The "bad basketball" at Sunday's NBA All-Star Game “won't help the league shake some of the less desirable portions of its reputation,” according to Sam Quinn of CBSSPORTS.com. There is a “perception that in the modern NBA, the regular season matters less than ever, and star attendance is no longer mandatory.” Watching the league's biggest stars “sleepwalk through what is supposed to be its marquee regular-season event won't exactly sway detractors.” This event was “conceived as a showcase seven decades ago,” but Sunday's game “directly contradicted those efforts.” However, there is “clearly still an audience here,” as ratings “actually rose 14% compared to last season." Younger fans may "not be as discerning as their disappointed parents.” The weekend as a whole "matters to stakeholders for reasons that aren't captured on the main broadcast.” Owners and cities "still love hosting for everything that comes along with it.” Gathering the whole league in a single market for even a few days generates an “economic boon and can serve as a strong advertisement for the region, even if it doesn't for the product.” But it is "worth wondering why this game still needs to exist.” It had a “distinct purpose when it was born,” but the All-Star Game now “serves no discernible purpose to the majority of fans.” Perhaps there is room for a “lower-key All-Star Saturday-style event that doesn't grind the league to a halt for a week.” Maybe those days would be "better used on an expanded In-Season Tournament," an event that "drew rave reviews in its inaugural campaign" (CBSSPORTS.com, 2/21).
WORTH SAVING? THE ATHLETIC's NBA staff had a roundtable on the future of the All-Star Game. NBA/Business of Basketball writer Mike Vorkunov asked, “Why is the All-Star Game worth saving?” The event "worked for a number of years, and now it doesn’t.” If the NBA is "about innovation," then it should "try to find a new way to service fans.” Maybe "move the skills challenge/3-point contest and dunk contests to Sunday" and "incentivize its biggest stars to actually compete in them." The "coolest part of the whole weekend" was Stephen Curry taking on Sabrina Ionescu in a special 3-point contest, so the league should "put that and future iterations of that idea on Sunday instead.” Senior writer Sam Amick noted the league is "trying to maximize leverage during this time of crucial media-rights negotiations," so it is "more important than ever for the tentpole events to go well.” The In-Season Tournament was a "win, in that regard, even if the ratings weren’t what they had hoped for.” But the All-Star Game was a "setback on that front” (THE ATHLETIC, 2/20).
