How can the NBA improve the All-Star Weekend?
By: Farell 12.3
The annual NBA All-Star Weekend 2023 occurred on the 17th of February to the 19th of February. You would think a competitive weekend filled with the league’s best stars, youngsters, highlight reels, shooters, and even celebrities would spark joy in the fans, right? Well, you’d be wrong. This year’s All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City, as some people may refer to it, was a ‘snooze-fest.’
But first, what does the format of the NBA All-Star Weekend look like? On day one, two major events take place:
1. The Ruffles NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, a game filled with two teams of celebrities.
2. Jordan Rising Stars Game, a 3-game tournament which consists of the league’s best
rookies and sophomores in teams of seven.
On day two, three events take place:
1. The KIA Skills Challenge
2. The 3-Point Contest
3. The Slam Dunk Contest
On the final day, a drafting process begins to decide the teams, something essential to the event that happens later in the afternoon, the awaited NBA All-Star game.
A good number of positives can be said about the weekend, such as the revival of the Slam Dunk Contest and the first day’s events, but other than that, not much else can be said.
The second day of the weekend was less than perfect. For one thing, the Skills Challenge generally lacked skill. The event consisted of three teams of three that competed in various challenges. The players struggled to make any shots, missed simple floaters, and had some difficulty passing.
Last year, with the same format, it was a success. But this year it failed to work.
Perhaps the blame can be pointed towards the players chosen to participate or the challenges itself. Either way, the NBA needs to find a new solution to this problem. Some viewers suggested to get rid of the whole competition entirely and replace it in favour of a fan favourite idea, a 1 vs. 1 competition consisting of the league’s best offensive and defensive players. This would result in a more entertaining event for fans as they get to witness stars face up against each other in a head-to-head format, something that could only be done in video games.
The 3-Point Contest format is close to perfect. Minor considerations could be made to ‘spice’ up the contest, like adding a half-court shot worth up to 5 points. The league could include non-NBA players like EuroLeague players. or even influencers that specialise in shooting such as ‘LethalShooter’ This would make the contest way more enjoyable.
The main event, however, really needs to be fixed. The NBA All-Star game only reached 4.59 million viewers, a drop from last year’s viewership of 6.28 million- despite the competition consisting of the league’s best stars.
The game also achieved an abysmal rating of 2.2 out of 5, a 29% drop from last year’s rating of 3.1. Denver Nuggets’ head coach Mike Malone, who coached one of the teams, stated that it was “the worst basketball game ever played” after the game amassed to an astonishing score of 184-175.
From an outside lens, this game should’ve been amazing but that is far from the truth. Due to the passing of Kobe Bryant in January 2020, the NBA implemented a new All-Star Game format. 2020, 2021 and 2022 iterations of the game were considered successful but something about this one did not resonate well with fans. Zero defence, little-to-no competitiveness, barely any highlight reels, fans were heavily dissatisfied with the game.
Die-hard fans were quick to jump in to think of any solutions. The draft concept of having two captains select the players have resulted in divided opinions across the league. Fans have proposed to go back to the old format, the traditional East vs. West. This way, it is more intense as players play with rivals on a team, instead of ‘tampering’ by recruiting possible future teammates.
On the same note, the suggestion of getting rid of the fan voting has also come to mind as it gives unfair advantages to teams with more fans that want to see their players be represented in the game. Another suggestion is to make the game more competitive, perhaps personal incentives such as bonuses or advantages for their teams if they win or win the All-Star Game MVP. This way, this will result in a more competitive match with defence and actual plays being made.
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