NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process

[mastermixer]

For as long as I can remember the All-Star game always sucked. “Fixing the All-Star game” is most romanticized concept in sports.

There is only one thing that can fix the All-Star game: If the players selected decide that year that they want to play hard and try to win for some reason. This happens about once a decade.

[Blame Rasho]

This is what, fourth new format in last 10 years?

Nobody cares about East vs West. Because there is no balance between conferences in first place. Guys who are bottom half of top 10 players from East would never get even consideration for all star game on West. For f*** sake Scottie Barnes was all star on 19,8 ppg on 25 wins team.

Whole system doesn't work. There is no rivalry. IF you want "ALL -STAR " in definition of it, just let fans or coaches handpick 20 best players, regardless of conference and let them play some semi competitive game.

This international all star game is even more hilarious. Literally all 5 of best 5 players in the world are international players.

Every damn year there are new all star "rules". And "hot patches " of previous confusions. Last year I tuned in allstar game, than they started with like 10 min explanation what is going on, by the time they explained it, i tuned off. It's such a mess.

Why da hell all star game will have 3 teams ?

Don’t slander Scottie Barnes… he is awesome according to many fans.

[Blame Rasho]

So yeah this is dog crap for the sake of getting ratings or attention. Let’s hope that we keep having gambling ads and have prop bets during the all star game. I wanna see an all star on his phone bet on himself and the entire team collude with him to do it.

[Wolveswin]

Here is the fix:

1. Game becomes 4x 10Min quarters.
1A. 1st Qtr: 5v5 rising star battle.
1B. 2nd, 3rd, 4th Qtr: 5v5 battle - every player plays in ONE quarter only (whole quarter) no subs.
2. Top 30 players via fan votes. Doesn’t matter what country, conference or color.
3. Top 10 rising stars via fan votes. 3 years NBA experience or less and not top 30 in fan votes.
4. Each coach gets 2x coaches choice. 1x rising star and 1x other player for injury exception only.
5. Teams/rosters are made up of fantasy draft process by fans. Most common rosters submitted via fantasy draft result becomes the teams.

[Lunartic]

Here is the fix:

1. Game becomes 4x 10Min quarters.
1A. 1st Qtr: 5v5 rising star battle.
1B. 2nd, 3rd, 4th Qtr: 5v5 battle - every player plays in ONE quarter only (whole quarter) no subs.
2. Top 30 players via fan votes. Doesn’t matter what country, conference or color.
3. Top 10 rising stars via fan votes. 3 years NBA experience or less and not top 30 in fan votes.
4. Each coach gets 2x coaches choice. 1x rising star and 1x other player for injury exception only.
5. Teams/rosters are made up of fantasy draft process by fans. Most common rosters submitted via fantasy draft result becomes the teams.

Stop, Adam.

[Mirotic12]

Doing it this way makes it easier for the US team.

[ImmortalD24]

Ot: is this a legal move (aside from the double dribble):

Read on Twitter

[Dan33185]

Here's the fix: Just give the players a week off and forget the whole all star weekend thing.

[badpotato]

I'd rather have them announce the Balmer cap–circumventing investigation results right there on the floor of Inuit. They can take a feather from "Maury" cap and announce it in a "you're/you're not the father" way - that would get me to tune in.

[sp6r=underrated]

after the massive success the NHL had with their 4 Nations Face-off tournament during their all star break that had Canada, Finland, USA and Russia the nba is hoping that country pride gets the players to play harder during the game.

The NBA is going international for the reason whitehops highlight above. The Tournament between Canada, US, Finland and Sweden was a massive success for the NHL. I'm a casual hockey fan but it felt like all four teams were really going all out. It got staggering ratings and the competition was great.

Ratings info below. https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2025/02/canada-united-states-record-audience-four-nations-face-off/

Spoiler:

Thursday’s Canada-United States Four Nations Face-Off final averaged a 4.0 rating and 9.25 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience for an NHL-sanctioned game in the Nielsen people-meter era (dates back to 1988). The previous high was 8.72 million for Blues-Bruins Game 7 in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, a game that took place before Nielsen began including out-of-home viewing in its estimates. (All things being equal, that game likely would still rank as the most-watched.)

If one goes back further, the Four Nations final ranks as the most-watched NHL game since Game 6 of the 1973 Stanley Cup Final (Canadiens-Blackhawks: 9.41M) and the fourth-most watched all-time, according to historical data released by then-rightsholder NBC 15 years ago.

As goes without saying, Canada’s overtime win delivered the largest NHL audience ever on the ESPN family of networks, topping the previous mark of 7.66 million for last year’s Oilers-Panthers Stanley Cup Final Game 7.

Compared to other international hockey competitions, Canada-United States easily outpaced every Olympic men’s and women’s hockey match since the 2010 final between the same two teams, which averaged 27.6 million on NBC.

Among all non-football sportscasts, Canada-United States ranks as the most-watched since Game 5 of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series back in October (18.15M),

I don't think this will work but you can see Silver's thought process. Hockey is a far more marginal sport than basketball but the international tournament got NBA Conference Finals ratings.

[PlatinumState]

One day its gonna be youtubers vs. nba players

[PistolPeteJR]

1v1 tournament man, I'm telling y'all that would do wonders on Saturday night.

[Effigy]

I like the idea of US vs the world in THEORY, but this execution is terrible. They're sticking with the stupid 3 teams thing? Everyone already knows the very top best players are international, so those players will be on a team together and you're going to take the US and split their talent in half and only half of it will play the international team? That's insane.

[whitehops]

after the massive success the NHL had with their 4 Nations Face-off tournament during their all star break that had Canada, Finland, USA and Russia the nba is hoping that country pride gets the players to play harder during the game.

The NBA is going international for the reason whitehops highlight above. The Tournament between Canada, US, Finland and Sweden was a massive success for the NHL. I'm a casual hockey fan but it felt like all four teams were really going all out. It got staggering ratings and the competition was great.

even though i'm canadian i'm a casual (at best) hockey fan too a lot of my friends are big into it. we went to the bar to watch the final and the atmosphere was crazy, literally everyone cheering the entire game. it was clear the players really tried from start to finish too, it was probably the best hockey game i've watched. and really that's the nba's goal - have the best players in the league play a real game against each other.

i don't think there's anything wrong with trying new things, if it doesn't work out you can always pivot your approach. the old formats clearly weren't working so what do you have to lose in trying something new?

[whitehops]

I like the idea of US vs the world in THEORY, but this execution is terrible. They're sticking with the stupid 3 teams thing? Everyone already knows the very top best players are international, so those players will be on a team together and you're going to take the US and split their talent in half and only half of it will play the international team? That's insane.

i could totally see giannis and SGA carrying the international team while luka and jokic treat the game like a joke as they always do. that could even the playing field.

[NyKnicks1714]

Spoiler:

The league failed with the all-star game many years ago. I remember always looking forward to watching it. Silver failed in this area. They lived off the dunk contest for too long.

That is part of it. Back when all the good players were African-Americans they turned it into an event for that demographic. For all of us who aren´t African-Americans it felt like we were being invited to our black collegues back-yard barbeque only to find out we were the only white folks there. Nice to be invited but we didn´t fit in and politely declined in following years. Now that all the best players aren´t AA and the audience is much more global it was something that had to change.

What the hell am I reading

Please don't derail the thread with response to weird post that was already put under a spoiler so it wouldn't derail the thread.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Its stupid because teams are not even and then it just gets too complicated.

NBA needs to stop thinking any format change will work. Go back to East v West.

The issue is the players don't care. You basically tell the players to pout in some effort or they will just cancel the whole game and all the bonuses that come with it.

And if that doesn't work just honestly cancel it.

[Larry_Russell]

Pick the best players on the season, let all players get 1 million dollars, with the winning team getting a big bonus of a few million per player and coach.

Take fan voting out of it and chose the best players in the league.

[Johnny Tomala]

So for international players, you have locks with Giannis, Jokic, Shai, Luka, and Wemby. Then you have Giddey, Siakim, Sengun, Markkannen, Jamal Murray, Deni Avidja, Hartenstein, Gobert, maybe Edgecombe even if they need more guards and he keeps up his great start. And that's ignoring guys like Sabonis, Dyson Daniels, and some others. Just a really strong set of international players. The competition for those last 3 places will be fierce.

Towns is a lock. He plays for Dominican Republic.

[andyhop]

after the massive success the NHL had with their 4 Nations Face-off tournament during their all star break that had Canada, Finland, USA and Russia the nba is hoping that country pride gets the players to play harder during the game.

The NBA is going international for the reason whitehops highlight above. The Tournament between Canada, US, Finland and Sweden was a massive success for the NHL. I'm a casual hockey fan but it felt like all four teams were really going all out. It got staggering ratings and the competition was great.

Ratings info below. https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2025/02/canada-united-states-record-audience-four-nations-face-off/

Spoiler:

Thursday’s Canada-United States Four Nations Face-Off final averaged a 4.0 rating and 9.25 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience for an NHL-sanctioned game in the Nielsen people-meter era (dates back to 1988). The previous high was 8.72 million for Blues-Bruins Game 7 in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, a game that took place before Nielsen began including out-of-home viewing in its estimates. (All things being equal, that game likely would still rank as the most-watched.)

If one goes back further, the Four Nations final ranks as the most-watched NHL game since Game 6 of the 1973 Stanley Cup Final (Canadiens-Blackhawks: 9.41M) and the fourth-most watched all-time, according to historical data released by then-rightsholder NBC 15 years ago.

As goes without saying, Canada’s overtime win delivered the largest NHL audience ever on the ESPN family of networks, topping the previous mark of 7.66 million for last year’s Oilers-Panthers Stanley Cup Final Game 7.

Compared to other international hockey competitions, Canada-United States easily outpaced every Olympic men’s and women’s hockey match since the 2010 final between the same two teams, which averaged 27.6 million on NBC.

Among all non-football sportscasts, Canada-United States ranks as the most-watched since Game 5 of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series back in October (18.15M),

I don't think this will work but you can see Silver's thought process. Hockey is a far more marginal sport than basketball but the international tournament got NBA Conference Finals ratings.

The big difference with the NHL version is that the NHL had national teams as opposed to this NBA version. This could work if the international guys buy into it , the European team in the Ryder cup and the Mosconi cup work because everyone buys in.

It's going to need the International guys to take it seriously and make the US guys look foolish as they half ass it to give it a real chance to work.

They will also need to dump the 2 US team thing as that isn't going to work and just offers up an excuse for why the US is losing that diverts attention from effort levels