all stars fade: nba all-star weekend has lost its shine

By: Milith Batchu

It’s no secret. The NBA has been searching tirelessly for a sort of adjustment or alteration to restore the All-Star Weekend to its former glory.

It’s been a painful journey, hindered by unrealistic expectations and forced nostalgia, but in spite of their efforts to establish its popularity, the league has failed to battle the ghosts and stand for the future.
    
This year, expectations were middling, and the product was even worse.

The Dunk Contest saw an admittedly ridiculously athletic G-leaguer take home his third consecutive crown, the Skills Challenge was gamified, and the main event was more ads than basketball. So what’s going on, and how do we fix it?
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The illusion of effort

There’s a myth poisoning the viewership. 

It’s true that we’ve seen all-stars waltz through the game, but this idea that modern players just don’t care the way past icons did is not a good faith argument. Simply being that even in the past, players only played “hard” in bursts of excitement, not the whole game.

Sunday’s All-Star game had its low points. A couple of matador possessions, maybe too many deep 3s, inarguably some careless turnovers…

But we did see effort. Steph did everything he could to put on for the Bay. Wemby looked fully intent on stamping his arrival saying, “I'm out here sprinting, fast-break everything… I’m young, I can do it.” Even the rising stars went out there and played a close game against some of the games all time legends, with a handful of other stars delivering a meaningful performance.

The All-Star game has never felt like the finals, but this tournament felt more like a game walkthrough.

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new format

A lot was made of this year’s tournament format.

The shift was jarring, a single-elimination bracket, games to 40, and the Rising Stars team thrown into the mix.

There were drawbacks. Some stars barely saw the floor, the games were incredibly short, and it felt odd watching Ryan Dunn and Jaylen Wells lead a team against Kevin Durant and Steph Curry.

But there were elements worth a closer look. The competitive energy surged in spots, and we even saw a couple of “no easy bucket” fouls with the game on the line. It needs refinement, not rejection.​

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broadcasting issues

Here’s where it got ugly.

Shaq, Chuck, and Kenny are all NBA Hall-of-Famers and All-Stars themselves, broadcasting giants who’ve made invaluable contributions to the game.

But please, don’t make us sit through hours of aimless rambling and nonstop jeering. We don’t need another lecture on how much better things used to be. We don’t need Draymond ranting about how ridiculous things are now. And we definitely don’t need Kevin Hart doing any commentary related to roasting people on live TV, so bad to the point where the players themselves asked to move on to play the game.

All-Star Weekend is supposed to celebrate the game, not serve as a platform for personal agendas. Enough bitterness. Enough Bol Bol conversations.

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ads, breaks, and more ads

As we noted, there were flashes of real All-Star Weekend pageantry with some games full of bundling intensity, and others with drawn out play. 

But every time the momentum built, it was killed by a lengthy commercial break or an out-of-place gimmick. It got so bad to the point where the championship game was stopped in the middle (the score was 11-1) to run the TNT farewell ceremony,  all for a show and team simply switching channels.

Ruffles, State Farm, and Kia have been burned into our eyeballs. Most of us still don’t feel safe to drive.

We get it, it’s a business, a corporate showcase. Bills need to be paid, profits need to be made. But this was overkill. A corporate-sponsored mess funding some suit’s fifth vacation of the year. 

Let the players play.

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what's in store for the future?

We all want All-Star Weekend to reclaim its place as a must-watch event, and getting there won’t be easy. The presentation has to improve, the dunk contest needs real star power, and the game itself needs an actual rhythm.

But more than anything, the people involved have to stop rooting against it. The blame games outside of the arena, whining to bring the glory days back, it all has to stop.

The product follows the atmosphere, not the other way around. If you want players to care, stop mocking them with brand-name comedians. Put the spotlight back onto the basketball.