Silver said that "our feeling going into Indiana" for this year's All-Star Game was that "we had one more opportunity to go, in essence, back to basketball"Getty Images
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver seems to be accepting that the league's All-Star Game is “regularly a dud” and realizing what the NFL and NHL already have -- “modern players trying to avoid injury have turned the traditional All-Star Game into a farce,” according to Kurt Helin of NBCSPORTS.com. Silver during an appearance on CNN’s “King Charles” said he thought “maybe we are past that point where we are going to play a truly competitive game.” Silver: “I think maybe as opposed to trying to create a super competitive basketball game, which I am not sure the teams or the players really want, we should do different things and make it a celebration of basketball.” Helin wrote the league “needs to brainstorm ways to turn events" like the Stephen Curry-Sabrina Ionescu 3-Point Challenge and the 3-Point Contest into the "highlight of the weekend and move away from the All-Star Game in its current format." Silver during his CNN appearance sounded like a "guy who realizes the futility of another format change" (NBCSPORTS.com, 3/24).
TIME FOR A CHANGE: CBSSPORTS.com’s James Herbert wrote instead of “trying to make the All-Star Game more competitive,” the NBA might instead focus on doing "different things" during All-Star weekend. Silver said that the league “will consider a Team USA vs. Team World format for the All-Star Game,” but added that he is “not convinced ... that any format change will result in the All-Stars playing hard.” Silver said that "our feeling going into Indiana" for this year's All-Star Game was that "we had one more opportunity to go, in essence, back to basketball." Herbert noted Silver “blamed himself for trying to solve the effort problem rather than accepting that, for various reasons, it is unlikely to change.” Silver: "I accept responsibility, as the commissioner of the league. I think we should've known at this point for an All-Star Game -- as I started to say before, the NFL Pro Bowl, (they) moved it to flag football -- there's just a recognition it's a different time” (CBSSPORTS.com, 3/24).
