The #nba all star game sucks and here’s why. Last year was called the worst all-star game of all time.

The score was 184-175, Tatum set a new record for most points in an all star game, and everyone hated it, because there was no defense, no competition, not even in the 4th quarter. Oh it’s East vs West now. *There’s no way it happens* agai——

It happened again. The East broke a record for most points in an all-star game moments after Larry Bird said all he wanted was the game to be competitive.

*But it doesn’t have to be like this.* I remember a recent all-star game that was so competitive, players were taking charges.

When Kobe passed away, the NBA decided to completely rehaul the All-Star game making each quarter mean something for each team’s charity, and then the last quarter being a score target of 24 points more than the leading team’s score.

At the end of each of quarter, if the score was close, players were fighting for the last two minutes, trying to win each quarter.

And in the 4th quarter, players were going all out.

We saw players icing pick and rolls, taking charges, having to run pick and rolls to get a mismatch*.* It was physical.

Which seems like problem solved right?

Until you realize the worst all star game before 2023 was 2017 when AD set a new scoring record and these supposed rules were meant to solve the problem, but didn’t even last 3 years.

This has been a cycle that keeps repeating and keeps getting worse. *And I’m tired of it, we already lost the dunk contest, now we losing this?* So I’m going to go through why this is happening, why certain All-Star games worked and how to fix it, starting with when the All Star game was truly the best players going at it, no gimmicks, just hoops and a desire to win.

When they asked Anthony Davis about the high scoring in the All-Star game, he just replied, “It’s the All-Star game” …nah bro y’all just had 397 points in a game and more importantly that’s never what the All-Star game was only about.

It was about the best players going at it, to see what they were capable of for just one quarter.

What we all want is this. That is the 2013 All-Star game when Kobe took it upon himself to guard LeBron, not half ass the effort, no, full court.

Or in 2012 when Wade broke Kobe’s nose and he had to wear a mask, but ok what about non Kobe related things. Look at 2001. The 4th quarter was always when players took it seriously until the West started winning everything and they said let’s make captains pick teams.

The All-Star game ratings had dropped for 3 years straight capped off by 2017 when Anthony Davis broke the single all-star game scoring record getting open lobs like this in the 4th quarter so 2020 was a new reset. It’s competitive, *we finally will get at least one quarter of the best players competing hard* for a couple of yea—— Oh.

The ratings for the 2023 All-Star Game had a record low viewership, 27% lower than 2022.

*And this stems from players walking all over Adam Silver.*

He believed that players would play defense, but no they did not. And it’s that failure in leadership over and over again that’s led us to this.

It’s the same problem we’ve been seeing in the regular season, to the point that the NBA had to enforce rules forcing players to actually play games. Yeah I’m talking about the 65 game minimum to be considered for awards that Draymond has called stupid and other players complained about. And I get it, if you have legitimate injuries like Tyrese Haliburton that keep you out but you’re also playing at the best point guard in NBA level, it sucks. But we didn’t get here of the pretenses of real injuries, no we got here because players were sitting out.

It’s possible that one player from the older era was keeping the all star game together. He wouldn’t let it become what we’re seeing today. We saw it in the olympics when Kobe was doing those early 4,6 Am workouts, LeBron, Wade, Melo, and the rest of the team would eventually follow. It’s possible that he was the last domino and when he retired, there was no one holding the players accountable because obviously Adam Silver hasn’t the way the previous commissioner David Stern did.

*So how do we fix it? How do we make a meaningless game have meaning?*

It starts from the top down. You need the top of the top players to buy in, but how do you do that? The best and most revered players in the league, like LeBron, KD, and Curry, need to set the tone. They need to bring that competitive fire and passion to the All-Star game, inspiring the younger generation to do the same. If these top players take the game seriously, the rest of the league will follow suit.