In his latest media press conference, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver gave his honest review of the 2025 NBA All-Star game. According to Silver, the iconic event still isn’t where the league wants it to be, and the new format ultimately failed to enhance the experience.
“I thought we made almost an immeasurable amount of progress,” said Silver, via Tom Reynolds. “Sitting there, I thought this was a little better, but this was a miss. We’re not there in terms of creating an All-Star experience that we can be proud of and our players can be proud of.”
NBA ratings have been on the decline this season, and it’s not a good sign for the health of the league. In an effort to bring back the audience, Adam Silver has tried various methods, both minor and extreme. The root of the problem, however, is the current state of the All-Star game, which has become a shadow of its former glory.
The NBA All-Star weekend game used to be a moment of excitement during the season, but the gradual decline of quality over the years has turned many fans away. As OGs like Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Carmelo Anthony began to age out of the game, we saw a shift in mentality that led to players coasting through the weekend on cruise control. Instead of competing for the fans and pride, the players sought to hold back to avoid jeopardizing their next contract.
As fan complaints were piling up regarding effort and competitiveness in the All-Star game (and the whole event as a whole), Silver responded by opting to change the format. It began in 2018 with the introduction of a team captain draft. The two leading vote-getters got to draft their own teams to compete for a charity of their choice. It was a good idea, but it failed to address the core problem.
After a brief return to the East vs. West format in 2024, the NBA experimented with the strangest format of all. For the first time ever, they tried a mini-tournament style format, which involved four teams competing in a single-elimination event.
The NBA liked this idea after the success of the play-in tournament and the Emirates Cup, but it received mixed reviews among the fans. Many complained that G-League players were getting more shine over the stars, while others felt that the overall effort and competitiveness were still lacking.
The players and coaches outright hated the format, and several prominent voices spoke out against the changes. Many of them felt disrespected sharing the All-Star court with G-Leaguers, while some others failed to show up at all.
In the end, this year’s All-Star game was one of the most poorly received in NBA history, and even Adam Silver recognizes that it was a total failure. While some games were intense and competitive, you could tell that most of the players were completely checked out.
The problem for the NBA now is figuring out what to do next. With the traditional format likely to return, the NBA will have to find some other way to either spice up Sunday’s game or give the players a bigger reason to compete.
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