From 16–18 February, the NBA descended upon Indianapolis, Indiana for the 73rd NBA All-Star Weekend. While the NBA has provided fans with iconic moments during the All-Star festivities, the past few iterations have been underwhelming at best. While the Three-Point Contest has been fantastic and the Skills Competition and Rising Stars Challenge enjoyable, the two marquee events—the Dunk Contest and the All-Star Game—have been widely viewed as terrible. On Saturday night, the Dunk Contest has been slowly fading towards irrelevance due to virtually no star players wanting to enter. On Sunday night, the All-Star Game has evolved into a glorified three-point practice session and a competition to see who can give up the most open layups.
The increasing irrelevance of the Dunk Contest has been extremely disappointing. As mentioned, the Dunk Contest has generated iconic moments. When Toronto hosted All-Star Weekend in 2016, arguably the greatest Dunk Contest spawned between Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine. In 2000, fans still remember commentator Kenny Smith exclaiming, “let’s go home” and “it’s over” as Vince Carter amazed Chicago in the classic purple and black Raptors jersey. In 1988, Michael Jordan famously beat high-flier Dominique Wilkins by dunking from the free-throw line for a perfect score of 50. Unfortunately, the current-day stars have felt no obligation to carry on the legacy of the Dunk Contest.
The All-Star Game itself has always been somewhat of a joke. Do not allow the older fans to propagandize you into believing that the star players in the 1980s and 1990s were putting everything on the line for an exhibition game. However, they did have an informal agreement amongst each other that they would keep the score close enough so that the game would pick up in the fourth quarter. This had been the case until around the mid-2010s. The effort picked up significantly in 2020 as a new format in relation to the death of Kobe Bryant had the players going all out to reach a target score. For the Raptors fans, it was the game where Kyle Lowry was successfully taking charges. Unfortunately, there is no indication that this level of competitiveness will ever be seen again during the All-Star Game.
Various commentators have suggested a variety of solutions for both these events. For the Dunk Contest, it has been suggested that the participants invited to the Contest be amateur dunkers from around the world. Therefore, the participants would not be NBA players, but street dunkers and amateur players. A grand prize of $1 million could be an incentive for the best to participate. I personally think there is a zero percent chance this happens, but it is an intriguing idea nevertheless. It is also not too far off from what the Contest currently offers: Mac McClung won his second Contest during this iteration and is a G-League player. Jaylen Brown—who is an All-Star—also participated in this past Contest and was booed by the crowd for essentially not being good enough to participate. Maybe the YouTubers and street dunkers can provide the edge that the Contest needs.
The disgust over the All-Star Game has rendered calls to eliminate the game. That will likely never happen. An International vs USA format has been floated, but when Luka Dončić and Nikola Jokić clown around during the entire event, an International vs USA game would probably solve nothing. The only solution for the All-Star Game is to have the players themselves come to the realization that they should try harder. Before the game, Commissioner Adam Silver had publicly told the players, media, and fans that he expected the game to be more competitive. His passive aggressive comments during the trophy presentation was an indication that his expectations were ignored. It was reported that Larry Bird had spoken to the players in the locker room before tip-off to ask for a competitive game. He too was ignored.
In my opinion, two key factors have created the situation the NBA finds itself in. First, the star players of this generation make so much money that they do not care what the fans want. All-Star Weekend is a pain for those who have to attend. Instead of a one week vacation, they are forced to attend an event they do not care about. The Weekend is for the fans and since the players are not being directly compensated for it, I guess the players view it as a drag even though the majority of them are earning contracts in the $200 million range. This level of arrogance towards the fans has been built up through the load management entitlement that has characterized the modern NBA star player. Personally, as a fan, I will never pay the exorbitant ticket prices to see a game live because I know for a fact that a star will sit out. If they refuse to play regular season games, why would they play an exhibition game?
Second, the media members who cry about the lack of effort fail to recognize their role in this issue. For over a decade, the “hot-take” commentators have done their best to delegitimize any achievements during the regular season. Have you ever heard the expression “it don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got a ring”? What that means is that unless a player wins a championship, no one should care what they do. It was primarily used by the Jordan heretics to ensure that Lebron James would never be considered the greatest of all time. The media has effectively weaponized this mindset by converting casual fans to “ring culture.” Therefore, a majority of the NBA fan base does not care for any achievement outside of winning a championship. When Damian Lillard won the All-Star Game MVP on Sunday, social media clowned him for winning a glorified “fake” MVP. This is ironic because the actual MVP—Joel Embiid—gets clowned for only winning the regular season MVP. Thanks, click-baiting NBA media.
So, in conclusion, there is no fixing NBA All-Star Weekend. The star players are more entitled than ever and their disdain for the fan experience could not be more obvious. The media who complain about the environment they have created will continue to push ring culture until February of every year, where they will default to complaining about how the All-Star Game is uncompetitive and disgraceful. Financially speaking, there have been no effects on the money flowing into the league. However, Adam Silver may have to keep his eyes peeled. If I was in charge of a TV network, there is no way I could justify paying billions when there is no guarantee a star player plays in the games I have acquired the rights to broadcast. And there is no way in hell I would shell out any money to carry the All-Star Game or Dunk Contest.