The last one really good The NBA All-Star Game was played in 2020which was both the first year of the Elam Ending format and just weeks after Kobe Bryant’s tragic death. Players took the game more seriously than we’ve seen in quite some time, as it was a league-wide tribute to the Lakers legend, but since then the game has fallen back into old ways of being a glorified pickup run with barely a hint of defense being played.

It’s led to fan shutdowns and TV networks being upset, and Adam Silver seemed like a broken man after last year’s highest-scoring game in history, presenting Giannis and the East All-Star Game trophy with the glowing praise of “you”. got the most points. Well, congratulations.” The truth is, the All-Star Game isn’t important enough for players to go all-out, especially with how much money is at stake for them these days. It’s no longer the biggest national stage that some of they will get to show off and build their profile, and the result is a bunch of guys trying not to get hurt while producing some highlights.

For that reason, the league has to get creative. We gave our thoughts on what it would look like last yearas they have bounced back and forth between formats and how they pick teams with varying degrees of success. This year we can see a significant change to the format, which ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the league is in deep discussions about a new format that would be similar to what they did with the Rising Stars Game, splitting the All-Star rosters into 4 teams and having them play a semi-final and then the winners of those playing in the finals. The teams would be 3 teams with 8 All-Stars and the winning team in the Rising Stars Challenge from Friday.

Charania highlights how discussions around this format started in Summer League and have included league staff, team managers, players (including Stephen Curry) and coaches, with significant momentum toward adoption for the 2025 game in San Francisco. At the very least, you can bet that whichever team of All-Stars was matched up with the Rising Stars winners would probably have a little more juice not to lose, which would produce the intended results of raising the level of competition.

I think anything would be an improvement over a regular four-quarter game, and Rising Stars games have improved as a result of this format change. While they aren’t suddenly the best basketball games in history, they’re fast-paced and when it’s close late, the competitive juices will flow in a way we don’t often see in the current All-Star format.