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

[zimpy27]

An addition:

All star MVP will become an actual All Star if they are on a non-AS team

I'd up the stakes further. The two winning teams of the semis are the official East and West all-star squads. The odds are stacked in your favor if you make the 'real all-star' team, but you can still squander the chance to be given the accolade if the underdogs pull the upset.

that'll have guys playing like it's a play-in

[og15]

If you can fix all the stoppages and commercials. If they have just as many stoppages and commercials, it is just unwatchable

[Hornet Mania]

An addition:

All star MVP will become an actual All Star if they are on a non-AS team

I'd up the stakes further. The two winning teams of the semis are the official East and West all-star squads. The odds are stacked in your favor if you make the 'real all-star' team, but you can still squander the chance to be given the accolade if the underdogs pull the upset.

that'll have guys playing like it's a play-in

That's honestly the only downside I can see, they might play too hard and someone gets hurt

I think it would be great and might even create some legitimate bad blood and player rivalries. There's always a few guys mad they got snubbed, they'd be highly motivated to light it up.

[JayMKE]

Nothing on earth is going to make these guys care about a game that doesn’t matter.

[Lockdown504090]

Why do we even need an All-Star game? Everyone seems so pressed to fix something that in my opinion is un-fixable. This whole weekend is meaningless and boring entertainment unrelated to the real sport of basketball. People can watch LeBron and Curry play almost everyday, what is even the point of these gimmicky events?

its not unfixable its just on the players thats all?

[wegotthabeet]

The West and East conference all stars (AS) play against a team of non-AS players.

Only way to get these AS playing hard is to threaten their ego with a loss to a team of non-AS players.

The non-AS players are picked based on the players with the most fan votes that didn't get selected as AS. You know they have something to prove and fans get to see the players they voted for.

I think the format of 2 semis and a final worked, I just want to see each of the games go for a little longer and AS vs non-AS be in both semis. I want to see an AS team get smoked for being lazy.

Team USA vs Team International accomplishes this.

There will be usually about twice as many American all-stars compared to international ones. Some players who are selected to be all-stars won’t make the US team and the International team would have some non all-star players like a Lu Dort type off the bench.

[Celts17Pride]

NBA players don't play hard in the regular season, it's impossible to get them to play hard in an all-star game. Adam Silver has taken the product and drove it right into the ground.

[slickrickstyles]

Lets return to East vs. West and winning side get's $ and home court advantage in the Finals. Season record is only relevant until the Finals.

[wetsthebed]

West vs East

the end

That became an noncompetitive joke, though. The only way to make that format competitive is to either make it so the winning team gets significantly more bonus money than the losing team or have it determine home court advantage in the finals like the MLB used to do (which I'm not a big fan of.)

[7seventynine9]

Make it USA vs the World.

[Onus]

I don't think the game format itself was all that bad. It was just TNT trying to squeeze as much ad revenue as possible for their last all star game. TNT massively took a dump on NBA fans since this was their last year

[bkkrh]

The West and East conference all stars (AS) play against a team of non-AS players.

Only way to get these AS playing hard is to threaten their ego with a loss to a team of non-AS players.

The non-AS players are picked based on the players with the most fan votes that didn't get selected as AS. You know they have something to prove and fans get to see the players they voted for.

I think the format of 2 semis and a final worked, I just want to see each of the games go for a little longer and AS vs non-AS be in both semis. I want to see an AS team get smoked for being lazy.

Here is a slight change that might make it more interesting. Let fans vote for all Allstars, not just the starters. Then afterwards let coaches vote a team of the leftover players. So you have team popular vs team deserves to be an all star. Both teams will give effort, one team to prove that they should have been voted for, one team to not be embarrassed.

[toooskies]

The problem is ring-centricity of the sport. Several in the thread have said the game "doesn't matter". Well, none of it really matters. The degree to which things matter in the narrative is completely decided by the participants.

The slam dunk contest doesn't matter. But it mattered to Jordan and Wilkins back in the day because... they decided it would matter to them. Maybe there were endorsement dollars to earn or the contest money was actually relevant to their wealth, but really, there was pride on the line. There was the competition itself.

What we need to do is end the concept that only rings matter. Regular season games matter more to the little boy who only gets to go to one game a year than a playoff game between two teams he doesn't cheer for. All-star games could matter for people who want to see all the best players playing at the same time. They COULD be important. But somebody decided they didn't.

And I don't mean to blame Kobe here, who actually took all-star games seriously.

[Pharmcat]

West vs East

the end

That became an noncompetitive joke, though. The only way to make that format competitive is to either make it so the winning team gets significantly more bonus money than the losing team or have it determine home court advantage in the finals like the MLB used to do (which I'm not a big fan of.)

i think thats the solution: more money, determines home court for finals, and one more random carrot (i.e. winning team players get additional year of service added as a bonus when it comes to their post career benefits)

[MrGoat]

Winning team wins dates with the Kardashians

[Bloodbather]

Cool idea, but would never be implemented. They aren't going to risk making the All-Stars look bad.

For me the only possible fix is to do what MLB does and give the winning conference home court in the Finals. The only counter argument I hear is that All-Stars from non-contenders still wouldn't care, but there are only a few of those and they'd look ridiculous and get benched if they played like they didn't give a **** among star players actually trying.

[maxpower8888]

Other than offering a substantial financial incentive, I can't see these guys giving effort. The only way to fix it is with $$$$.

[og15]

Watch on YouTube

KD is down for 1v1, that's one that many have also suggested

[Whateva]

How about G league all stars vs nba all stars, that would be an ego threat...

[TFJava]

The only way to fix it is for players to care and play like they want to win. Play defense, they should be playing for pride for the league, their respective conferences and for themselves. Go back to the East / West format.