The NBA has struggled to produce a competitive All-Star Game in recent years, and the issue is often a topic of conversation in the time leading up to the midseason festivities each year.
This season, the NBA All-Star Game will be hosted by the Golden State Warriors in February, and conversations have already started about what can be expected.
In response to a claim about a lack of effort at the annual All-Star Game, NBA agent Bernie Lee — who represents players like Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons — said that the All-Star Game is about “everything but the players.”
1st of all no sentence should start "Stephen A makes a good point". 2nd of all the all star game is not about basketball and is in no way tied to any aspect of the history of the game. In fact its greatest main legacy was a group of players refusing to play to advance https://t.co/93mFvxtkwO
— Bernard Lee (@BernieoLee) November 27, 2024
their rights as workers for themselves and for future generations. The All Star game is about everything but the players and the players who participate in it realize this pretty quickly when they look over and realize Guy Fieri was given better seats then their parents. https://t.co/93mFvxtkwO
— Bernard Lee (@BernieoLee) November 27, 2024
One look at the final scores from the most recent All-Star Games provides sufficient evidence that the event usually doesn’t unfold like a normal high-level basketball game.
Last season, the Eastern Conference defeated the Western Conference 211-186, and in each of the last six All-Star Games, every team scored at least 150 points.
This season’s All-Star Game will have a different look. It will feature four teams who will participate in a tournament. There will be two semifinal games and a championship.
It’s unclear if the new format will help to provide the competitive spark the league is looking for, but virtually anything is worth trying at this point.
It would be interesting to know whether Lee is against the concept of the All-Star Game entirely or if there could be ways for the league to fix the issues that he sees with the event. Right now, it seems like he doesn’t exactly blame players for what the All-Star Game has become.
The NBA certainly isn’t the only league that has struggled to make its All-Star Game appealing. The NFL, for example, has struggled with its Pro Bowl and has experimented with different formats.
In the NBA (and other sports), being named an All-Star is often a solid resume-builder for a player, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to an exciting product in the All-Star Game itself. That’s the problem that the league is trying to solve.
