Kevin Durant Drops One-Word Reaction As Stephen A. Smith Predicts End Of NBA All-Star Weekends

Kevin Durant reacts to Stephen A. Smith predicting the end of NBA All-Star weekends if Adam Silver's latest plan does not work.

4 Min Read

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Adam Silver recently announced that the NBA will shift to a Team USA vs. Team World format, rather than dividing into teams based on conferences. Stephen A. Smith, the NBA analyst from ESPN, was not happy with this decision and claimed it would cause the end of NBA All-Star weekends altogether. 

Kevin Durant, the 15-time NBA All-Star, feels Stephen A. Smith is being too overzealous in his reaction to Adam Silver’s latest announcement. He went on social media and expressed his feelings about Smith’s response in one word. 

“Dramatic,” wrote Durant on an X post with Smith’s quotes. 

Adam Silver went on FS1’s ‘Breakfast Ball’ and confirmed that the 2026 All-Star Game will feature the Team USA vs. World format in some way or another. 

“So next year, as part of our new media deals, the All-Star Game returns to NBC, where it was when we were younger. And it so happens that next season, we’ll be smack in the middle of the Winter Olympics.”

“The game will be on NBC, and the very day we’re on, the lead-in will be Winter Olympic events, and then coming out of the All-Star Game, which is now going to be in the afternoon instead of the evening, there will be more Olympic events. So what better time to feature some form of USA against the World?”

In response to this announcement, Stephen A. Smith went on ESPN’s “First Take” show and tore into Silver’s decision. He seemed to love the decision from Adam Silver but his response indicated an underlying unhappiness with the players. Smith claimed that even Magic Johnson did not care about the All-Star weekend, and this will be a way to make the best players in the world play competitive basketball. 

However, he later implied that this was a last-resort option for the NBA, and we could witness the end of the All-Star weekend if this new format does not lead to competitive basketball.     


What Other ESPN Analysts Said About The New NBA All-Star Format  

Brian Windhorst and Jay Williams also appeared on the First Take segment with Smith following this decision. Windhorst agreed with Smith and said that this is a way to “shame” the players into playing competitive basketball. He even recalled a Kevin Durant incident during the Olympics, where some of the European players claimed American basketball is only entertainment, and Durant questioned whether it’s entertaining at all. 

Jay Williams was not at all skeptical about the decision and claimed this would bring accountability to players. He feels that when they go up against major European players like Antetokounmpo, Jokic, or Wembanyama, it will spark a sense of patriotism that will fuel the best basketball American players can also play. 

Do you think this changed format will help the NBA All-Star weekend generate more viewership ratings? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

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Chaitanya Dadhwal is an NBA Analyst and Columnist at Fadeaway World from New Delhi, India. He fell in love with basketball in 2018 after seeing James Harden in his prime. He joined the sports journalism world in 2021, one year before finishing his law school in 2022. He attended Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat, India, where his favorite subject was also Sports Law.He transitioned from law to journalism after realizing his true passion for sports and basketball in particular. Even though his journalism is driven by his desire to understand both sides of an argument and give a neutral perspective, he openly admits he is biased towards the Houston Rockets and Arsenal. But that intersection of in-depth analysis and passion helps him simplify the fine print and complex language for his readers.His goal in life is to open his own sports management agency one day and represent athletes. He wants to ensure he can help bridge the gap in equal opportunity for athletes across various sports and different genders playing the same sport.
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