I think we stumbled on an actual fix for the All star game

[louc1970]

Bring in a team from the other international leagues. A team from the Euro-league and a team from the Australian league.

Then you have 4 teams - one American from the NBA, one foreign from the NBA, then each of the leagues All-stars above.

[ShootersShoot]

If the players try harder, people will just get on them for trying too hard in a meaningless game

[phanman]

At this point the game is broken. I think you just cancel the game for a few years and hopefully the players miss it and try whenever the league feels they are ready to bring it back. No amount of money or changing of the game concept is going to persuade these guys from playing hard. People keeping saying East vs West, but there is no sense of pride on either side of the conference that would make it any different.

I usually tune in every year just for fun, but this year with the crazy snow we got I just didn't have the time. Judging from the reactions I seen on social media and the 10min highlight clip through the NBA App, it seems there was no sense of urgency from any of the 4 teams.

[The Servant]

The fix is to just take a break as a fan from expecting ANYTHING good. If you kept going to a restaurant and the food was consistently cold and not to your liking then I hate to say it:

You're the problem, and you're an idiot for consuming it.

It's junk. It's a meaningless exhibition game for kids. If you are 30s and mad about it, grow up and get a life, and watch the yoffs and regular season. Watch March Madness.

DONT watch this product if you want a good product. It is simple. It's millionaires jacking up 3s on a weekend where they get to hang with bros and party and relax.

[magee]

The Ringer's Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor discuss the top 10 story lines of the NBA, including the Serge Ibaka trade (5:00), Kevin Love's injury (10:00), Mike Budenholzer backing Paul Millsap (14:00), Nikola Jokic's breakout performance (22:15), LaMarcus Aldridge's All-Star snub (34:00), the newly coined NBA G-League (41:00), and 'John Wick 2' (44:00).

Talk about a flash from the past!

[Jasen777]

In world cup and Olympic years I'd like to steal an idea MLS did one time and do NBA all-stars vs. Team USA. Maybe Team USA could get a practice in even (that is before the game which could also be practice). This is a bit different from USA vs. World as the NBA All-Stars would also have the top American players not to be on team USA, assuming the global depth isn't quite there. Team USA would have a few players that aren't all-stars but I'm ok with that.

Last year we'd have something like (before injury replacements) -

Team USA

Curry / Holiday / Haliburton
Booker / Edwards /White
Tatum / Durant
LeBron / Adebayo
Embiid / Davis


NBA All-Stars

Lillard / Brunson / Maxey
SGA /Mitchell
Doncic /Leonard / Brown
Antetokounmpo /Banchero
Jokic / Towns

Roster construction was a bit rough but it's just an all-star game. I kept the players Team USA had start the most as starters and kept the other players selected as starters as starters for the NBA All-Stars team. And yes, Team USA is going to have to bring it to compete with a combination of the high end international talent and American players who may have felt spurned by not being selected for the Olympics.

[zimpy27]

Seems like the NBA reads these boards for ideas as per wiretap

[JRoy]

Let fans shoot free throws.

[Bush4Ever]

I had a weird "back of the napkin" idea for the AS game:

Go back to East vs. West. Play game. Get a winner.

At the following draft, randomly select a team from the winning conference to swap picks with the team in the losing conference closest to them (going forward).

So for example if the West happened to win, and Dallas got randomly selected, and the draft order went 16-East, 17-West, 18-Dallas, Dallas and the 16th selection team would switch places to Dallas, 17th-West, 18-East.

The switch could generate differences of "basically nothing at all" (like if the swap happened to two teams at the end of the 1st round) to the potentially huge in a narrow set of circumstances (like a 3rd vs 1st pick swap when there is a generational talent going number 1, etc...).