New NBA All-Star Format Announced

[VaDe255]

Make it East vs West, who ever wins has home court in the finals

[bkkrh]

Considering the prize pool for the actual All Star game this year is only 1.8m this year to split across 32 different players, I don't think they have the necessary funds to make it worthwhile. I'd also disagree completely that you don't need best players/stars to participate because its a marquee event and nobody is going to tune into role players duking it out. Look at Mac McClung in the dunk contest, yes he was one of the best participant's we've ever had but it just didn't pop the same because he is fringe NBA player.

Because there was also 0 effort put into marketing. He was presented as a nobody from the G-League, when he went viral 6 years ago while playing in high school. His videos had over a Million views while he was in high school, it would have been super easy to market him, heck just show snippets from those videos. You are speaking about the complete extreme on the opposite end here. The 2023 contest featured McClung, 2 late 2nd rounders and a mid lottery pick. KJ Martin was and is the only player that until now that looks like decent NBA talent. In 2024 you had a real star with Jaylen Brown, an interesting rookie with Jaime Jaquez Jr., but also again Jacob Toppin, who has played to this day 59 minutes in the NBA.

If you say you need stars you are historically wrong. The old Slam Dunk contests look loaded, since we know what these players turned into. If we look at where they were at in their career at that point, a lot of times they weren't stars, just promising and exiting young players. During the 80s you always had at least 1 star participating, but that completely changed in the 90s already.

1991 - Dee Brown wins, Shawn Kemp is in his 2nd season
1992 - 2nd season Cedric Ceballos wins, Rookie Larry Johnson and 3rd year Shawn Kemp
1993 - Harold Miner wins, no star
1995 - Harold Miner wins, no star
1996 - Brent Barry wins, rookie Finley and rookie Stackhouse
1997 - Rookie Kobe wins, rookie Ray Allen and 2nd season Finley
2001 - Desmond Mason wins
2003 - 2nd season Jason Richardson wins, Rookie Amare
2004 - Fred Jones wins
2006 - Nate Robinson wins
2007 - Gerald Green wins, Dwight Howard's 3rd season, you could argue it was his breakout season
2010 - Nate Robinson wins, Rookie DeMar DeRozan
2011 - Rookie Blake Griffin wins, 2nd season DeMar DeRozan
2012 - Jeremy Evans wins, 2nd season Paul George
2013 - Terrence Ross wins

For any of the other seasons in that period you barely had more than one star player. I won´t go through the last 10 years, because I think that´s pretty much known and people complained pretty much every year where Zach Lavine and/or Aaron Gordon didn´t participate and neither of them were considered to be star players at that point either.

So the superstars dunking it out thing doesn't exist anymore as a regular thing for over 30 years.

Related to my original idea, as long as you get some players that put on a decent show, people will be interested. There are dozens of Basketball Youtubers with over a Million subscribers that are not even close to NBA level that create 1 vs 1 content. They either didn't play college at all, were D3, D2, or at best mediocre D1 players. They have a young fanbase. I'm pretty sure that the NBA should be able to turn this into an entertaining product if some Youtubers having 2 guys filming them with hand cameras are able to do so.

In regards to the 3pt contest, you might want to take a look at who they get to participate every year. There's a reason why it's the event of the weekend and it's largely due to guys like Dame, KAT, Steph etc shooting.

Some seasons yes, some seasons no. There were also more than enough seasons where you had at best one star. The last few seasons it's definitely the case, but the majority of events had 1 or 2 stars and otherwise 3-point specialists. I doubt that people watch the event only to see Steph shoot 3-pointers for 2-3 minutes and are ok with watching 6 other randos as well for that. It's more likely related to it being by nature a competitive event, that isn't impacted by athleticism, creativity and audience reaction as the slam dunk contest.

[/quote]Well for one, the games are going to be a lot shorter with a target score of just 40pts. With roster of 8 guys vs 12, there is also going to more playing time for everybody involved to get invested in the outcome. The reason to watch every game is because it it will feature at minimum 8 of the best players so far. The group that will likely make up the Rising Stars will also heavily feature last year's stacked draft class with Wemby, Chet, Miller, Lively, Thompson twins etc.[/quote]

Well, we will see.

[/quote]Your right there shouldn't be a need for the league to intervene but with the game in the state it is in now, they needed to do something. Maybe drastically changing the format will help? - Maybe it won't they couldn't afford to just let it be since the league treats the weekend as premier sporting event to showcase it's stars. They tried last year to motivate the guys by brining in former legends for a pep talk/rally and we all seen how last year's game played out.

I highly doubt the coaches will have any influence. It's not like they're installing any real sets during their time. Punishing guys by not selecting them as All Stars in future seasons because they didn't put in any effort in the previous All Star game makes no sense.[/quote]

Gere it depends as what we actually see All Stars. Is it just a title, like some kind of mid-season recognition like All NBA teams at the end of the season? I'd say this is how it is viewed today by a lot of players and also fans. At the same time fans are voting the starting five, which has more to do with popularity than with player skill.

So a solution might be to just split it up. Let the NBA nominate a Top 25 at the end of the season. The current 25 best players unrelated to position. These were the 25 best players this year. Have an All Star game that is focused on entertainment. Let the fans vote all players. Players can select to not be added to the voting list beforehand, because they don't care about that game. So if fans wanna vote in players like AI in 09-10 even though he had barely played and was a shadow of himself, no problem.

Otherwise, maybe just sit it out a season, happened with the Slam Dunk contest multiple times when people lost interest. A lot of times you don't value things until you miss them.

[famicommander]

All star games suck.

They suck in every sport. They have always sucked. You remember them being better in the past because you were a child. We talkin' about practice here. Not a game. Not a game. Practice.

Just get rid of it.

[phanman]

Because there was also 0 effort put into marketing. He was presented as a nobody from the G-League,

Spoiler:

when he went viral 6 years ago while playing in high school. His videos had over a Million views while he was in high school, it would have been super easy to market him, heck just show snippets from those videos. You are speaking about the complete extreme on the opposite end here. The 2023 contest featured McClung, 2 late 2nd rounders and a mid lottery pick. KJ Martin was and is the only player that until now that looks like decent NBA talent. In 2024 you had a real star with Jaylen Brown, an interesting rookie with Jaime Jaquez Jr., but also again Jacob Toppin, who has played to this day 59 minutes in the NBA.

If you say you need stars you are historically wrong. The old Slam Dunk contests look loaded, since we know what these players turned into. If we look at where they were at in their career at that point, a lot of times they weren't stars, just promising and exiting young players. During the 80s you always had at least 1 star participating, but that completely changed in the 90s already.

1991 - Dee Brown wins, Shawn Kemp is in his 2nd season
1992 - 2nd season Cedric Ceballos wins, Rookie Larry Johnson and 3rd year Shawn Kemp
1993 - Harold Miner wins, no star
1995 - Harold Miner wins, no star
1996 - Brent Barry wins, rookie Finley and rookie Stackhouse
1997 - Rookie Kobe wins, rookie Ray Allen and 2nd season Finley
2001 - Desmond Mason wins
2003 - 2nd season Jason Richardson wins, Rookie Amare
2004 - Fred Jones wins
2006 - Nate Robinson wins
2007 - Gerald Green wins, Dwight Howard's 3rd season, you could argue it was his breakout season
2010 - Nate Robinson wins, Rookie DeMar DeRozan
2011 - Rookie Blake Griffin wins, 2nd season DeMar DeRozan
2012 - Jeremy Evans wins, 2nd season Paul George
2013 - Terrence Ross wins

For any of the other seasons in that period you barely had more than one star player. I won´t go through the last 10 years, because I think that´s pretty much known and people complained pretty much every year where Zach Lavine and/or Aaron Gordon didn´t participate and neither of them were considered to be star players at that point either.

So the superstars dunking it out thing doesn't exist anymore as a regular thing for over 30 years.

Related to my original idea, as long as you get some players that put on a decent show, people will be interested. There are dozens of Basketball Youtubers with over a Million subscribers that are not even close to NBA level that create 1 vs 1 content. They either didn't play college at all, were D3, D2, or at best mediocre D1 players. They have a young fanbase. I'm pretty sure that the NBA should be able to turn this into an entertaining product if some Youtubers having 2 guys filming them with hand cameras are able to do so.

Hate to break it to you, but in the grand scheme of things, McClung was/is a nobody from the G League man. Him having viral videos mean absolutely nothing because he simply isn't an NBA product. Even hardcore fans like us would find it hard to recognize him without his jersey on. Also I never said you just need superstars to create intrigue, but you do need recognizable talent. The 2023 contest was an absolute disaster in regards to participants and even last season feature 2 guys on G League rosters. JB was a nice addition on paper but that performance was just pitiful.

A majority of those dunk contests you listed were pretty bad. It's the reason why the league needs their marquee stars in it to participate because the level of excitement just increases when you have household names in the contest. Its precisely the reason why the 3pt contest has overtaken the dunk contest as being most exciting. The guys we want in the contest won't do it and there is more to gain from losing than actually winning it nowadays.

Some seasons yes, some seasons no. There were also more than enough seasons where you had at best one star. The last few seasons it's definitely the case, but the majority of events had 1 or 2 stars and otherwise 3-point specialists. I doubt that people watch the event only to see Steph shoot 3-pointers for 2-3 minutes and are ok with watching 6 other randos as well for that. It's more likely related to it being by nature a competitive event, that isn't impacted by athleticism, creativity and audience reaction as the slam dunk contest.

The 3pt contest does get the benefit of having more participants in it, so they already start with an advantage. Especially with this modern game and the increase in the 3pt shooting, there's always going to be more guys willing to attend. Just like you went back in history regarding the previous dunk contests, you'd be surprised by the turnout of recognizable names wanting to shoot. Even those 3pt specialists that you try to downplay are far more popular/recognizable than having Mac McClung and Jacob Toppin in the event.

Gere it depends as what we actually see All Stars. Is it just a title, like some kind of mid-season recognition like All NBA teams at the end of the season? I'd say this is how it is viewed today by a lot of players and also fans. At the same time fans are voting the starting five, which has more to do with popularity than with player skill.

Getting named as an All Star is still an incredible achievement and one that isn't taken lightly. There is a reason why whenever a player is introduce they write below his name (x) time All star. Starters aren't completely voted in by fans anymore. They added in the weighted voting to ensure that guys who don't deserve the nod, don't end up as starters.

So a solution might be to just split it up. Let the NBA nominate a Top 25 at the end of the season. The current 25 best players unrelated to position. These were the 25 best players this year. Have an All Star game that is focused on entertainment. Let the fans vote all players. Players can select to not be added to the voting list beforehand, because they don't care about that game. So if fans wanna vote in players like AI in 09-10 even though he had barely played and was a shadow of himself, no problem.

Otherwise, maybe just sit it out a season, happened with the Slam Dunk contest multiple times when people lost interest. A lot of times you don't value things until you miss them.

They already have version of that in place with the All-NBA teams. With the removal of positional voting, the three All-NBA teams are suppose to give a snapshot of the best 15 players that hit the 65 game threshold. Playing an All star game at the end of the season makes absolutely no sense. Your either gearing up for the playoffs or already eliminated and on vacation by the time the Finals wraps up.

[bkkrh]

Hate to break it to you, but in the grand scheme of things, McClung was/is a nobody from the G League man. Him having viral videos mean absolutely nothing because he simply isn't an NBA product. Even hardcore fans like us would find it hard to recognize him without his jersey on. Also I never said you just need superstars to create intrigue, but you do need recognizable talent. The 2023 contest was an absolute disaster in regards to participants and even last season feature 2 guys on G League rosters. JB was a nice addition on paper but that performance was just pitiful.

A majority of those dunk contests you listed were pretty bad. It's the reason why the league needs their marquee stars in it to participate because the level of excitement just increases when you have household names in the contest. Its precisely the reason why the 3pt contest has overtaken the dunk contest as being most exciting. The guys we want in the contest won't do it and there is more to gain from losing than actually winning it nowadays.

I listed 15 of 21 slam dunk contests that took place between 1991 and 2013. That's 71% of all contests during that period. If I consider 2015-2023 we are at 75%. So if the majority of those were bad, why did they still become super popular again in the early 2000s, specifically when no star players were involved?

Of the ones that had star players in it, it was never more than one and most of the time it was a player that had already participated multiple times. Namely Shawn Kemp, Dwight Howard, Jerry Stackhouse, Amare Stoudamire and Steve Francis. Even calling them stars at that point might be in cases like Stackhouse and Francis far fetched.

If you ask people about iconic slam dunk performers per decade they will say Isiah Rider and Harold Miner in the 90s. Vince (was in his 2nd season), Desmond Mason, Jason Richardson, Nate Robinson, Dwight Howard for the 2000s. Blake Griffin, Zach LaVine, Aaron Gordon for the 2010s. None of those players were stars before their first dunk contest, most got known through their Dunk contest performance. Vince, Dwight and Blake were viewed as up and coming stars, that's it.

I never said that McClung was supposed to carry the NBA Dunk Contest. I'd definitely recognize him without an NBA jersey, because him looking like an average guy is what makes him stand out and makes him marketable. I said that instead of acting like there is some nobody from the G-League and nobody knows if he can even dunk, there would have been a chance to also get people involved in watching the dunk contest that normally don't care. He was the main reason I was interested in watching those contests.

Believe me or not, if you search for his high school videos, you'll find 3 separate ones with more than 3 Million views. He has 1.2 Million Instagram followers, there are 60 current NBA players with a higher amount of followers. He has more than Brunson, Haliburton, Banchero, Bam, Randle, Jrue, Holmgren, Gobert, Maxey, Horford, Sengun, Cunningham, JJJ and so on. His Bulls debut video has 1.2 Million views, his Philly debut video 1.8 Million, his Lakers debut video 3.7 Million. We are talking about 1-3 minute long videos of him playing garbage time on a small 3rd party channel. Zion's first NBA game got 1.4 Million views on the official ESPN channel and 6.1 Million on the official NBA channel and Zion was presented as a generational player. He is probably the easiest to market non-star player besides Liangelo Ball.

The 3pt contest does get the benefit of having more participants in it, so they already start with an advantage. Especially with this modern game and the increase in the 3pt shooting, there's always going to be more guys willing to attend. Just like you went back in history regarding the previous dunk contests, you'd be surprised by the turnout of recognizable names wanting to shoot. Even those 3pt specialists that you try to downplay are far more popular/recognizable than having Mac McClung and Jacob Toppin in the event.

I don't try to downplay the participants, I just pointed out that similar to the dunk contest, you had in most seasons still only 1 or 2 star level players participating in that event and otherwise players like Jason Kapono, Wayne Ellington, Joe Harris and so on.

They already have version of that in place with the All-NBA teams. With the removal of positional voting, the three All-NBA teams are suppose to give a snapshot of the best 15 players that hit the 65 game threshold. Playing an All star game at the end of the season makes absolutely no sense. Your either gearing up for the playoffs or already eliminated and on vacation by the time the Finals wraps up.

Never said that the game is supposed to happen at the end of the season. Make a top 25 voting at the end of the season, since normally there is still a separation between All NBA and All Star Level players. Can of course also just then be one general top 25 voting and we have the top 10 or 15 as All NBA. Make an "All Star Game" midseason based on complete fan voting on willing participants. Sit it out if it still sucks.

[doogie_hauser]

Make it East vs West, who ever wins has home court in the finals

* that. Why should Cleveland or Boston be penalised for being the best regular season team ?

[Celts17Pride]

Players disrespected the game so Adam Silver reached into his carnival bag and pulled out this format. NBA has issues.

[ThunderBolt]

They’ll get the exact same amount of my viewing time as they did they last 2 or 3 years.

[JayMKE]

Just cancel the game or only have it every few seasons, there’s no way to make these guys play hard.

[Scoundreldays]

Lame, still most likely won't watch unless I have nothing to do.

[phanman]

I listed 15 of 21 slam dunk contests that took place between 1991 and 2013. That's 71% of all contests during that period. If I consider 2015-2023 we are at 75%. So if the majority of those were bad, why did they still become super popular again in the early 2000s, specifically when no star players were involved?

After they cancelled 2 consecutive years, some guy named Vince Carter injected new life back into the contest. He was already a superstar in his 2nd year in the league after in winning ROTY.

Of the ones that had star players in it, it was never more than one and most of the time it was a player that had already participated multiple times. Namely Shawn Kemp, Dwight Howard, Jerry Stackhouse, Amare Stoudamire and Steve Francis. Even calling them stars at that point might be in cases like Stackhouse and Francis far fetched.

If you ask people about iconic slam dunk performers per decade they will say Isiah Rider and Harold Miner in the 90s. Vince (was in his 2nd season), Desmond Mason, Jason Richardson, Nate Robinson, Dwight Howard for the 2000s. Blake Griffin, Zach LaVine, Aaron Gordon for the 2010s. None of those players were stars before their first dunk contest, most got known through their Dunk contest performance. Vince, Dwight and Blake were viewed as up and coming stars, that's it.

Those are some great names you listed there and I agree that not all of them were stars when they competed but they were recognizable guys. Every single of them were electric in game dunkers, meaning they had real NBA roles and actually played in the league.

I never said that McClung was supposed to carry the NBA Dunk Contest. I'd definitely recognize him without an NBA jersey, because him looking like an average guy is what makes him stand out and makes him marketable. I said that instead of acting like there is some nobody from the G-League and nobody knows if he can even dunk, there would have been a chance to also get people involved in watching the dunk contest that normally don't care. He was the main reason I was interested in watching those contests.

Believe me or not, if you search for his high school videos, you'll find 3 separate ones with more than 3 Million views. He has 1.2 Million Instagram followers, there are 60 current NBA players with a higher amount of followers. He has more than Brunson, Haliburton, Banchero, Bam, Randle, Jrue, Holmgren, Gobert, Maxey, Horford, Sengun, Cunningham, JJJ and so on. His Bulls debut video has 1.2 Million views, his Philly debut video 1.8 Million, his Lakers debut video 3.7 Million. We are talking about 1-3 minute long videos of him playing garbage time on a small 3rd party channel. Zion's first NBA game got 1.4 Million views on the official ESPN channel and 6.1 Million on the official NBA channel and Zion was presented as a generational player. He is probably the easiest to market non-star player besides Liangelo Ball.

I just wanted to clarify, I have no issue with McClung and I thought he deserved to win both times. The issue is that we are tuning into the NBA Dunk Contest, not the G-League version. I don't think you deserve to participate in it if you don't even play in the league. The whole weekend is meant to celebrate the NBA star's of each particular event. You may not have been a star player on the court overall, but you can still be a star level dunker, shooter, or overall skills in that competition to be featured.

Never said that the game is supposed to happen at the end of the season. Make a top 25 voting at the end of the season, since normally there is still a separation between All NBA and All Star Level players. Can of course also just then be one general top 25 voting and we have the top 10 or 15 as All NBA. Make an "All Star Game" midseason based on complete fan voting on willing participants. Sit it out if it still sucks.

I'm all for league putting out an official list of 25 with how much the game has grown. There's too many talented guys to only have 15 slots celebrated through All-NBA

[VaDe255]

Make it East vs West, who ever wins has home court in the finals

* that. Why should Cleveland or Boston be penalised for being the best regular season team ?

Right now teams in the West are penalized for being the better conference, so this isn't quite fair either.
If you want players to care, up the stakes

[nomansland]

It's been unwatchable for 15+ years, so they don't have anything to lose by changing it.

[zimpy27]

Here's how you do it:

Worst player on the losing team is dropped from historical all star list.

[gpoon]

They are never going to solve the problem because the problem is that the player won’t care about any game played. They just want to be named allstar and have some wannabe red carpet stuff.

How about this… 24 players are invited to the all star game… only 12 will come out as all stars…

[Black Jack]

Just go back to east vs west with winner getting a non trivial amount of money per player. For $1M or something guys will take it seriously.

Tournament is a stupid idea.

[Jailblazers7]

I’m down to try it & see how things go. The carnival aspect of having the TNT three stooges draft the teams will be funny & it can’t be worse than the current format.

I feel like financial incentives just wont work anymore, it has to be some other competitive incentive.

[JDR720]

Make it East vs West. The winner gets home court in the Finals.

Make the playoffs top 5, the 1 seed gets a bye.

6-10 play the playin tournament. The 6th seed automatically advances to the final round. 7 seed vs 10 seed. 8 vs 9. The winner plays each other, and then the 6th seed. All single elimination games.

[Mamba Mentality]

This generation of players doesn’t give two **** about playing hard in a meaningless game. It's a damn shame but unless there are greater financial incentives or playoff implications, you're going to get the same product year in and year out. Tweaking the format isn't going to do a thing. Just get rid of the ASG. Name the all-stars to add to players accolades and give the league a week off. I'd like to think that would enhance the product in the second half of the season and draw more viewership.

[DwayneSchintzus]

the clearest way to fix this would be a USA vs. the World format. I think the international players would play hard trying to take down the Americans and it seems like the American players would want to prove something. I think the talent pool is finally good enough for it to be sustainable. I haven't watched the All Star game in 20+ years but I would def tune in.

Giannis, Luka, Jokic, Wemby, SGA, the Wagners, Markkanen, Gobert vs. LeBron, KD, Steph, Edwards, Ja, Tatum, Brown, Embiid, Jimmy, Trae, Mitchell.

if one team gets blown out by 30 it would still be compelling.