NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced on Tuesday in a televised press conference on ESPN that changes will be made to the All-Star Game and while not saying if any decision has been finalized, he hinted that the current format of top vote-getters acting as captains and drafting their own teams may be shelved.
“Maybe a return to something more traditional, in terms of how the teams are presented,” Silver said in the interview on ESPN’s “First Take” program. “We went to sort of this captain-draft notion, but clearly, historically, it was East vs. West, so that’s something we are looking at.”
This season’s All-Star Game is at Indianapolis on February 18th. The league has not yet made any official announcement regarding format changes. The first 66 All-Start Games all had the East vs. West format. The previous six have witnessed leading vote-getters from each conference serve as captains who could draft their teams. LeBron James was one of the captains all six times, with Giannis Anetokounmpo being captain three times, Kevin Durant twice and Stephen Curry once.
The last four All-Star Games have used a target score at the end of games, ensuring that the matchup ends on a made shot. The fourth quarters have been untimed; the winner is the first team to reach whatever the leading team had after three quarters, plus 24 points, the 24 is a nod to Kobe Bryant’s last jersey number.
In the first year of the target score, the format saw a fourth quarter that was too dramatic. Last season’s game, however, was almost totally uncompetitive and became a disaster in terms of television ratings in part as some of the big names like James, Antetokoummpo, Durant, and Curry all missed much or all of the All-Star Game because they were injured.
“I mean, it’s fun to kind of get out there and do some dunks and stuff like that,” Utah’s Lauri Markkanen said after last season’s All-Star Game. “But we’re all competitors. I think everybody would enjoy it too if we just play against each other and it gets competitive.”
League officials announced last week that they have been hammering how important it is to improve the quality of the All-Star Game to players. It has been a talking point for years, as has the slam dunk competition which got a serious shot in the arm last season when Mac McClung gave a show for the ages.
“When you turn on an NBA All-Star Game, I think people expect to see some competition,” said Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations. “There’s a happy medium somewhere between a hard-fought playoff game and what you saw last year. … When you have the reaction that fans and people had around the game and just visually, it matters because it didn’t make the product look good.”
It’s unclear when the league will finalize any All-Star Game changes.
“We’ve lost sight a bit that it’s about the game at the end of the day,” Adam Silver said.
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