Paul Pierce says LeBron, K.D. and Steph need to force others to take ASG seriously: ‘Kob was gon’ force you to play’

The NBA All-Star Game has drawn criticism in recent years for not being competitive enough.

Barack Obama, the 44th U.S. president, said back in October that the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Isiah Thomas actually wanted to win the game when they were in their playing days.

More recently, Bernie Lee, the agent of Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler, shed some light as to why some players don’t take the All-Star Game all that seriously. According to Lee, the game is about “everything but the players.”

This week, former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce said that in order for more players to take the contest seriously, the older stars of today’s NBA such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry have to work to convince others.

“When I played, we was forced to play ’cause Kob, Kob was gon’ force you to play,” Pierce said around the 13:00 mark. “Don’t come out here lollygaggin’ ’cause he comin’ hard. It gotta come from the top. It gotta come from LeBron sayin’, ‘Hey, we gon’ take this serious,’ from K.D. sayin’, ‘Hey,’ from Steph sayin’, ‘Hey.’ That’s where it’s gotta come from.”

Pierce played in a whopping 10 All-Star Games — all of which came as a member of the Celtics — during his time in the NBA. The 47-year-old has been retired for quite some time, but Durant, Curry and James had all established themselves as superstars by the time Pierce called it quits on his career.

Interestingly, Pierce’s final All-Star nod came in 2012 — when he averaged 19.4 points per game with Boston in the 2011-12 regular season — and Durant and James were selected that year as well.

It’s more likely than not that all of James, Durant and Curry will earn All-Star nods in 2025. They’re some of the biggest names in the league today and are each averaging 22-plus points per game in the 2024-25 regular season so far for teams with records above the .500 mark.

The event will be held at the Golden State Warriors’ home arena: Chase Center. The All-Star Game — which will actually be more of a tournament than a single game this season — is scheduled to be played on Feb. 16, which is less than two months away from now.

For the sake of NBA fans, hopefully the 2025 NBA All-Star Game will prove to be more competitive and entertaining than the past several iterations of the contest. Perhaps the new format for the All-Star Game will help bring it new life.