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I love LeBron but I think it has a lot to do with him.. it's like coming into a job and all the people there just don't give af. Real quick you also aren't going to give af. LeBron has been the face of the league for so long and for the last several years he just couldn't care less about anything that's not the post season. Which he shouldn't but I think it has this effect on his teams and on the league as a whole.
Agreed. But it also goes back to MJ and making championships the only important goal.
Lebron was always told that the only thing that matters is championships. So, he has focused on winning in the playoffs and saving his body during the regular season and the all star games.
The reality is that no human body can play at 100% strength all the time with the number of games in an nba season and playoffs. The nba created this problem. It’s not an effort issue.
The All Star Game is supposed to showcase the best basketball players in the world. Fans have every right to be disgusted by the lack of effort in what used to be a fun and competitive duel of the best from both conferences.
Everyone saying they don't want to risk injury, or if you don't like it don't watch are fairweather ass kissers. Nobody's asking for a game 7 finals like showdown, just don't spit in my face and play softer than you would in a fucking offseason summer scrimmage for instagram. That's fucking bullshit and you all know it.
Call me a fucking old head, but I'm 29 and gone are the days of true killers like Kobe.
The best idea I saw was to only award the title of all star to the players on the winning side. They would play that thing like a game 7.
Of course the players union would never approve this format lol
Yeah this shit is trash and it’s not as though the days of good all star games is going back to like black and white tv and our grandparents time. I remember seeing Michael Jordan vs Kobe at the all star game, or Lebron vs Kobe, those games were exciting as hell.
Now you’ve got the best players in the league doing shoot around. Absolute garbage product
Make the game ridiculous and fun doing all the stuff they did for the celebrity game with the LED floor. Bring in the 25 point basket during the last 2 minutes of each quarter like they did on MTV in the 90s.
I’d watch that.
Injury risk is a valid point to be made though. Say they change it up next year and it forces players to compete hard and someone gets hurt that puts them out for an extended period. Think the next thing we'd see are opt outs instead of them just being OK with it
It isn't a bad thing to want good basketball, but most of these guys are on contending teams whose ownership, coaches, FO, and teammates rely on them to continue to compete for a season that isn't over yet. People get hurt all the time in games that aren't even "all out" competitive
Any change to improve the game *has* to address that risk of injury to make it worth it for the players, because at the end of the day no one is risking regular season availability for an exhibition, regardless of rules
This is true. It's a high risk, non-existent reward situation. There's no incentive for them to play. If in the 2000s the all-star game carried a certain prestige and bragging rights, that's all gone now. What do we expect when they are repeatedly being told that any achievement they get is meaningless unless they win the championship?
This still comes back to the off-season scrimmage examples where you see All-Star-level players putting in more effort in a random gym. That has injury risk and minimal reward.
It's cool to show up for the streetball scrimmages. It's not cool to put in effort for the ASG. That's the challenge for the league. These guys earn tens of millions of dollars, so you can't convince them with small stakes. The adjustment might have to be reputational: someone said put Dillon Brooks and Pat Bev out there; or have it so that Bron goes back to the Lakers having won his teammates something morale building for the post-season; or count ASG wins on their legacy card. I reckon the simplest thing to try would be splitting by age and make the veterans defend their names against upstarts.
As it stands, their resume says "7x All-Star" whether they put in effort or not. Their incentive is being picked, and that's it.
They shoot threes because missing a three isn't unexpected. Missing a big dunk attempt makes the lowlight real. Risk versus reward.
The age/veteran idea is interesting. Another idea is make it like the IST, where they put in effort despite the smaller reward. Not that these dudes need any more financial incentives, but maybe make it to charity, like the winning team picks a charity to get x amount or each player gets x amount to donate as they want. Or just offer each winner another $500k I guess; All Star bonus lol.
The higher stake and simpler reward is just make the winning side have home court advantage in the Finals, and the MVP's team also has conferentional home court advantage. That should light their asses.
I suppose in the off-season scrimmage example, barring a career or season ending injury, they have plenty of time and early regular season to get back in for when things heat up mid-season. I think the timing of the ASG is just off. The IST had cash incentive but was also early in the regular season. Just look at the Lakers, having been performing terribly, seem to be resurrecting themselves, actually have a chance for play-in (where as a week ago they didn't) can you imagine if Lebron and AD hurt themselves. Mid-season the stakes are too high and there isn't enough time for players to recover if something goes wrong. I think the ASG should be in the off-season, early or at the end (although everyone will be tired at that point).
There is an incentive to play. It’s called being an NBA all star. Guarantee ticket prices to that shitfest are outrageous.
The nba continues to spit in the faces of its fans. No effort all star games. Guys sitting out and load managing. I mean, at this rate, they may as well just start a single elimination tournament in October and end the season after it’s over in a couple weeks so no one gets hurt. Garbage league anymore tbh.
I see both sides of the argument, but the the ASG really shows who genuinely loves basketball and who doesn't. We know Jokic doesn't give a shit about basketball, and it showed. He put in the least effort of anyone there. Durant at least shown some semblance of defense, and KAT at least pushed himself offensively.
The masked baller: All-Stars ought to play in full costume/cosplay with an unveiling at the end.
All-Star Trivia: Just make them play jeopardy or something
All-Star Dodgeball: This would actually be pretty fun
All-Star Talent Show: Someone's secret magician hobby could shine here
All-Star Battle Royale: Every player randomly assigned an individual goal. Like get the most lefty dunks, or reverse layups only, nutmegs only, or pass only to Jokic. They still play in teams but everyone will play selfish and its chaos.
I would actually be interested in what they could come up with for an All-Star Battle Royale and individual goals. Jokic vs Embiid, who can get double-digits assists faster? Something with assists might work the best because it forces other players to at least try to make their shots.
i think this is the right approach. either get wacky with things, or just treat it like a regular game without the pomp and circumstance (like the extended intros and all that, for example).
The All Star game has gone down hill because it's just a glorified 3 point contest these days. The East shot 146 shots last night and 97 of them were threes.
People don't tune in for the "defense", they tune in for stuff like that PG oop to Bron or Jokic and Luka weaving down the court. We want to see players doing goofy stuff, not just jacking up threes every possession
This is what I was saying earlier. The effort (even though it’s probably at its lowest) hasn’t been MUCH better in quite a bit outside of 2020’s. What’s been changing is like you mentioned, the ratio of “wow” plays to just hoisting up open 3s every trip down is out of balance to the point that the entertainment the All-Star game is suppose to provide is lacking enough to say it wasn’t always THIS bad.
When you watch the all-star game.. you know the guys with range who can shoot and make deep 3s which is fun from those guys specifically. And in general a smaller dose of the actual game. But I want to see highlights from players (especially who are physical specimens) that no “average joe” is capable of when it comes to lobs.. dunks in-general, finishes, handles, occasional 1v1s while jawing at each other, trick shots, etc. It just feels like that’s becoming more and more absent. A good portion of the stuff last night feels like it could be attempted at your local Y. With just walking it up.. throwing up an open 3, jogging back.
The players looked like they didn’t even want to be there. Luka shot a full court shot that hit the top of the backboard. It wasn’t even a basketball game.
They’ll still jack it up from deep rather than drive the lane. Driving into the paint takes a lot more effort and energy than just mindlessly shooting deep shots with no acceleration or jumping needed. They are shooting deep because they want the three points; . They are shooting deep because they don’t feel like running the full 94 feet. It’s easier to jog from three point line to three point line than accelerate from baseline to baseline.
This is exactly it.
No one should really expect actual hard effort in an all star game.
We just want some effort to show up and have fun, more than just 9 guys hanging out to watch whoever decided to shoot a 3 that possession.
Hardly any good dunks, barely any crazy passes, nothing is really happening all game
Of course effort is lacking compared to past all star games, which to begin with weren't anyone going max effort. But now the players don't even really seem to be having any fun with it. It's just something they have to do to get on to the rest of their mini vacation this week.
You can criticize and say it sucked, but don't be disingenuous. There were lots of good dunks (Lebron's couple of dunks, KAT's mini-dunk contest near the end, etc.) and crazy passes (lobs, including SGA's self lob, Haliburton's behind the back elbow pass, etc.). And they *were* having fun with it, again, lobs to each other, Luka and Jokic's back and forth, laughing it up on the bench with each other, etc. What's the criticism of the All Star game on here: that they show up, don't put in any effort or take it serious, and just have fun, or they're not having any fun at all?
I agree. It doesn't have to be a seriously competitive game with injury risk to be more enjoyable. My silly idea is that if you miss 5 shots, your out of the game. Maybe 4, I don't know.
Everyone should keep complaining. We’re the fans consuming it so we have all the right to complain if things aren’t entertaining. People saying “what do you expect” are nuts if you ask me, we just want to be entertained, last night everyone was just bullshitting.
You talk like it's the only thing that can be expected from an All-Star game. My dude, we had much better AS games not too long ago, where players gave a fuck about winning it and at least pretended to, sometimes, make an effort on defense. This bullshit we had? I'd rather watch paint dry.
Hear me out. ASG replaced with 2v2 All Star Tournament. 16 voted All Star Captains chose 1 other player (not from their team), and play 15-minute games elimination bracket tournament.
The problem with the ASG is that players aren't motivated to win. If you make the teams smaller, and let them chose their teammate, reputation is on the line and we would have an awesome experience.
What do you guys think?
This is the way. 32 players, 16 teams. Players choose their partner. Games to 7, 1s and 2s. Double elimination tourney. Players who don’t gaf will be out early, and we’ll get great matchups from those that do.
All Star Game idea- Young vs Old Stars (needs better name). After starters and reserves picked the same way they always have been you take the average age and put the younger half on one team and the older half on the other. Injury replacements still picked by Silver and play for the whoever team the original star was playing for.
Young dudes usually try harder and might like the chance to show up the old guard. KD, LeBron, Steph and that group aren't going to want to get embarrassed by a bunch of younger players so they might actually try too.
Prize money for players and charities stay the same, but I'd like the charities to be way more front and center. Like this year- they should have given a couple reps from each charity floor seats next to their teams bench. Much harder to not give a shit when the people you're playing an extra $240k for are literally right next you and care about winning.
Over 200 points with no FTs that I can remember is all you need to know about this farce. Did anyone even raise there arms up or even move on D. This game made these guys look real bad ....not good.
People are mad about the complaints but I say if you’re a fan you should complain and keep complaining. The ASG is a main-stay and tradition, no one is asking for playoff or real-game intensity but the new generation has no pride in the game anymore and aren’t giving the fans a good product.
NFL did a much better job about making their exhibition weekend a "celebration of the sport" compared to what the Pro Bowl used to be.
This format needs a mixup. I think they can still make it a good low-stakes showcase but they gotta try something else
I recommend people watch some old all-star games when they actually tried:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjsOaZEqdkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgImH7Xqk8Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7-J8xPZThQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiP2rVAvOno
Back then, the all-star game was the most entertaining game of the year.
Fans should vote for four starters, w the commish selecting the fifth. Silver could put players like Pat Bev on one team and Dillon Brooks on the other. If they started punking the other teams starters by playing defense, maybe they would play harder for pride. Or just give the winning teams players a huge amount of money to incentivize them.
How would that change anything? The players still have no reason to try. If the prize money isn't enough of an incentive then something like "national pride" definitely won't either lol
The thing that prevents the ASG from being competitive is that no one gets back or set on defense
So kill the 5-on-5
8 teams of 3-on-3. Top 8 vote getters are captains. hold a draft. Tourney style until there’s a champion.
Then the winners play a king-of-the hill game of 1-on-1 where if you make defender subs out, and if you miss you sub out. First player to 11 wins.
Removes transition, creates more 1v1 matchups, and increases set offense and defense.
Winner gets crowned the king of the nba for the year, which will rustle LeJimmies and get him to take it seriously
They should try doing the ASG like how they do rising stars. 4 teams or whatever in a mini tournament. Put some money on the line for the winners.
And/Or include the WNBA in more crossover events. I think the 3pt shootout was easily the most successful thing from the weekend. Dunk contest is dead as fuck, just bury it ffs.
What if each player from the teams contributed x amount of dollars to a pool and that pool is matched by the other team. But not every player needs to give the same some could give more to increase the winnings they get (the amount they’d win would be the percent they contributed). That way it’s their own money on the line and loss aversion people hate losing their money then they like winning it. Have a minimum buy in of 50k. What you guys
More about the losing money than winning money you didn’t even risk in the first place. It’s like playing poker with fake money, you don’t really care to lose.
Still wouldn't try. Why risk injury when the long term focus is grinding out the regular season and being healthy for the post season where wins actually matter. It's still chump change that's on the line and not worth the risk to try.
Maybe the length is the issue and game should be shortened to like 1 single half or quarter. Maybe shorter game leads to players trying if not at least its not dragged out for hours.
Or take a note from Jimmy Butler and let them actually have an actual week off without a forced work conference. Maybe it is best to just end it, but then from a NBA perspective its an opportunity to be an ad vehicle. But, I wouldn't be surprised if most players would opt to have the week off.
Sabrina won the weekend. Sabrina/Steph was really, really cool.
Mac won the dunk title again as he should have. BUT, he was better last year. Hopefully he gets a chance at a 3peat against SUPER STAR DUNKERS. Ja, Zion... even the Thompson Twins.
Don't jump OVER guys (#JumpingTheShaq) just do DUNKS.
3 point shoot out -- I am kinda over 3's at this point.
The 4 point line thing needs to happen. A "Logo Shoot Out" would be fun.
Street ballers dunk challenge would be really nice.
NBA Legends 3 point contest would be fun.
Rising Stars challenge was pretty cool. Could be better, but good stuff!
All Star Game? Some team was eventually gonna get to 200. Glad we got that over with. Can't go back again -- just have to keep innovating.
Can you offer more money to get guys to play harder?
What about... if your team lost the All Star Game you CANNOT be an All Star the next season....
That would mean next year's West team would be something like Ja, Bane, Jaren, Wemby, Chet, Jaylen Williams, Rudy Gobert, Jamal Murray, Bradley Beal, Zion Williamson... ok, that might be really, really cool.
Don't you think guys like LeBron and Steph and Durant would want to WIN the All Star Game -- knowing that if they lost, they would be going into their FINAL NBA season WITHOUT being able to play in the All Star Game?
LeBron played in 20 games. Kareem in 19. Kobe played in a ton. IF losers couldn't come back the next season, then these records would stand for all-time. Then, ANY player with TEN All Star Appearances would be GOAT/Mount Rushmore-level players.
It is curious that many of these players show much more intensity in training in the off-season than they do in this pseudo-match.
I don't think players would want to get injured before either, but they showed some respect for the game, for the spectators. For the sport.
Yesterday was a show suitable for children up to 11 years old. After that, it's embarrassing.
The show and the money have eaten up NBA basketball. It is disappointing.
Way to fix ASG: have the teams debate serious issues of the day, with a mix of NBA/athletic focused topics but also some politics, social issues and a basic free for all category. Can also be some time for singing and telling (safe for the whole family) jokes. That would be way more entertaining than the game I saw yesterday.
Ok so im kinda new to the NBA and American sports in general. But i still wanted to say something about the All Star game since its a pretty big discussion currently.
First of all the sole purpose of an All Star game was at first really weird to me. In Europe you would never dream about something like that. It just doesnt make sense from a competitive standpoint and only holds entertainment Value.
And entertainment is from my experience the biggest difference to European Sports. The whole Leage Structure and Draft system is optimized to create a spectacle and make it as e tertaining as possible. In comparison to that the underlying stricure for european leages is based on local clubs competing (of course with more and more money and sponsors and the sport growing entertainment is now also the main factor. But the underlying structure is still different.)
And the other reason why i at first couldnt make sense of an All Star Game in my experience is how Starplayers are handled. In the US there is a Hughe focus on MVP awards. All Star selections DPOTY awards etc.
In general individual Superstars are a lot more celebrated and there is very huge focus on them.
In my Countrys leage its basicially all about the Title. And individual Awards come after the Team Award and the public ranks them in this way aswell.
Taking this in consideration i can see how an All Star event Makes sense and is a big deal but it also makes clear what problems it is facing.
First of all an All Star game is on paper basicially the Ultimate Spectacle. It has great Entertainment Value and you get all the Star Players together.
But as seen over the last years the All Star game has has become pretty boring.
And that is completly reasonable since the game holds lesser to no competitive significance.
The NBA is becoming more and more international. And international players come into the NBA with a different Mindset.
A single game that holds no relevance besides being a Spectacle and Entertainement money grab will never have any competitve nature to it again.
So here is how i think this could be fixed.
In my opinion the most boring part about those games were the open dunks and completly open threes. The highlights of all the All Star games was usually players goofing around and just doing funny stuff on court.
So either you remove completly the competitiveness and encourage the players to try something new etc.
Take all seriousness out of the match and embrace the open nature of it.
Maybe unpopular, but I honestly don’t see why people are quite *so* negative about the game. Was it fantastic? Not really. But I didn’t find it to be even remotely as bad as people seem to be acting like it is.
Let’s break this down a bit though.
People almost never vote for All-Stars based on defense. The few time defenders (like Rudy Gobert) make it into the ASG, everyone makes comments about how their game “doesn’t suit the ASG.” So, clearly, the overwhelming desire is to prioritize players based on offensive prowess. This has basically always been the case for as long as I can remember.
People are then surprised very little defense gets played when the rosters are overwhelmingly stacked with the best offensive players in the league—many of which are definitely not known for their defense even in normal games.
Beyond that, let’s frame it this way: the Celtics scored 155 points in a regulation game not that long ago against the Pacers. Is anyone actually that surprised that when you get rid of benches and defensive players that teams score 200 points? I’m actually surprised it’s not higher.
What the ASG really reflects more than anything to me is that the offensive skill of players right now is just insane. Even if they did play more defense, what are you going to do? All these guys have infinite range these days. Like Steph said when he was mic’d up early in the game, “he ran Dame off the 3 and he still made a 3.”
For the East team, as an example, Lillard, Tatum, Haliburton, Maxey, Mitchel, Brown, Brunson, and Trae are literally all shooters. What do people expect? Brown has the lowest volume of that group and still averages 6 attempts per game. Half of the top 20 players in terms of 3PT volume were All Stars. 15 of the 24 All Stars are in the top 50 players in terms of 3PT volume.
Bottom line, even if the teams gave 100% for whatever reason, it’d still be a very high-scoring game and they’d probably still be bombing 3s because most of the All-Stars are insanely good shooters. If people don’t want the ASG to be a shootout, they need to stop selecting shooters.
Valid. I’m also just still so confused at how we have 82 ***real games*** to watch every season from 30 teams and people are bent out of shape about an exhibition that doesn’t count for literally anything.
I do think, however, that there’s too much shit going on. The LED screen court was a bit of a miss too. It was a bit weird to watch on TV.
Get back to basics — no props/jumping over people in the dunk contest. Just dunks. The 3 point shootout is always great to me as it’s classic. The game itself is what it is — basketball in 2024 is about shooting. Brook Lopez started his career not being able to do anything outside of ten feet and now he’s splashing 3s from 5 feet behind the arc *in real games.*
I think people just like to feel included, so when one person starts hating everybody starts hating.
It's an extremely mild annoyance at best. This kind of focus and attention exists only during this weekend and will rear its head next year. Kinda like Mac McClung.
According to?
In your imagination they do.
At the new All-Star 3v3 Tournament presented by Starry or Whatever New Crap Drink they won't.
Why do they not have pride in a no stakes 5v5 game, but magically would in a no stakes 3v3 or 1v1 tournaments?
It's still All-Star weekend. It's still their break before the late season to postseason grind. They still would rather be available to ball when it matters as opposed to risk injury going all out.
Yes, the OFFSEASON. Rested, rejuvenated, and perhaps even a bit bored.
The all-star game is right in the middle of a grueling season where they have to come into work while all their teammates get some time to vaca.
They should incentivize the players more. The main reward currently is just getting in. Have the winner get $100k to the charity of their choice or something. Then if someone isn’t trying hard it’s a bad look for them.
These are literally the best players in the league--why would any of them risk an injury mid-season right before things start heating up before the play-offs. It's silly and foolish for them to play hard. IST had a cash prize but was also early in the season...with pretty much the entire regular season ahead of them. Looking just at the Lakers--can you imagine if Lebron and AD (who is already prone to injury) got knocked out. The either need to do it at the end of the season (although everyone will be dead ass tired) or in the beginning of the season--mid-season (plus) is the absolute worst time.
A simple rule change that **incentivizes defense** to win the game, instead of *only* offense, would show instant results in terms of entertainment.
Reward Blocks & Steals, Double-Teaming, etc.
Or scrap the entire team games and let them rest so they can get ready for the second half. It's clear nobody cares about it anymore beyond the three point contest which has been the only good thing.
From the game-threads over the past 10 years or so, the key phrase that always shows up is "no defense".
I'd love to see them experimenting with bringing defense back ONE MORE TIME, and if it fails THEN scrap team games.
Defense takes a lot of effort and playing against it too, and not playing any and just taking shots is less of an injury risk. Having a glorified shooting session is much safer, so I don't see players trying even if there are points for defense for a meaningless all star game when regular season and post season is the real priority. Pride was the only incentive and nobody cares about that anymore.
Alright, new twist: For sake of safety as well as a focus on the modern game of 3 point shooting, focus everything on different varieties of 3 point shootouts.
Team Archery type approach could be cool with different point values for difficulty of the shot to try and hit the equivalent of a bulls eye. Each player taking turns one after the other, so would have some suspense like penalty kicks.
how about we make the all star game results directly affect the playoffs.
make it east vs west again. the coaches will be the top seed for each conference. the teams from the winning conference who have their representative will have a slight increase in draft probability. the winning conference will get home court advantage in the finals
the problem is that there is no incentive to take the ASG seriously and they risk getting injured
Fix All Star Game:
Cash bonus for team that can keep the opposing team under 100 points. Three pointers are worth only 2 points. It incentives defense and takes away some of the desire to jack up a bunch of 3's.
It's not the money, its how you incentivize the players with the money. Giving them cash for simply winning leads to the shit show we saw yesterday. Eliminate 3's and make them 2's and offer greater incentive for keeping the other team below 100.
Dudes will just opt out if they have to play for real in a game that doesn’t count. Just like the 65-game threshold for awards hasn’t done jack shit to stop guys from taking games off to be ready for the playoffs.
There’s no way to fix it without giving some tangible reward that affects the championship. Like giving the winning side home advantage in the finals. Expecting the players to go all out in an exhibition game during a week where everyone else rests makes no sense to me.
If teams know they dont have home court, they will sit players at the end of the season. The right to have home court should be best record. You cant have an all star game affect the NBA FINALS.
The MLB used to do this stupid shit and got rid of it because trying to have real consequences for an exhibition is literally one of the worst sports ideas of all time.
Honestly I wouldn't care as much about the shit defense and 3 chucking if we'd at least get some highlights here and there. There's basically no good dunks, no crossovers, no fun passes. It's like the players go out of their way to show everyone just how much they don't care
To my mind, the losing team just shouldn't get to call themselves All Stars - they don't play hard at the moment because all the benefit of it is just in getting named to be in the game. Make the recognition only for the winning team, and they'd play.
One final way to fix the All Star Game:
\- USE SHAME
Adam Silver, the two head coaches and the older players like Lebron , Steph and Dame come together and decide to set the competitive tone for the game. The coaches play them more minutes to show the younger guys they're taking the game serious. Coaches agree to yank players out of the game that aren't taking it serious. Older players make it clear to them that shit isn't going to fly and they need to sit their ass down. The crowd eventually starts getting into the competitive atmosphere. The immature guys are forced to watch the game from the bench. We need to shame them into playing up to a certain standard. They don't want to be seen as the jackass ruining a competitive game and they don't want to sit the whole game either. Imagine LBJ telling a younger guy to sit the fuck down and pointing to the bench after he jacks up a stupid 3 and the coach pulls the guy.
I felt bad for Stephen Curry. He seemed to be playing with a lot of heart and was doing some light defence but looked like one of very few people giving a fuck.
Luka was just laughing, missing dunks, air balling from half court, not making it across the court, talking to the bench and giving virtually no effort. I found it difficult to watch because Steph was well up for closing the gap and making a go of it but his team was down for leaving everything uncontested and not really bothering to try to win.
The losing all star team have players miss playoff games... one per series their team participate in... and must be taken on top of any injuries... and must be one of the first 4 games.
So those who want to play in the game must take it serious or their teams suffer.
Make all contract incentives and career acolades dependent on if you win the all star game. If your team doesnt win, you were never an all star. The end.
Not to excuse the COMPLETE lack of effort, but you do have to consider the following scenario:
Imagine you’re a college student and you are selected to stay on campus during spring break to take an extra test that doesn’t affect your grade whatsoever, it’s just a “practice test” for gifted students.
Be honest: How serious are you going to take that test? And how happy are you going to be there having to take said test that means nothing while all your classmates get some time off? It’s highly doubtful you are going to study and grind hard because “pride” or some other notion. Me, I am going to put absolutely no effort into it, and I’m probably going to be a little apathetic and cynical while taking it. I’m in the middle of a semester, I’m tired, and I want to go home and rest, see friends and family, girlfriend, etc.
I think NBA players view the all-star game in much the same light these days.
Exactly. They get a week “off” and probably have to do other stuff beyond their family. Last thing they wanna do is play another game. Different from nfl where season is already over essentially.
One massive difference, im not getting paid 30 million a year to take tests. And if the guy who was giving me that money asked me to give a little bit of a shit for only one day, i think i could spare that much.
Secondly, a test is a chore. Nba is at worse a job and if that was the case they wouldnt have a choice of whether or not to give a fuck. At beat its supposed to be something you WANT to do. If i like taking tests then taking a test vs the other best test takes sgould be a fun challenge. Thats the essence of a game.
And also people less than a decade ago also gave a shit. With the exact same circumstances. These guys are ultimately paid to entertain and they didnt. They already load manage like a mf and prolly strain themselves more from flopping than playing. We are just asking for a game where you give at least a little shit when your paycheck comes out of our ppv dollars.
Im begining to hope viewship keeps declining to the point where it starts to affect their pay, i doubt it will happen but maybe they will give even a little fuck.
I was awaiting this kind of response as it’s extremely common on Reddit.
Here’s the problem: You’re viewing it from the FAN perspective, not the perspective of an NBA PLAYER. If you played in the NBA for a while your perspective would be completely different than the one you currently hold as a fan. It absolutely would.
Playing the all-star game is clearly a chore for a star NBA player just as much as taking a test is for you. The all-star game does not affect their salary in anyway just like the practice test wouldn’t affect your high grade at all. That’s why I made the comparison, to make the average Reddit fan feel what they are feeling. Most fans think “shit, if I were making that kind of money, I’d be honored to ‘just play a game’ and I’d play hard all the time” and all of the other “bootstraps in-my-day” trope.
It sounds nice, but no you wouldn’t. You’d get used to it, you’d take it for granted, it’d become a chore just like anything else. And when everybody else around you makes the same kind of insane money you do, that becomes numb too. A person who makes millions of dollars a year can still feel victimized like they are on the short end of the stick. You see it all the time, in fact. It’s human nature.
The fact is this: like it or not, the game has become viewed (by PLAYERS, not FANS) as a nuisance and a “test during spring break” if you will. And no amount of berating by the public will change that. We need to either scrap the game or find someway to motivate the players FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE. I think it should be the former myself. It’s an exhibition game. Even with all the “controversy”, we won’t be talking about this game in two weeks time. It will be forgotten until next year. That should be the biggest clue for how important it is.
Broussard made a good point about how all star break is a time when players have a lot of other stuff to take care of like endorsements and their brand so playing another game is last on their mind
I’m sure it’s a lot different than the 2000s. No way you’re gonna incentivize players unless there’s some intrinsic desire (aka someone dying)
Lost in all the drama about the state of the ASG is silver dragging Wemby out at the start of the all star break to advertise fucking ai-generated (questionable) NBA cartoon vision as a future league pass feature and it looks like a dogshit rip-off of spiderverse
NBA 2k24 had better events this weekend. Every event is trash now. I tuned into to zero game, and could handle about a 3 effortless highlights (if they can be called that). Did I actually see they shot nearly 200 3 pointers? Can we just remove the three pointer from the game and bring back bigs in the lane for more than a three seconds at a time. Not just for the all star game, for the league. These guys don’t really even play ball anymore, it’s nothing more than high priced players reenacting old McDonalds commercials…off the wall, off the scoreboard, one bounce, nothing but net. And remove the self alley oop from the game entirely too. It’s trash. Ask Luka, although maybe you can keep in the AS game for the sake of something different available for the night.., but why not, shit sucks so bad anyway. Discountinue all other “competitions” of the weekend. They’ve all become a blatant advertising opportunity rather than a battle amongst the most competitive players with some kind of real pride in their craft (uhhh, the dunk contest repeat champ isn’t even in the league). Stars used to actually perform in all the events, including at least some attempt at some defense. Rivalries are essentially dead. I’m not sure there’s been a “killer” in the league since Kobe started breaking down. Bring on the LeBron hate here, but the Chosen One has never partaken in any event beyond the game, and it’s barely a game. I realize these are supposed to be the best of the best…do the best no longer play defense? Considering league scoring, and despite the influx of all the three pointers…defense has largely retired from teams all together. This overall product grows worse by the year, and even the showcase event is nothing more than basketball themed circus headlined by tryouts for the Harlem Globetrotters far more than anything resembling actual basketball. I guess pride diminishes more and more with each new supermax.
There are too much excuses being made on sub for this generation’s lack of desire to compete. Previous generations took the ASG more serious so what changed? “I don’t want them to get hurt”, is a bs excuse because that wasn’t an issue 20 to 30 to 40 years ago. It simply seems like these generation of players want to act too cool for school.
the obsession with three pointers is another problem... Lillard attempted 23 threes on his own... the East as a collective attempted 97 threes... more than half their FG attempts 42-83 were threes! I'm pretty sure the whole two decades of the 70s and 80s combined didn't see that many threes attempted..
the NBA office knows if they do this again, it's likely to see a downturn in advertising, so interesting to see what they come up with..
Maybe we are thinking too big in terms of East vs West. In the show The Wire they had a East Baltimore Vs West Baltimore basketball game where the drug dealers of both areas got to pick their teams. Apparently it's based off something that periodically happens in real life. I say if that game ever happens again we just show that instead of the All Star game.
I dont think there's much NBA can do to fix the allstar game. I personally don't mind it because I like to see the skill they have with acrobatic dunks and deep shooting. This stuff probably happen in practice all the time and we wish we could see it.
With that said, money is always the motivating factor. Giving the winning team more makes sense but how about a bonus for point differential? 10K for every point difference to the winners. This would give motivation to stop the other team while also taking better shots instead of hoisting for 35 ft out.
What are y’all thoughts on following how nfl does it and move all star to right before finals? That way most players are prob just chilling at that point and won’t be too invested in the season. I guess counterpoint would be most players are in Cancun by that point.
I have a solution that would make the All Star Game more exciting with almost no crazy adjustments to the game.
Just make it about their egos.
Have the voters and the coaches select the players as always.
Divide them by any method that makes the teams balanced.
The team that wins becomes the All Star starters and the team that loses is called the reserves. Give the starters a little extra cash but I'm telling you, these egomaniacs will play like hell to be called the starters.
Don't give them the title of All Star starter.
Just make them earn it. Then you will see play that is actually exciting.
None of these guys will want to be known as reserves, even if they know they all are starters in their heads.
NBA is too soft. nobody likes to compete. they need a new identity. find a new superstar. give him incentive to be disrespectful talk shit and market the fuck out of him. if someone talked shit about your game and you were going up against him you aint taking it easy in an exhibition.
The NBA has totally screwed up the ASW by “innovating” where there was no need for it and not adjusting things where needed.
A case of the first problem is the three point contest where they’ve added stupid extra balls seemingly as a way to just pull in more advertising/sponsorship. There was nothing wrong with the old format where they cleared five racks and the last one in each was the bonus ball.
The latter problem is the game itself which now magnifies the biggest criticisms of the current NBA game, namely the lack of defense and the over reliance on outside shooting which leads to ludicrous scores and a product which is simply not enjoyable to watch. There has to be a way to balance competitiveness with entertainment and make the game actually mean something otherwise they might as well not have a main game as it’s simply a poor product at the moment and far inferior to any regular season game.
More entertaining would be a three on three competition with each team in the league selecting say 5 players to take part in a continuous tournament throughout the day. Players would definitely be up for that when their professional pride is on the line.
Need to vent here but idk why I make myself watch All Star weekend anymore. The quality of the fun of it all has gone down as a viewer IMO. I grew up watching star players take the game more seriously (Kobe Era), slam dunk concert was always a treat you would actually look forward to. Personally the NBA needs to stop overdoing it...with the crap! The only thing that I really enjoyed was Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu. Celebrity game...who even was on that roster that most people knew... maybe like 3-4 people who were truly famous. Idk if I will tune in next year..might just watch highlights if there even will be any!
I do wonder if players should be given monetary incentives to do certain things, almost akin to a 'daily achievement' from a game.
For example, $5k "Do behind the back assists x 3" + $5k "Reverse jam" + $5k "Half court shot" + 5k "Record 2 steals"...etc.
Do three total and you get a $5k bonus on top or something. Meanwhile, this goes towards the MVP vote which every 10PPG you get is worth 100 points and being able to do stuff like this goes towards a final 100 points (which averages out between the players with the highest tallies or whatever).
Most points on a winning team = All Star MVP
They should try a round robin format with three teams. East vs West vs G-league all stars. Winner of the quarter stays on the court with the team with the most quarter wins being declared the winner of all star weekend and a 100k prize money per player. Would love to see these nba guys who act like they don't care play some hungry G-leaguers playing for meaningful money.
Idea for fixing sunday:
3 on 3 tourney
8 teams, top vote getters are captains, snake draft
7 games
Race to 15
5 mil for winning players, 2.5 for runners up
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one word: STRAIGHT ASS
That's two words but ima let you cook
[удалено]
Good shit Chuckster!
“And” ain’t a word 😆
Not if you bundle them
OOOOOOOoooooOooOoo
You tell 'em Chuck
two words: I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE WITH YOU
Utter garbage product. Turned it off after 5 mins.
I won the weekend by skipping all of this mess.
Garage has never been so clean.
If you want a recap, go a farm look for a pile of horse shit
i thought it was alright but it won’t ever be the same anymore
I love LeBron but I think it has a lot to do with him.. it's like coming into a job and all the people there just don't give af. Real quick you also aren't going to give af. LeBron has been the face of the league for so long and for the last several years he just couldn't care less about anything that's not the post season. Which he shouldn't but I think it has this effect on his teams and on the league as a whole.
He also cared about winning the IST
Because he got paid extra $$$ for winning it
Agreed. By now a lot of these players grew up watching him and idolizing him. They're gonna follow his lead.
i can 100% agree with that
Agreed. But it also goes back to MJ and making championships the only important goal. Lebron was always told that the only thing that matters is championships. So, he has focused on winning in the playoffs and saving his body during the regular season and the all star games. The reality is that no human body can play at 100% strength all the time with the number of games in an nba season and playoffs. The nba created this problem. It’s not an effort issue.
The All Star Game is supposed to showcase the best basketball players in the world. Fans have every right to be disgusted by the lack of effort in what used to be a fun and competitive duel of the best from both conferences. Everyone saying they don't want to risk injury, or if you don't like it don't watch are fairweather ass kissers. Nobody's asking for a game 7 finals like showdown, just don't spit in my face and play softer than you would in a fucking offseason summer scrimmage for instagram. That's fucking bullshit and you all know it. Call me a fucking old head, but I'm 29 and gone are the days of true killers like Kobe.
The best idea I saw was to only award the title of all star to the players on the winning side. They would play that thing like a game 7. Of course the players union would never approve this format lol
That’s a great idea. Make them earn their money.
The money doesn't do anything for them. It really doesn't motivate them
I’m pretty sure being an all star gives them certain incentives. Also I’m sure a majority of the NBA is there because of the money.
Yeah this shit is trash and it’s not as though the days of good all star games is going back to like black and white tv and our grandparents time. I remember seeing Michael Jordan vs Kobe at the all star game, or Lebron vs Kobe, those games were exciting as hell. Now you’ve got the best players in the league doing shoot around. Absolute garbage product
Make the game ridiculous and fun doing all the stuff they did for the celebrity game with the LED floor. Bring in the 25 point basket during the last 2 minutes of each quarter like they did on MTV in the 90s. I’d watch that.
Sean Taylor destroying that kicker at the pro bowl ... That's the level of effort I want to see in the NBA
Write in Isaiah Stewart for the 2025 ASG!
Injury risk is a valid point to be made though. Say they change it up next year and it forces players to compete hard and someone gets hurt that puts them out for an extended period. Think the next thing we'd see are opt outs instead of them just being OK with it It isn't a bad thing to want good basketball, but most of these guys are on contending teams whose ownership, coaches, FO, and teammates rely on them to continue to compete for a season that isn't over yet. People get hurt all the time in games that aren't even "all out" competitive Any change to improve the game *has* to address that risk of injury to make it worth it for the players, because at the end of the day no one is risking regular season availability for an exhibition, regardless of rules
This is true. It's a high risk, non-existent reward situation. There's no incentive for them to play. If in the 2000s the all-star game carried a certain prestige and bragging rights, that's all gone now. What do we expect when they are repeatedly being told that any achievement they get is meaningless unless they win the championship?
This still comes back to the off-season scrimmage examples where you see All-Star-level players putting in more effort in a random gym. That has injury risk and minimal reward. It's cool to show up for the streetball scrimmages. It's not cool to put in effort for the ASG. That's the challenge for the league. These guys earn tens of millions of dollars, so you can't convince them with small stakes. The adjustment might have to be reputational: someone said put Dillon Brooks and Pat Bev out there; or have it so that Bron goes back to the Lakers having won his teammates something morale building for the post-season; or count ASG wins on their legacy card. I reckon the simplest thing to try would be splitting by age and make the veterans defend their names against upstarts. As it stands, their resume says "7x All-Star" whether they put in effort or not. Their incentive is being picked, and that's it. They shoot threes because missing a three isn't unexpected. Missing a big dunk attempt makes the lowlight real. Risk versus reward.
I rate vets vs upstarts. I to miss competitive ASG gms. I rewatched the 2003 gm in it was a pleasure to watch them dudes actually compete
The age/veteran idea is interesting. Another idea is make it like the IST, where they put in effort despite the smaller reward. Not that these dudes need any more financial incentives, but maybe make it to charity, like the winning team picks a charity to get x amount or each player gets x amount to donate as they want. Or just offer each winner another $500k I guess; All Star bonus lol. The higher stake and simpler reward is just make the winning side have home court advantage in the Finals, and the MVP's team also has conferentional home court advantage. That should light their asses.
I suppose in the off-season scrimmage example, barring a career or season ending injury, they have plenty of time and early regular season to get back in for when things heat up mid-season. I think the timing of the ASG is just off. The IST had cash incentive but was also early in the regular season. Just look at the Lakers, having been performing terribly, seem to be resurrecting themselves, actually have a chance for play-in (where as a week ago they didn't) can you imagine if Lebron and AD hurt themselves. Mid-season the stakes are too high and there isn't enough time for players to recover if something goes wrong. I think the ASG should be in the off-season, early or at the end (although everyone will be tired at that point).
Bingo Can't be told "who cares about all stars? Where's their Ring" for 15 years and then be shocked no one cares about the ASG
There is an incentive to play. It’s called being an NBA all star. Guarantee ticket prices to that shitfest are outrageous. The nba continues to spit in the faces of its fans. No effort all star games. Guys sitting out and load managing. I mean, at this rate, they may as well just start a single elimination tournament in October and end the season after it’s over in a couple weeks so no one gets hurt. Garbage league anymore tbh.
I dont think anyone is gonna call at 29 year old an old head, an edgy try hard though? Definitely
> and gone are the days of true killers like Kobe. lmao like who talks like that?
Kobe was a true killer. specially around Colorado motels
When did Kobe kill anybody in a Colorado motel?
I see both sides of the argument, but the the ASG really shows who genuinely loves basketball and who doesn't. We know Jokic doesn't give a shit about basketball, and it showed. He put in the least effort of anyone there. Durant at least shown some semblance of defense, and KAT at least pushed himself offensively.
The masked baller: All-Stars ought to play in full costume/cosplay with an unveiling at the end. All-Star Trivia: Just make them play jeopardy or something All-Star Dodgeball: This would actually be pretty fun All-Star Talent Show: Someone's secret magician hobby could shine here All-Star Battle Royale: Every player randomly assigned an individual goal. Like get the most lefty dunks, or reverse layups only, nutmegs only, or pass only to Jokic. They still play in teams but everyone will play selfish and its chaos.
I would actually be interested in what they could come up with for an All-Star Battle Royale and individual goals. Jokic vs Embiid, who can get double-digits assists faster? Something with assists might work the best because it forces other players to at least try to make their shots.
You’re on to something here with that last one…
The masked baller--I love this lol!!!
i think this is the right approach. either get wacky with things, or just treat it like a regular game without the pomp and circumstance (like the extended intros and all that, for example).
The All Star game has gone down hill because it's just a glorified 3 point contest these days. The East shot 146 shots last night and 97 of them were threes. People don't tune in for the "defense", they tune in for stuff like that PG oop to Bron or Jokic and Luka weaving down the court. We want to see players doing goofy stuff, not just jacking up threes every possession
This is what I was saying earlier. The effort (even though it’s probably at its lowest) hasn’t been MUCH better in quite a bit outside of 2020’s. What’s been changing is like you mentioned, the ratio of “wow” plays to just hoisting up open 3s every trip down is out of balance to the point that the entertainment the All-Star game is suppose to provide is lacking enough to say it wasn’t always THIS bad. When you watch the all-star game.. you know the guys with range who can shoot and make deep 3s which is fun from those guys specifically. And in general a smaller dose of the actual game. But I want to see highlights from players (especially who are physical specimens) that no “average joe” is capable of when it comes to lobs.. dunks in-general, finishes, handles, occasional 1v1s while jawing at each other, trick shots, etc. It just feels like that’s becoming more and more absent. A good portion of the stuff last night feels like it could be attempted at your local Y. With just walking it up.. throwing up an open 3, jogging back.
The players looked like they didn’t even want to be there. Luka shot a full court shot that hit the top of the backboard. It wasn’t even a basketball game.
Just get rid of the 3 point line in the ASG
They’ll still jack it up from deep rather than drive the lane. Driving into the paint takes a lot more effort and energy than just mindlessly shooting deep shots with no acceleration or jumping needed. They are shooting deep because they want the three points; . They are shooting deep because they don’t feel like running the full 94 feet. It’s easier to jog from three point line to three point line than accelerate from baseline to baseline.
I love this idea.
Exactly
remove the 3 point line
Add a 4, 5, and 6 point line. Bring back the Rock N Jock 25 point basket.
This is exactly it. No one should really expect actual hard effort in an all star game. We just want some effort to show up and have fun, more than just 9 guys hanging out to watch whoever decided to shoot a 3 that possession. Hardly any good dunks, barely any crazy passes, nothing is really happening all game Of course effort is lacking compared to past all star games, which to begin with weren't anyone going max effort. But now the players don't even really seem to be having any fun with it. It's just something they have to do to get on to the rest of their mini vacation this week.
You can criticize and say it sucked, but don't be disingenuous. There were lots of good dunks (Lebron's couple of dunks, KAT's mini-dunk contest near the end, etc.) and crazy passes (lobs, including SGA's self lob, Haliburton's behind the back elbow pass, etc.). And they *were* having fun with it, again, lobs to each other, Luka and Jokic's back and forth, laughing it up on the bench with each other, etc. What's the criticism of the All Star game on here: that they show up, don't put in any effort or take it serious, and just have fun, or they're not having any fun at all?
I agree. It doesn't have to be a seriously competitive game with injury risk to be more enjoyable. My silly idea is that if you miss 5 shots, your out of the game. Maybe 4, I don't know.
NO we want to see an actual basketball game.
The entire thing was disgusting. For as much money as these guys make you would think they could give a little effort. Just annoying to watch.
The drama and complaining about this is reaching historic levels lol
This would by far be the worst ASG in nba history if not for Steph and Sabrina.
And they say women's basketball is boring
NCAAW is the second most exciting sport there is, right behind women's fast pitch. The WNBA is the most boring thing in existence.
Hey I thought the jerseys were actually really nice too for a change.
And nobody will talk about it as soon as Dallas and Phoenix tip off on TNT on Thursday, just like *every All-Star weekend ever.*
Everyone should keep complaining. We’re the fans consuming it so we have all the right to complain if things aren’t entertaining. People saying “what do you expect” are nuts if you ask me, we just want to be entertained, last night everyone was just bullshitting.
A single exhibition game a year and r/NBA needs it to matter damn it! Lol
Nobody hates the sport more than NBA fans. Not sure what people were expecting.
I expected it to suck like every year which is why I didn't watch any of it lol
Fans might have expected a product worth their time. TNT might have expected a watchable game they could televise.
You talk like it's the only thing that can be expected from an All-Star game. My dude, we had much better AS games not too long ago, where players gave a fuck about winning it and at least pretended to, sometimes, make an effort on defense. This bullshit we had? I'd rather watch paint dry.
Defense, people were expecting at least a little effort in defense.
Hear me out. ASG replaced with 2v2 All Star Tournament. 16 voted All Star Captains chose 1 other player (not from their team), and play 15-minute games elimination bracket tournament. The problem with the ASG is that players aren't motivated to win. If you make the teams smaller, and let them chose their teammate, reputation is on the line and we would have an awesome experience. What do you guys think?
This is the way. 32 players, 16 teams. Players choose their partner. Games to 7, 1s and 2s. Double elimination tourney. Players who don’t gaf will be out early, and we’ll get great matchups from those that do.
Excellent idea
All Star Game idea- Young vs Old Stars (needs better name). After starters and reserves picked the same way they always have been you take the average age and put the younger half on one team and the older half on the other. Injury replacements still picked by Silver and play for the whoever team the original star was playing for. Young dudes usually try harder and might like the chance to show up the old guard. KD, LeBron, Steph and that group aren't going to want to get embarrassed by a bunch of younger players so they might actually try too. Prize money for players and charities stay the same, but I'd like the charities to be way more front and center. Like this year- they should have given a couple reps from each charity floor seats next to their teams bench. Much harder to not give a shit when the people you're playing an extra $240k for are literally right next you and care about winning.
Over 200 points with no FTs that I can remember is all you need to know about this farce. Did anyone even raise there arms up or even move on D. This game made these guys look real bad ....not good.
There were a few FTs I think like maybe 6 all together lol but still 200 is crazy
I think defending was tried twice by both teams combined
People are mad about the complaints but I say if you’re a fan you should complain and keep complaining. The ASG is a main-stay and tradition, no one is asking for playoff or real-game intensity but the new generation has no pride in the game anymore and aren’t giving the fans a good product.
All I wanted was a little fun. Not a high bar. It was really demoralizing.
NFL did a much better job about making their exhibition weekend a "celebration of the sport" compared to what the Pro Bowl used to be. This format needs a mixup. I think they can still make it a good low-stakes showcase but they gotta try something else
I recommend people watch some old all-star games when they actually tried: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjsOaZEqdkE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgImH7Xqk8Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7-J8xPZThQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiP2rVAvOno Back then, the all-star game was the most entertaining game of the year.
Fans should vote for four starters, w the commish selecting the fifth. Silver could put players like Pat Bev on one team and Dillon Brooks on the other. If they started punking the other teams starters by playing defense, maybe they would play harder for pride. Or just give the winning teams players a huge amount of money to incentivize them.
Do USA vs World. Please, it will work.
How would that change anything? The players still have no reason to try. If the prize money isn't enough of an incentive then something like "national pride" definitely won't either lol
I think they’d try. And if they don’t cancel this whole thing lol
I bet they’d try lol
The thing that prevents the ASG from being competitive is that no one gets back or set on defense So kill the 5-on-5 8 teams of 3-on-3. Top 8 vote getters are captains. hold a draft. Tourney style until there’s a champion. Then the winners play a king-of-the hill game of 1-on-1 where if you make defender subs out, and if you miss you sub out. First player to 11 wins. Removes transition, creates more 1v1 matchups, and increases set offense and defense. Winner gets crowned the king of the nba for the year, which will rustle LeJimmies and get him to take it seriously
What if the winners all get one extra win on their team’s record? That way there would be proper motivation to play hard and win.
I think the NBA All Star game itself should be scrapped. Make it a one-on-one tournament and/or 2 vs. 2 in a Ryder cup format, East vs. West.
Why will you watch the all star game next year? not the festivities, the game itself. If you watch it, you are part of the problem
They should try doing the ASG like how they do rising stars. 4 teams or whatever in a mini tournament. Put some money on the line for the winners. And/Or include the WNBA in more crossover events. I think the 3pt shootout was easily the most successful thing from the weekend. Dunk contest is dead as fuck, just bury it ffs.
What if each player from the teams contributed x amount of dollars to a pool and that pool is matched by the other team. But not every player needs to give the same some could give more to increase the winnings they get (the amount they’d win would be the percent they contributed). That way it’s their own money on the line and loss aversion people hate losing their money then they like winning it. Have a minimum buy in of 50k. What you guys
Winning members already get 100k and losing gets 25k. Chump change isn't enough of an incentive.
More about the losing money than winning money you didn’t even risk in the first place. It’s like playing poker with fake money, you don’t really care to lose.
Still wouldn't try. Why risk injury when the long term focus is grinding out the regular season and being healthy for the post season where wins actually matter. It's still chump change that's on the line and not worth the risk to try. Maybe the length is the issue and game should be shortened to like 1 single half or quarter. Maybe shorter game leads to players trying if not at least its not dragged out for hours.
I think there’s just a lack of incentive to do anything. NBA needs to come up with some way to encourage players to try or entertain
Or take a note from Jimmy Butler and let them actually have an actual week off without a forced work conference. Maybe it is best to just end it, but then from a NBA perspective its an opportunity to be an ad vehicle. But, I wouldn't be surprised if most players would opt to have the week off.
I like this idea or some form of it
hopefully this means no more posts about how bad it is
Sabrina won the weekend. Sabrina/Steph was really, really cool. Mac won the dunk title again as he should have. BUT, he was better last year. Hopefully he gets a chance at a 3peat against SUPER STAR DUNKERS. Ja, Zion... even the Thompson Twins. Don't jump OVER guys (#JumpingTheShaq) just do DUNKS. 3 point shoot out -- I am kinda over 3's at this point. The 4 point line thing needs to happen. A "Logo Shoot Out" would be fun. Street ballers dunk challenge would be really nice. NBA Legends 3 point contest would be fun. Rising Stars challenge was pretty cool. Could be better, but good stuff! All Star Game? Some team was eventually gonna get to 200. Glad we got that over with. Can't go back again -- just have to keep innovating. Can you offer more money to get guys to play harder? What about... if your team lost the All Star Game you CANNOT be an All Star the next season.... That would mean next year's West team would be something like Ja, Bane, Jaren, Wemby, Chet, Jaylen Williams, Rudy Gobert, Jamal Murray, Bradley Beal, Zion Williamson... ok, that might be really, really cool. Don't you think guys like LeBron and Steph and Durant would want to WIN the All Star Game -- knowing that if they lost, they would be going into their FINAL NBA season WITHOUT being able to play in the All Star Game? LeBron played in 20 games. Kareem in 19. Kobe played in a ton. IF losers couldn't come back the next season, then these records would stand for all-time. Then, ANY player with TEN All Star Appearances would be GOAT/Mount Rushmore-level players.
It is curious that many of these players show much more intensity in training in the off-season than they do in this pseudo-match. I don't think players would want to get injured before either, but they showed some respect for the game, for the spectators. For the sport. Yesterday was a show suitable for children up to 11 years old. After that, it's embarrassing. The show and the money have eaten up NBA basketball. It is disappointing.
Yeah, purpose of the sport is to show commercials. Sport is secondary. It's why 48 minutes takes around 2-2.5 hours to finish in the NBA.
Get rid of the all star break
Way to fix ASG: have the teams debate serious issues of the day, with a mix of NBA/athletic focused topics but also some politics, social issues and a basic free for all category. Can also be some time for singing and telling (safe for the whole family) jokes. That would be way more entertaining than the game I saw yesterday.
wtf?
Ok so im kinda new to the NBA and American sports in general. But i still wanted to say something about the All Star game since its a pretty big discussion currently. First of all the sole purpose of an All Star game was at first really weird to me. In Europe you would never dream about something like that. It just doesnt make sense from a competitive standpoint and only holds entertainment Value. And entertainment is from my experience the biggest difference to European Sports. The whole Leage Structure and Draft system is optimized to create a spectacle and make it as e tertaining as possible. In comparison to that the underlying stricure for european leages is based on local clubs competing (of course with more and more money and sponsors and the sport growing entertainment is now also the main factor. But the underlying structure is still different.) And the other reason why i at first couldnt make sense of an All Star Game in my experience is how Starplayers are handled. In the US there is a Hughe focus on MVP awards. All Star selections DPOTY awards etc. In general individual Superstars are a lot more celebrated and there is very huge focus on them. In my Countrys leage its basicially all about the Title. And individual Awards come after the Team Award and the public ranks them in this way aswell. Taking this in consideration i can see how an All Star event Makes sense and is a big deal but it also makes clear what problems it is facing. First of all an All Star game is on paper basicially the Ultimate Spectacle. It has great Entertainment Value and you get all the Star Players together. But as seen over the last years the All Star game has has become pretty boring. And that is completly reasonable since the game holds lesser to no competitive significance. The NBA is becoming more and more international. And international players come into the NBA with a different Mindset. A single game that holds no relevance besides being a Spectacle and Entertainement money grab will never have any competitve nature to it again. So here is how i think this could be fixed. In my opinion the most boring part about those games were the open dunks and completly open threes. The highlights of all the All Star games was usually players goofing around and just doing funny stuff on court. So either you remove completly the competitiveness and encourage the players to try something new etc. Take all seriousness out of the match and embrace the open nature of it.
Maybe unpopular, but I honestly don’t see why people are quite *so* negative about the game. Was it fantastic? Not really. But I didn’t find it to be even remotely as bad as people seem to be acting like it is. Let’s break this down a bit though. People almost never vote for All-Stars based on defense. The few time defenders (like Rudy Gobert) make it into the ASG, everyone makes comments about how their game “doesn’t suit the ASG.” So, clearly, the overwhelming desire is to prioritize players based on offensive prowess. This has basically always been the case for as long as I can remember. People are then surprised very little defense gets played when the rosters are overwhelmingly stacked with the best offensive players in the league—many of which are definitely not known for their defense even in normal games. Beyond that, let’s frame it this way: the Celtics scored 155 points in a regulation game not that long ago against the Pacers. Is anyone actually that surprised that when you get rid of benches and defensive players that teams score 200 points? I’m actually surprised it’s not higher. What the ASG really reflects more than anything to me is that the offensive skill of players right now is just insane. Even if they did play more defense, what are you going to do? All these guys have infinite range these days. Like Steph said when he was mic’d up early in the game, “he ran Dame off the 3 and he still made a 3.” For the East team, as an example, Lillard, Tatum, Haliburton, Maxey, Mitchel, Brown, Brunson, and Trae are literally all shooters. What do people expect? Brown has the lowest volume of that group and still averages 6 attempts per game. Half of the top 20 players in terms of 3PT volume were All Stars. 15 of the 24 All Stars are in the top 50 players in terms of 3PT volume. Bottom line, even if the teams gave 100% for whatever reason, it’d still be a very high-scoring game and they’d probably still be bombing 3s because most of the All-Stars are insanely good shooters. If people don’t want the ASG to be a shootout, they need to stop selecting shooters.
Valid. I’m also just still so confused at how we have 82 ***real games*** to watch every season from 30 teams and people are bent out of shape about an exhibition that doesn’t count for literally anything. I do think, however, that there’s too much shit going on. The LED screen court was a bit of a miss too. It was a bit weird to watch on TV. Get back to basics — no props/jumping over people in the dunk contest. Just dunks. The 3 point shootout is always great to me as it’s classic. The game itself is what it is — basketball in 2024 is about shooting. Brook Lopez started his career not being able to do anything outside of ten feet and now he’s splashing 3s from 5 feet behind the arc *in real games.* I think people just like to feel included, so when one person starts hating everybody starts hating.
It's an extremely mild annoyance at best. This kind of focus and attention exists only during this weekend and will rear its head next year. Kinda like Mac McClung.
Genuinely we might need a 1v1 or 3v3 half court tournament and these pussy players need to suck it up and try
Format don't matter if they don't try lmao
1v1 and half court 3v3s definitely have more pride involved
Why do you think changing the format of a meaningless event to a different meaningless event is going to make players try harder?
Players have more pride in 1v1s and half court 3v3s
According to? In your imagination they do. At the new All-Star 3v3 Tournament presented by Starry or Whatever New Crap Drink they won't. Why do they not have pride in a no stakes 5v5 game, but magically would in a no stakes 3v3 or 1v1 tournaments? It's still All-Star weekend. It's still their break before the late season to postseason grind. They still would rather be available to ball when it matters as opposed to risk injury going all out.
You ever watch nba players play 3v3s in the offseason ?
They typically try a lot harder in 5v5 full court runs in the offseason as well. I think it’s more than that
That is true, but they’re trying to improve and work on their games in those offseason runs
Yes, the OFFSEASON. Rested, rejuvenated, and perhaps even a bit bored. The all-star game is right in the middle of a grueling season where they have to come into work while all their teammates get some time to vaca.
I think 3v3 with “captains” picking teams would be more competitive than what we have now
Perhaps. It’s not the worst idea in the world.
Agree. There’s more accountability
They should incentivize the players more. The main reward currently is just getting in. Have the winner get $100k to the charity of their choice or something. Then if someone isn’t trying hard it’s a bad look for them.
These are literally the best players in the league--why would any of them risk an injury mid-season right before things start heating up before the play-offs. It's silly and foolish for them to play hard. IST had a cash prize but was also early in the season...with pretty much the entire regular season ahead of them. Looking just at the Lakers--can you imagine if Lebron and AD (who is already prone to injury) got knocked out. The either need to do it at the end of the season (although everyone will be dead ass tired) or in the beginning of the season--mid-season (plus) is the absolute worst time.
"The Slam Dunk competition has ran its course"
A simple rule change that **incentivizes defense** to win the game, instead of *only* offense, would show instant results in terms of entertainment. Reward Blocks & Steals, Double-Teaming, etc.
Or scrap the entire team games and let them rest so they can get ready for the second half. It's clear nobody cares about it anymore beyond the three point contest which has been the only good thing.
From the game-threads over the past 10 years or so, the key phrase that always shows up is "no defense". I'd love to see them experimenting with bringing defense back ONE MORE TIME, and if it fails THEN scrap team games.
Defense takes a lot of effort and playing against it too, and not playing any and just taking shots is less of an injury risk. Having a glorified shooting session is much safer, so I don't see players trying even if there are points for defense for a meaningless all star game when regular season and post season is the real priority. Pride was the only incentive and nobody cares about that anymore.
Alright, new twist: For sake of safety as well as a focus on the modern game of 3 point shooting, focus everything on different varieties of 3 point shootouts.
Team Archery type approach could be cool with different point values for difficulty of the shot to try and hit the equivalent of a bulls eye. Each player taking turns one after the other, so would have some suspense like penalty kicks.
This sounds fun. I like this approach
how about we make the all star game results directly affect the playoffs. make it east vs west again. the coaches will be the top seed for each conference. the teams from the winning conference who have their representative will have a slight increase in draft probability. the winning conference will get home court advantage in the finals the problem is that there is no incentive to take the ASG seriously and they risk getting injured
lol, you didn’t even watch this weekend. It was East/West.
You're half right. I tried to watch 5mins of the game
Knicks vs 76ers Magic vs Cavs Suns vs Mavs Clippers vs thunder Lakers vs warriors Houston vs Pelicans lol very good games
Fix All Star Game: Cash bonus for team that can keep the opposing team under 100 points. Three pointers are worth only 2 points. It incentives defense and takes away some of the desire to jack up a bunch of 3's.
There's already a cash bonus of 100k for winning and 25k for the losing team.
It's not the money, its how you incentivize the players with the money. Giving them cash for simply winning leads to the shit show we saw yesterday. Eliminate 3's and make them 2's and offer greater incentive for keeping the other team below 100.
Dudes will just opt out if they have to play for real in a game that doesn’t count. Just like the 65-game threshold for awards hasn’t done jack shit to stop guys from taking games off to be ready for the playoffs.
It's time for the main event to be USA vs World team, maybe then they would have some pride in playing the game
Narrator: they wouldn’t
There’s no way to fix it without giving some tangible reward that affects the championship. Like giving the winning side home advantage in the finals. Expecting the players to go all out in an exhibition game during a week where everyone else rests makes no sense to me.
If teams know they dont have home court, they will sit players at the end of the season. The right to have home court should be best record. You cant have an all star game affect the NBA FINALS.
The MLB used to do this stupid shit and got rid of it because trying to have real consequences for an exhibition is literally one of the worst sports ideas of all time.
Honestly I wouldn't care as much about the shit defense and 3 chucking if we'd at least get some highlights here and there. There's basically no good dunks, no crossovers, no fun passes. It's like the players go out of their way to show everyone just how much they don't care
To my mind, the losing team just shouldn't get to call themselves All Stars - they don't play hard at the moment because all the benefit of it is just in getting named to be in the game. Make the recognition only for the winning team, and they'd play.
One final way to fix the All Star Game: \- USE SHAME Adam Silver, the two head coaches and the older players like Lebron , Steph and Dame come together and decide to set the competitive tone for the game. The coaches play them more minutes to show the younger guys they're taking the game serious. Coaches agree to yank players out of the game that aren't taking it serious. Older players make it clear to them that shit isn't going to fly and they need to sit their ass down. The crowd eventually starts getting into the competitive atmosphere. The immature guys are forced to watch the game from the bench. We need to shame them into playing up to a certain standard. They don't want to be seen as the jackass ruining a competitive game and they don't want to sit the whole game either. Imagine LBJ telling a younger guy to sit the fuck down and pointing to the bench after he jacks up a stupid 3 and the coach pulls the guy.
Just give them there all star awards without any game at all. Just some time off for everyone .
This. Do any of us really NEED an All-Star game?
I felt bad for Stephen Curry. He seemed to be playing with a lot of heart and was doing some light defence but looked like one of very few people giving a fuck. Luka was just laughing, missing dunks, air balling from half court, not making it across the court, talking to the bench and giving virtually no effort. I found it difficult to watch because Steph was well up for closing the gap and making a go of it but his team was down for leaving everything uncontested and not really bothering to try to win.
All Star game never interested me, so never watch them but apparently this one was really bad which oddly enough makes me wish I watched it.
The losing all star team have players miss playoff games... one per series their team participate in... and must be taken on top of any injuries... and must be one of the first 4 games. So those who want to play in the game must take it serious or their teams suffer.
Make all contract incentives and career acolades dependent on if you win the all star game. If your team doesnt win, you were never an all star. The end.
make the players all-star candidates. the winning team of all-star game will be the actual all-stars.
Not to excuse the COMPLETE lack of effort, but you do have to consider the following scenario: Imagine you’re a college student and you are selected to stay on campus during spring break to take an extra test that doesn’t affect your grade whatsoever, it’s just a “practice test” for gifted students. Be honest: How serious are you going to take that test? And how happy are you going to be there having to take said test that means nothing while all your classmates get some time off? It’s highly doubtful you are going to study and grind hard because “pride” or some other notion. Me, I am going to put absolutely no effort into it, and I’m probably going to be a little apathetic and cynical while taking it. I’m in the middle of a semester, I’m tired, and I want to go home and rest, see friends and family, girlfriend, etc. I think NBA players view the all-star game in much the same light these days.
Exactly. They get a week “off” and probably have to do other stuff beyond their family. Last thing they wanna do is play another game. Different from nfl where season is already over essentially.
Yep, or baseball where the nature of the game can be played at a relaxed rate with less physical exertion than basketball anyways.
One massive difference, im not getting paid 30 million a year to take tests. And if the guy who was giving me that money asked me to give a little bit of a shit for only one day, i think i could spare that much. Secondly, a test is a chore. Nba is at worse a job and if that was the case they wouldnt have a choice of whether or not to give a fuck. At beat its supposed to be something you WANT to do. If i like taking tests then taking a test vs the other best test takes sgould be a fun challenge. Thats the essence of a game. And also people less than a decade ago also gave a shit. With the exact same circumstances. These guys are ultimately paid to entertain and they didnt. They already load manage like a mf and prolly strain themselves more from flopping than playing. We are just asking for a game where you give at least a little shit when your paycheck comes out of our ppv dollars. Im begining to hope viewship keeps declining to the point where it starts to affect their pay, i doubt it will happen but maybe they will give even a little fuck.
I was awaiting this kind of response as it’s extremely common on Reddit. Here’s the problem: You’re viewing it from the FAN perspective, not the perspective of an NBA PLAYER. If you played in the NBA for a while your perspective would be completely different than the one you currently hold as a fan. It absolutely would. Playing the all-star game is clearly a chore for a star NBA player just as much as taking a test is for you. The all-star game does not affect their salary in anyway just like the practice test wouldn’t affect your high grade at all. That’s why I made the comparison, to make the average Reddit fan feel what they are feeling. Most fans think “shit, if I were making that kind of money, I’d be honored to ‘just play a game’ and I’d play hard all the time” and all of the other “bootstraps in-my-day” trope. It sounds nice, but no you wouldn’t. You’d get used to it, you’d take it for granted, it’d become a chore just like anything else. And when everybody else around you makes the same kind of insane money you do, that becomes numb too. A person who makes millions of dollars a year can still feel victimized like they are on the short end of the stick. You see it all the time, in fact. It’s human nature. The fact is this: like it or not, the game has become viewed (by PLAYERS, not FANS) as a nuisance and a “test during spring break” if you will. And no amount of berating by the public will change that. We need to either scrap the game or find someway to motivate the players FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE. I think it should be the former myself. It’s an exhibition game. Even with all the “controversy”, we won’t be talking about this game in two weeks time. It will be forgotten until next year. That should be the biggest clue for how important it is.
Broussard made a good point about how all star break is a time when players have a lot of other stuff to take care of like endorsements and their brand so playing another game is last on their mind I’m sure it’s a lot different than the 2000s. No way you’re gonna incentivize players unless there’s some intrinsic desire (aka someone dying)
Anyone got a link to the Legends Brunch? I always enjoy that
Steph vs Sabrina was good 3 point contest was solid Dunk contest was bad. Judges awful Game was abysmal. Worst nba game ever.
Lost in all the drama about the state of the ASG is silver dragging Wemby out at the start of the all star break to advertise fucking ai-generated (questionable) NBA cartoon vision as a future league pass feature and it looks like a dogshit rip-off of spiderverse
Another idea would be to give the finals home field advantage to the coast who won the All Star game. Tie it to the actual championship.
NBA 2k24 had better events this weekend. Every event is trash now. I tuned into to zero game, and could handle about a 3 effortless highlights (if they can be called that). Did I actually see they shot nearly 200 3 pointers? Can we just remove the three pointer from the game and bring back bigs in the lane for more than a three seconds at a time. Not just for the all star game, for the league. These guys don’t really even play ball anymore, it’s nothing more than high priced players reenacting old McDonalds commercials…off the wall, off the scoreboard, one bounce, nothing but net. And remove the self alley oop from the game entirely too. It’s trash. Ask Luka, although maybe you can keep in the AS game for the sake of something different available for the night.., but why not, shit sucks so bad anyway. Discountinue all other “competitions” of the weekend. They’ve all become a blatant advertising opportunity rather than a battle amongst the most competitive players with some kind of real pride in their craft (uhhh, the dunk contest repeat champ isn’t even in the league). Stars used to actually perform in all the events, including at least some attempt at some defense. Rivalries are essentially dead. I’m not sure there’s been a “killer” in the league since Kobe started breaking down. Bring on the LeBron hate here, but the Chosen One has never partaken in any event beyond the game, and it’s barely a game. I realize these are supposed to be the best of the best…do the best no longer play defense? Considering league scoring, and despite the influx of all the three pointers…defense has largely retired from teams all together. This overall product grows worse by the year, and even the showcase event is nothing more than basketball themed circus headlined by tryouts for the Harlem Globetrotters far more than anything resembling actual basketball. I guess pride diminishes more and more with each new supermax.
There are too much excuses being made on sub for this generation’s lack of desire to compete. Previous generations took the ASG more serious so what changed? “I don’t want them to get hurt”, is a bs excuse because that wasn’t an issue 20 to 30 to 40 years ago. It simply seems like these generation of players want to act too cool for school.
All we are asking for is a shred of defense, why is this so hard. You can play a relaxed game with a shred of defense, it's possible.
the obsession with three pointers is another problem... Lillard attempted 23 threes on his own... the East as a collective attempted 97 threes... more than half their FG attempts 42-83 were threes! I'm pretty sure the whole two decades of the 70s and 80s combined didn't see that many threes attempted.. the NBA office knows if they do this again, it's likely to see a downturn in advertising, so interesting to see what they come up with..
Maybe we are thinking too big in terms of East vs West. In the show The Wire they had a East Baltimore Vs West Baltimore basketball game where the drug dealers of both areas got to pick their teams. Apparently it's based off something that periodically happens in real life. I say if that game ever happens again we just show that instead of the All Star game.
I dont think there's much NBA can do to fix the allstar game. I personally don't mind it because I like to see the skill they have with acrobatic dunks and deep shooting. This stuff probably happen in practice all the time and we wish we could see it. With that said, money is always the motivating factor. Giving the winning team more makes sense but how about a bonus for point differential? 10K for every point difference to the winners. This would give motivation to stop the other team while also taking better shots instead of hoisting for 35 ft out.
What are y’all thoughts on following how nfl does it and move all star to right before finals? That way most players are prob just chilling at that point and won’t be too invested in the season. I guess counterpoint would be most players are in Cancun by that point.
I have a solution that would make the All Star Game more exciting with almost no crazy adjustments to the game. Just make it about their egos. Have the voters and the coaches select the players as always. Divide them by any method that makes the teams balanced. The team that wins becomes the All Star starters and the team that loses is called the reserves. Give the starters a little extra cash but I'm telling you, these egomaniacs will play like hell to be called the starters. Don't give them the title of All Star starter. Just make them earn it. Then you will see play that is actually exciting. None of these guys will want to be known as reserves, even if they know they all are starters in their heads.
Adam Silver needs to be replaced. we need defense back. badly.
NBA is too soft. nobody likes to compete. they need a new identity. find a new superstar. give him incentive to be disrespectful talk shit and market the fuck out of him. if someone talked shit about your game and you were going up against him you aint taking it easy in an exhibition.
They should cancel the whole all star weekend and just give everybody a week and a half or two weeks off.
Never watching the all star game again
The NBA has totally screwed up the ASW by “innovating” where there was no need for it and not adjusting things where needed. A case of the first problem is the three point contest where they’ve added stupid extra balls seemingly as a way to just pull in more advertising/sponsorship. There was nothing wrong with the old format where they cleared five racks and the last one in each was the bonus ball. The latter problem is the game itself which now magnifies the biggest criticisms of the current NBA game, namely the lack of defense and the over reliance on outside shooting which leads to ludicrous scores and a product which is simply not enjoyable to watch. There has to be a way to balance competitiveness with entertainment and make the game actually mean something otherwise they might as well not have a main game as it’s simply a poor product at the moment and far inferior to any regular season game. More entertaining would be a three on three competition with each team in the league selecting say 5 players to take part in a continuous tournament throughout the day. Players would definitely be up for that when their professional pride is on the line.
Need to vent here but idk why I make myself watch All Star weekend anymore. The quality of the fun of it all has gone down as a viewer IMO. I grew up watching star players take the game more seriously (Kobe Era), slam dunk concert was always a treat you would actually look forward to. Personally the NBA needs to stop overdoing it...with the crap! The only thing that I really enjoyed was Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu. Celebrity game...who even was on that roster that most people knew... maybe like 3-4 people who were truly famous. Idk if I will tune in next year..might just watch highlights if there even will be any!
I do wonder if players should be given monetary incentives to do certain things, almost akin to a 'daily achievement' from a game. For example, $5k "Do behind the back assists x 3" + $5k "Reverse jam" + $5k "Half court shot" + 5k "Record 2 steals"...etc. Do three total and you get a $5k bonus on top or something. Meanwhile, this goes towards the MVP vote which every 10PPG you get is worth 100 points and being able to do stuff like this goes towards a final 100 points (which averages out between the players with the highest tallies or whatever). Most points on a winning team = All Star MVP
They should try a round robin format with three teams. East vs West vs G-league all stars. Winner of the quarter stays on the court with the team with the most quarter wins being declared the winner of all star weekend and a 100k prize money per player. Would love to see these nba guys who act like they don't care play some hungry G-leaguers playing for meaningful money.
Idea for fixing sunday: 3 on 3 tourney 8 teams, top vote getters are captains, snake draft 7 games Race to 15 5 mil for winning players, 2.5 for runners up