The NBA All-Star Game, once a highly anticipated event for basketball enthusiasts, has faced significant criticism in recent years. Held in San Francisco, the latest edition introduced a new format: a four-team tournament. However, instead of rejuvenating the excitement, it seems to have worsened existing issues. From corporate greed and lackluster player effort to insufferable media coverage, the NBA All-Star Game has become a point of contention among fans and players alike.
The Player[s]
This All-Star Sunday, Draymond Green voiced his frustrations on the TNT broadcast.
“These young guys, if they’re on the rising stars team, they don’t deserve the privilege of playing on Sunday,” said Green. “I had to work so hard to play on Sunday nights of All-Star Weekend, and because ratings are down and the game is bad, we are bringing in rising stars. That’s not a fix.”
“Dalton Knecht doesn’t even have a team right now and he’s playing in the ASG,” lamented Green, even after the Rising Stars team lost to Shaq’s OGs. Despite Green’s frustrations, Knecht has a team. Green refers to a failed trade between the Lakers and Hornets. Due to a failed physical, the trade was rescinded, and Knecht stayed with the Lakers.
Though many people agree with Green’s take, many NBA fans did not. Everyone works hard to be an All-Star, and as a veteran of the game, Green knows that. It does not help his case by dragging down younger players. Charles Barkley, Kenny Williams and Oscar Robertson have all criticized Green for this viewpoint.
The earlier generation of stars did not take the weekend seriously, so the new generation must pay in lieu of the effort that should have been there.
The Product
With this new format, if your favorite player was on Kenny’s team, you would only see them for a good five to eight minutes. The failure of the ASG is not entirely due to the players’ lack of effort, as I believe the product has done damage to both the NBA and the fan base.
The main issue with this year’s ASG discourse is the product and the media surrounding it—more on that later. The TNT crew’s negativity, coupled with only 42 minutes of actual basketball, angered many. Negative PR from broadcasters, Kevin Hart’s antics towards players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Karl-Anthony Towns and Mr. Beast’s segment make it seem like a sponsorship sponge, reeking of corporate greed. Fans primarily want to see their favorite players compete against top league talent.
However, the advertisements might have been the worst part of the ASG, and it is not just in the ASG. The 2024 NBA Playoffs were hard to watch, and it wasn’t due to the on-court product. There were ads during timeouts and free throws, and all the ads were about something that either took away from the game or sports gambling.
I do not gamble, and if you do, I urge you to do so responsibly. However, I do think it is a problem to advertise gambling to a young fanbase, potentially from areas where it is not legal, and then have the nerve to stick the addiction line at the end of it.
That is the core issue: The Association wants to make more money but doesn’t realize that their current approach is counterproductive. When this realization sinks in, fans who watched basketball prior to this advertisement apocalypse question what happened to the game they love.
The Fans
Fans are finding it increasingly expensive to attend NBA games if they are fans of a team with a large market or a contender. The most realistic chance in seeing favorite team is if they are playing the bottom third of the league—and even then, travel expenses can kill those dreams quickly.
In the Northeast, the Knicks and Celtics games might drag your balance into the negatives, and even traveling to see games in Philadelphia or the Barclays Center can take a toll on your paycheck. Fans aren’t getting the bang for the buck, and I don’t blame them for being upset.
When fans discuss how to fix the ASG, they may just devolve into negativity, especially online. Some people have suggested playoff stakes, like moving the NBA cup closer to when the All-Stars are revealed, so it can be more primetime action.
Other people have suggested bringing back the East and West home court advantage in the finals. As of writing this article, 4 teams (the Nuggets, Rockets, Lakers and Clippers) are, record-wise, worse than the Knicks (3rd in the east) but better than the Pacers (4th in the east).
For most of the younger fans’ lifetimes, the East has been the weaker conference. Such stakes can introduce storylines, as to prove the East is not as weak as they seem, or that the west can truly dominate over their eastern All-Star counterparts.
Fans who spend money to fly to San Francisco for the weekend to hear Hart, see their favorite player for eight minutes and listen to celebrities will feel cheated out of an experience. The hype around the celebrity game is more than that of the All-Star Game, and the fact that the dunk contest has been three-peated before any team in the NFL by a G leaguer should be a referendum on the state of the ASG.
I can only imagine how infuriating it is for fans to see Ja Morant tweet that the dunk over the KIA Mac McClung made him want to take part, with Giannis echoing the statement. Why only now? Why couldn’t they give us that for years? Morant was drafted six years ago!
The Media
The fan attitude can also be blamed on ESPN and the National Media prioritizing the postseason over the regular season, especially during the Cavs vs. Warriors era of the 2010s. This mindset has led NBA fans to undervalue players’ achievements unless they win a ring. This logic is used to justify the Luka Doncic trade, to undermine the Knicks’ success this year and to discount players like Morant and Anthony Edwards because they have not won a championship.
In comparison, the NFL and the MLB do not have as much of an issue. You can still argue that Josh Allen is a great NFL player even though he has not won a Super Bowl. When Aaron Judge retires, he will be a Hall of Fame player, regardless of whether he wins a World Series. However, every ball player’s legend case is dependent on one thing: Will you win the NBA Finals? The Celtics main duo, especially Jaylen Brown and his supermax contract, faced criticism prior to the 2023-24 season, with media pundits saying they will never get it done. They went ahead to finish the job, and as much as one may not like Jayson Tatum, he is an NBA champion on one of the two dominant teams in the Eastern Conference.
In Conclusion
Why should the fans care, when the league does not? Why should players care if the league goes behind them and gets celebrities to talk trash all night? How do you get people to care if you hurt the product and insult the average fan’s intelligence in doing so?
These are answers that the NBA must figure out if they would like to keep viewership—not only for the ASG, but for the near future.