel again. Even the circumstance that occurred several decades ago in which the players played this game with the shirts of their franchises. It is increasingly clear that the NBA has to reinvent the All-Star game model if it does not want to see how the interest of fans, and even of some players, declines every year. Last year Harden and Butler resigned to fill the position due to injuries to Durant, Zion or Curry.

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2023-10-23 06:51:41
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