Why All-Star Games Stink

I am deeply disappointed with the All-Star game’s current format. Why is it that All-Star games have declined in viewership and popularity? Is it just online pessimism, or are there genuine critiques? What can be done to save the game from completely falling out of relevance? Discussions around these questions are necessary to combat the past five years of the All-Star game’s utter failure.

The All-Star game has undergone so many changes that it may be hard to keep up. Created in 1951, the original format was a regular basketball game played between the best players in the Eastern and Western Conferences, voted on by journalists and fellow players. The first major change occurred in 2018 and had team captains choose teams, mixing who played against who. In 2020, the NBA altered the game to have an untimed fourth quarter in which both teams must reach the Final Target Score, precisely 24 points more than the leading team’s points at the third quarter’s end. This remained the basis of the format until the most recent change this year.

The All-Star game this year completely changed the format, splitting the All-Stars into three separate teams. One team would face off against a “Rising Stars” team while the other two would play each other. The games would go on until one team scored 40 points, automatically winning. The winners would then compete in the final match for ultimate glory, again until one side reached 40 points. Maybe in a different world, this format could have increased competitiveness and revived this dying game. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a world.

The game’s format and execution faced widespread criticism. Draymond Green sounded off on the fact that a non-All-Star team played in an All-Star game. Kevin Hart overstayed his welcome, appearing on the screen far too often to give undesired and inappropriate commentary, asking Shaq why he was “dressed like a porn director.” The game exceedingly pandered to the TNT crew, who are moving to ESPN next season. In the middle of one game, they stopped play for 20 minutes to honor the crew. While they undoubtedly deserve to be honored for their decades of broadcasting work, it completely detracted from a game that was already slowly dying.

Beyond these critiques, the game simply wasn’t competitive enough. Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander showed spirit but it didn’t resonate with the other All-Stars. While the semi-final matches were somewhat close, the final game was a 16-point blowout for the “OGs.” The game felt competitive or exciting for perhaps the first few minutes the OGs went up 11-0. Once again, the NBA failed to deliver a competitive and back-and-forth match between the league’s best stars.

The All-Star game’s organization led to other issues as well. Splitting up the games meant less absurd performances to enjoy in a lower-stakes game, like Steph Curry’s 50-point game in 2022. Such an achievement is undoubtedly more intriguing than Curry’s 12-point MVP performance this year. Without milestone performances from the NBA’s best players, there are less tangible things for fans to engage with.

All the critiques previously mentioned build to the ultimate problem: The stars don’t want to play. LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Anthony Edwards did not participate during All-Star weekend. Nor do they want to risk injury in the Dunk Contest: The last Dunk-Contest-winning performance from an All-Star was from Donovan Mitchell in 2018. Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul brought negative attention to the Skills Challenge this year by forgoing genuine attempts and simply racing through the events as quickly as possible. The 3-point contest is probably the only All-Star contest that remains relevant, which makes sense given the competition’s broad attractiveness across the league. The competition requires pure 3-point shooting, a skill that almost all players have to display to play in the modern NBA. It also requires little effort beyond shooting, Regardless, the stars aren’t engaging enough with the All-Star events.

It’s clear that the NBA All-Star game is failing. Only 4.7 million people watched the game this year, the second-lowest total in the past 25 years. Draymond Green went on record numerous times to blast the NBA and the All-Star format this year. Trae Young also complained about the amount of games and the breaks accompanying them. Jaylen Brown thought the stoppages were counterproductive to getting the stars to play more physically. When fans and players both realize that a competition is meaningless, what can be done to fix it?

While many All-Star game formats have struggled across different sports leagues, one league has found a refreshing new idea in its place. The NHL replaced the All-Star format this year with the 4 Nations tournament, featuring the United States, Sweden, Finland, and Canada. The final match between the United States and Canada garnered 9.3 million viewers, nearly double the amount of the NBA All-Star game. Perhaps an international game approach could be something that brings relevance and passion back to the All-Star break? If not, other incentives would be necessary to spark competition between the league’s best players.

Overall, the All-Star format was in its worst state that we’ve ever witnessed this year. Engagement from participants was awful and even worse among fans. Radical change is essential to keeping the competition relevant, whether that means finding a new way to motivate players or dismantling the contest altogether. International tournaments could provide a simple way to market it, although it doesn’t guarantee the NBA’s stars will take their national pride seriously. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver needs to address this issue swiftly and substantially, or the NBA’s business side will continue to take a hit from fans’ dwindling interest.