Just like that, another NBA All-Star weekend has come and gone.
The only issue? No one even realized.
All-Star Weekend has been dying out for quite some time now, and no matter how talented the players are, how much media attention is brought to the event, or how many celebrities the NBA pays to attend, the buzz surrounding the event remains low.
It seems that every event has become more and more underwhelming, and because of that, fans all across the world have been coming up with solutions to aid the issue. Whether they are practical or not, one thing is for sure: they are different, and different is intriguing.
In this article, I will rehash the best solutions I have heard while sharing some ideas I have come up with to give life back into the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.
Three-Point Competition
This is a competition that suffers due to the lack of excitement around the weekend as a whole. The event itself is already a strong idea, though it could be improved if the NBA built off the Sabrina Ionescu vs. Stephen Curry competition we saw the year prior.
Caitlin Clark has been destroying box offices and has begun shining a new light on the WNBA. Inviting her to participate in the three-point contest could bring in new viewership and would attract viewers who were not previously interested in All-Star festivities.
Bill Simmons said it best; he sees no issue going to get a cup of tea when a mediocre NBA player is participating, but you would be glued to your seat to see if Clark was going to beat the best the NBA has to offer.
Dunk Contest
The Dunk Contest is the most exciting aspect that could be played around with. Mac McClung just three-peated in the dunk contest, and he is not even an NBA player at the moment.
While McClung had some great dunks, it is hard to keep coming up with ideas that have not been seen before. This problem was on display when he jumped over a Kia vehicle to secure his title. This was a feat that had been done before by Blake Griffin.
EVERY MAC MCCLUNG DUNK FROM THE 2025 #ATTSlamDunk 🤯
He scored a 50 on EVERY dunk 📈 pic.twitter.com/AZ1tLQXHuF
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 16, 2025
The last truly exciting dunk contest was the Zach LaVine vs. Aaron Gordon saga, and those were two of the best dunkers in the league at the time. The NBA needs to find a way to attract key players rather than G-Leaguers.
A great way to do this would be by bringing on professional dunkers who have devoted their lives to the craft. When I go on social media, I see random individuals pulling off what seems impossible. If the NBA could bring in these individuals and have them compete together against NBA players, I believe larger stars would join.
NBA players such as Ja Morant, LaVine, and Gordon have already hinted at participating next year, and if they were to get shown up by a bunch of non-NBA players, the superstars would come out of hiding to show what the NBA truly has to offer. They would not be able to handle coming in second place, and this would add much excitement to the competition.
The NBA is drowning in revenue, too, so the winning team’s top performers could get offered a cash prize, such as $1 million.
The dunks would be fresh, there would be an underdog agenda, and the audience size would grow.
The NBA Skills Challenge
Get rid of it. It stinks.
All eyes on NBA All-Star Saturday night to see if they’re able to resurrect the product, and the first event is Chris Paul & Wemby cheating the system by just launching balls off the rack instead of shooting them.pic.twitter.com/fiRIXB8LDu
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) February 16, 2025
All-Star Game
To me, this is the most difficult aspect of the All-Star Weekend to fix. As mentioned earlier, the issue isn’t talent; the NBA has never seen so much talent in the league before.
Rather, the issue is that participants have collectively decided that the All-Star Game is not worth trying for. Why would they risk the chance of injury for a meaningless game? In the past few years, the NBA has experimented with the game in multiple ways.
- Four teams of eight players in a round-robin, single-elimination tournament that featured rising stars as a fourth team
- “Final score target,” where the target score was determined by the leading team’s cumulative score from the first three quarters plus 24 points — a nod to the late Kobe Bryant’s No. 24 jersey
- Having a draft with players chosen by team captains
None of these ideas have worked, and it seems the All-Star Game has even regressed over the past five-plus years. We even saw key players like LeBron James decide to sit out the actual game.
The game is being viewed as a joke by players all across the league, as we even saw Draymond Green deliver criticism during his time commentating.
I propose two ideas that would best remedy the game and bring back the competitive edge:
Change how the rosters are split
Split the game between a mix of foreign and American players going head-to-head. I got this idea from watching the 4 Nations hockey tournament and the amount of patriotism I felt when rooting for the best our country has to offer.
The NBA is already growing internationally with the amount of foreign talent we see. This would attract the largest audience outside of the United States and would allow for a “rivalry” to take place in the All-Star Game.
The winning team could receive a cash price, such as $500,000 per player with the MVP receiving $1 million. The only true way to encourage the players to care is by throwing money their way and giving them a larger cause to play for.
If they were getting paid to win and were playing for the sake of their respective countries, the level of intensity would surely rise. You can even shorten the quarters to preserve health.
NBA: “We want the players to take the All Star Game more seriously”
Middle of the game: pic.twitter.com/bYGUYiBsBN
— Geofferson (@geoF_THAT) February 17, 2025
1-on-1 tournament
I would also implement the one-versus-one tournament that has been discussed for a long time. The five players who receive the most votes would participate in a “King of the Hill” style tournament. This can be played on Saturday night and replace the meaningless and boring Skills Challenge.
- Five players selected from fan vote
- If you don’t participate, you forfeit your place in the All-Star Game and it is taken off of your career accomplishments
- Games go to three
- “Losers get ball” style to see both players on offense and defense
- Players shoot three-pointers to determine who will be playing in what order
- The first player to win three games is declared “King of the Hill”
This can be done for guards in a group of five and can also be done for forwards/centers in a group of five. (It would be unfair to have Victor Wembanyana going up against Kyrie Irving, so the separation of the two “divisions” would improve the quality.) Of course, there will be a cash prize. The winners of the two events each get $1 million.
While the NBA may feel content with the way things are going, fans do not. Adding these incentives, forcing agendas and rivalries, and attracting different viewers is the best solution to solve this issue.
I hope that Adam Silver is a frequent reader of Prime Time Sports Talk and decides to take some notes on the matter. Mr. Silver, if you are reading — just give it a chance.
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