The NBA is trying to fix a problem that they created with new All-Star Game format
The new NBA All-Star Game format is confusing, odd and another example of the league unnecessarily complicating things.
In what has seemingly become an annual tradition, the NBA announced on Tuesday yet another overhaul of the NBA All-Star Game format, this representing the most drastic changes yet.
No longer will there be a singular All-Star Game, but instead a mini-tournament. And no longer will there be just two All-Star teams, but four.
The NBA and NBPA announced today a new format for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in the San Francisco Bay Area.
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 17, 2024
In addition, NBA All-Star Voting presented by AT&T will tip off on Thursday, Dec. 19 at 10 a.m. ET.
Full details ➡️ https://t.co/KntyklRIe7 pic.twitter.com/3jIbW1tZWZ
How did we get to this point?
This is about as convoluted a format as you could draw up. No one wants this, the players included.
I asked Kevin Durant what he thought about the new format for the NBA All-Star Game: “I hate it. Absolutely hate it. Terrible….We should just go back to East-West.” pic.twitter.com/T7owR5aJY7
— Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet) December 17, 2024
It wasn’t that long ago that the league had seemingly come to a solution on the All-Star Game with the Elam Ending.
The 2020 All-Star Game featured a walk-off in arguably the best game in the league’s history. In 2022, LeBron’s fadeaway jumper sealed a three-point win in a memorable return to Cleveland.
And then, the league started overreacting.
They ditched the Elam Ending after 2023, when it wasn’t a down-to-the-wire finish, and they ditched the drafting of teams to go back to East vs. West. And now, they’ve ditched everything normal about the All-Star Game for whatever this format is.
Nobody wants this. It will not solve the problems. Instead of one game where people are haphazardly playing, you have three games of that. The league has tried this format with the Rising Stars game and it has made that worse, too.
The only enjoyable part about this change is that Shaq, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith will draft the teams. But the drafting part has always been fun no matter the format of the game.
This idea of needing the All-Star Game to be this highly competitive contest each year where players put it all on the line is a pie-in-the-sky notion that won’t happen. So long as there is a great emphasis placed on winning titles, the result of an exhibition game will fall at the bottom of the priority list for players.
For all the talk about wanting to go back to players caring about the All-Star Game, it’s ultimately an event no one remembers the final score, with rare exceptions. It’s the moments that have made the All-Star Game memorable.
You remember Kobe going against Michael Jordan in 1998, but you don’t remember the East won that game by 21 points. You remember Shaq throwing a pass off the backboard and dunking it while shooting a free throw, but you don’t remember the East winning that game.
The yearning for something that didn’t regularly exist is going to kill the All-Star Game altogether. It’ll be a miracle if this new format lasts more than a year. Hopefully, it’s short-lived before a return to what worked.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.