Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game was the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the game

[Nate505]

Oh and no offense to small markets but stop having it in small markets.

Who gives a damn where the game is actually held. Like are there people actually who will go "oh boy, the All Star game is in LA, I gotta watch it now! I didn't watch it when it was in Cleveland or Salt Lake, but I can't wait to see those three seconds exterior shots of downtown LA and the Hollywood sign!"

Spoken like a true small market fan

Hey, I found the person who actually tunes into the All Star game for those 3 second shots of the city it's in. I'll be damned.

[Nate505]

Oh and no offense to small markets but stop having it in small markets.

Who gives a damn where the game is actually held. Like are there people actually who will go "oh boy, the All Star game is in LA, I gotta watch it now! I didn't watch it when it was in Cleveland or Salt Lake, but I can't wait to see those three seconds exterior shots of downtown LA and the Hollywood sign!"

Unfortunately there actually are. Anytime you have something in LA or NYC there's the potential for celebrities to be in attendance and having celebrities still can generate more eyeballs/pageclicks then not having celebrities. I imagine it would also be a big deal when(not if) the all-star game goes back to Vegas or if Miami ever wanted to host the game as well. It wouldn't surprise me if they ignore the Bucks bid for the game in '25 just to bring it back to LA. Look at the game's ratings when it's in LA compared to when it's not in LA. I personally wouldn't give it to LA next year but in '25 so they could show off the Intuit Dome when it opens.

If the argument is that a celebrity will be a part of something and that will generate more ratings, fine. Don't see what the market has to do with it though. Celebrity's can be flown in to wherever.

If the argument is that because it's in LA, there will be random celebrities out there that the camera will pan to and therefore more people will watch...that seems far fetched.

[Capn'O]

SIlver has tried to commercialize it so damn much that it feels phony, choreographed, and like a money grab spectacle. Combine that with the fact that the dunk contest - which was once the highlight of the weekend - now features mostly bums and the hype that could be built between Saturday and Sunday night is gone. Then you get to the corn ball idea of having guys stand up on a stage and LeBron and east star pick players... it was bad and long. Then you finally get to the game and it's trash. Don't name it after Kobe if the guys want to treat it like a glorified layup line. I mean, watching dude jack up 3's isnt exactly exciting basketball as much as a circus act.

Oh and no offense to small markets but stop having it in small markets.

Yeah, the dunk contest used to be awesome. I think they need to up the prize money for it and then bring in non-NBA dunkers and pit them in competition with the NBA guys. When the nba guys get their clocks cleaned they'll either step it up or bow out and either option would be better than bringing some borderline NBA players up there for a non-show.

[PierceFan4ever]

It’s a shame just how little players want to go one on one against the best in todays nba. We only saw a glimpse of Tatum and brown do it for a minute and that was pretty fun. The days where Kobe and Tmac would go one on one and even young Lebron going at it with young melo/wade is done for. Every star wants a pick to get the switch on the easiest matchup. And in the all star game nobody wants to go one on one out of fear they would get roasted by the internet.

[heezyo2o]

I don't buy the whole injury prevention and load management during the all star game. All these guys play more competitive pickup games all summer....there's no reason they can't do that during an all star game.

They wouldn't waste time with "lay up line" games during their own time

[twozeroMM]

A few things to consider.

- Pay the players
- Go back to East vs. West
- No live draft
- Rid of positions for starters
- Earlier start

[Hipster Doofus]

Good. I hope ratings become worse and worse so that Adam Slither finally does something to address the state of the game today.

[jokeboy86]

Who gives a damn where the game is actually held. Like are there people actually who will go "oh boy, the All Star game is in LA, I gotta watch it now! I didn't watch it when it was in Cleveland or Salt Lake, but I can't wait to see those three seconds exterior shots of downtown LA and the Hollywood sign!"

Unfortunately there actually are. Anytime you have something in LA or NYC there's the potential for celebrities to be in attendance and having celebrities still can generate more eyeballs/pageclicks then not having celebrities. I imagine it would also be a big deal when(not if) the all-star game goes back to Vegas or if Miami ever wanted to host the game as well. It wouldn't surprise me if they ignore the Bucks bid for the game in '25 just to bring it back to LA. Look at the game's ratings when it's in LA compared to when it's not in LA. I personally wouldn't give it to LA next year but in '25 so they could show off the Intuit Dome when it opens.

If the argument is that a celebrity will be a part of something and that will generate more ratings, fine. Don't see what the market has to do with it though. Celebrity's can be flown in to wherever.

If the argument is that because it's in LA, there will be random celebrities out there that the camera will pan to and therefore more people will watch...that seems far fetched.

Yes celebrities have private jets and can pretty much fly everywhere but it is much more likely that celebrities would fly to NYC, LA, Vegas for an all -star game than Cle/SLC/MIL. Not only that but I'm sure they're also considering the events/parties that will be at the location of the game too. And I don't know if its just random celebrities or more celebrities or what that is the sole reason but there's something about the All-Star game in LA that gets better ratings than other cities:


YEAR VENUE RTG VWRS
2022 Cleveland 3.1 6.28M
2021 Atlanta 3.1 5.94M*
2020 Chicago 4.1 7.28M
2019 Charlotte 3.8 6.797M
2018 Los Angeles 4.3 7.654M
2017 New Orleans 4.2 7.751M
2016 Toronto 4.3 7.614M
2015 New York 4.3 7.175M
2014 New Orleans 4.3 7.506M
2013 Houston 4.6 8.020M
2012 Orlando 4.4 7.070M
2011 Los Angeles 5.2 9.093M
2010 Dallas 3.8 6.846M
2009 Phoenix 4.5 7.621M
2008 New Orleans 3.8 6.334M
2007 Las Vegas 4.2 6.843M
2006 Houston 4.3 7.070M
2005 Denver 4.9 8.082M
2004 Los Angeles 5.1 8.190M

[tripa]

A few things to consider.

- Pay the players
- Go back to East vs. West
- No live draft
- Rid of positions for starters
- Earlier start

It will continue to die with all of these

[vxmike]

It’s time for it to go. Just give the players a week off to rest around the Super Bowl.

[DwayneSchintzus]

i am a huge nba fan, its really the only sport i follow.

i did not watch one second of coverage, or the selection shows or anything else from the entire All-Star weekend

[Billl]

I don't know why they started messing with it in the first place. Just go back to east vs west. get rid of all the skills challenge and rookie stuff.

Then maybe raise the stakes a little. Losers have to show up to the stadium for the next game wearing scuffed up walmart shoes.

[Potential]

Hopefully Silver sees this and finally makes defense legal again in the NBA

[Dubious Handles]

Silver is the worst thing that happened to the NBA since the Malice

[Ugalde]

as long as the nba gets a giant tv contract and values keep going up why should the nba care if people are actually watching lol

[Michael Bradley]

The issue with the game, aside from the players not caring about it, is the fact that as fans there is no rooting interest due to the format. I know the NBA markets players and not teams, but in situations like this it hurts them because if a Celtics fan watches and sees Tatum on one team and Brown on the other, who are they supposed to root for? In this case the fan who watches this almost exclusively has to be a fan of players, not teams, and just wants to see the players play against each other. I guess that would be somewhat acceptable given the way NBA markets itself, but when the players don't give a damn and it's glorified practice to them, then it's a bad combination. If they had this format with players who took it seriously like in the Jordan and Kobe eras, then maybe the quality would not be impacted.

[NeoWarriors]

Of course it was. No Curry.

Sent from my Golden State Warriors Protoast Elite toaster using RealGM mobile app

[Ein Sof]

See what happens when LeBron gets injured?

[UglyBugBall]

I used to look forward to the all star game. Now I can't get through the first quarter before I turn it off. It's just boring. the point of the all star game was to see the very best in the sport compete against each other on the court at the same time. Now you have Luka crying that he doesn't want to injure nobody as he leaves open lanes to the basket. And it's not just Luka. It's all of them. The all star game is terrible now. Period.

[UglyBugBall]

A few things to consider.

- Pay the players
- Go back to East vs. West
- No live draft
- Rid of positions for starters
- Earlier start

And this fixes the primary issue, being lack of defense, how?