Just Stop Fixing the NBA All-Star Game

It's fine, or would be, if Adam Silver stopped trying to make it better

I’m happy The White Lotus is back for Season 3, though there’s now a slight disappointment at the beginning of each episode. The series’ trippy theme song has been altered beyond recognition. This is an especially niche 1st world problem and I’ll still watch the show, but it’s a good example of a “fix” nobody asked for. This comedy couple did a pretty good rendition of fan disappointment upon hearing the new tune. Deprived of their belovedly surreal little Pavlovian cue, the couple ends up just playing the old version on a laptop.

Why am I bringing this up? Because I’m reading so many proposed reforms for an NBA All-Star Weekend that’s run into a rut. I’m not sure what the ratings are as of yet (the league did not release their numbers early like SNL chose to for its 50th anniversary special), but the San Francisco NBA All-Star is a widely agreed upon disappointment.

It was a paradoxical experience to be a local for this pomp and circumstance extravaganza, to suffer through the traffic, see Nike drone displays over the Bay Bridge, but also notice that the weekend fizzled. Hell, LeBron James was a scratch for the game. And, as much as I agree with the reformers that the ASG is in a bad way, I say to them and to Adam Silver…STOP.

Or, more specifically, “Stop, and reset.” The NBA All-Star game faces some of the same modern issues other leagues suffer with their All-Star games. Football and baseball both have seen their versions fall in status over time. I remember, as a younger baseball fan, getting annoyed in 2002 when the ASG was cut short in the 11th inning due to injury concerns. Whatever the merits of that decision, it changed my relationship to the game. Either it matters or it doesn’t. Once you demonstrate that the outcome is relatively meaningless, I’m going to care less about what’s happening. It’s a defensible choice in the moment, but that’s the longterm outcome.

We’re in an optimization obsessed culture where important employees for multi billion dollar institutions don’t want to risk getting hurt. At the same time, it’s that optimization impulse that’s done a lot of self damage to the NBA specifically, as they try and wrestle out of that reality.

In response to this problem that afflicts nearly every league save for, maybe the NHL, Adam Silver has just been doing too much. In 2018, the league changed its classic format by allowing the top vote getters in each conference to draft their own teams. This was a really dumb reform in my opinion, though almost nobody in official NBA media pushed back. For a variety of complicated reasons, basketball media is especially pliant and loath to question league mandates in an era that’s seen its product decline in cultural purchase.

There’s since been more changes, more noodling. Quoting Dr. Perplexity:

The NBA abandoned the traditional East vs. West format for the All-Star Game after the 2023 season. In 2024, the league briefly returned to the East vs. West format, but it resulted in a disappointing 397-point game that drew significant criticism. This led to a complete overhaul of the All-Star Game format for the 2025 event.

The overhaul meant a new four team tournament designed to increase competitiveness. That didn’t work, so now there’s already talk of multiple new changes for the 2025 format. Perhaps there will be a one-on-one tournament, and maybe a new start time and maybe the Elam Ending comes back, and, and…

Just stop already. Maybe the NBA Slam Dunk Contest is on life support, but keep it. So what if G-Leaguers are the ones leaping over cars? We’re used to its existence. The NBA 3-point contest works as a non injury-risk option, so do more to market that event.

More importantly, revert to the old format for the All-Star game. Fans vote on the players, East vs. West plays. Every new tweak or wrinkle just adds to the confusion of what this thing even is. There’s a value in people knowing what they’re getting, even if the product is diminished. I appreciate tuning into an All-Star game, seeing East vs. West, and understanding the general idea. I don’t appreciate tuning in, as a newly casual fan, and having to investigate whatever novel scheme was cooked up by Team Silver to obscure obvious apathy. I just want fun and familiar. I don’t want to explain something complicated to my kid.

The All-Star game is a showcase, and should exist as a showcase. In college, my friends and I would get high and watch as the best players improvised moves they’d otherwise never try. It’s great. We don’t need the game to be peak competition; We just need a little more spirited action in the second half.

One background reform I’d suggest is a cap on events that players are committed to. As HoS Friend and NBA agent Nate Jones has pointed out, the game action has been undermined by all the off court commitments players are engaged in during the weekend. Those have piled up over the years as every league partner and associated business tries to (here’s that word again) optimize the situation.

My main point is that less is more. We live in a culture filled with so much increasing noise that tradition itself becomes an appreciated signal. In a world of perpetual new, there’s an increased value in reliably old.

I hope Top Substacker Nate Silver won’t mind my sharing that he recently asked me whether I thought Adam Silver is a good commissioner. I hemmed, hawed, and began a response that could be book length if time were no object. I think the summary of my thoughts would be this: Adam Silver would be a good commissioner if he simply did less. Yes, I wish Silver would impose more structure on the league and be less indulgent of players flouting certain responsibilities, but that’s easier said than done. “Do less,” is far more attainable.

Adam Silver has done well to keep the league’s lights on during COVID and secure a lavish new TV deal. You could argue that these accomplishments helped him establish a floor of “competent,” at the very least. The dizzying array of gambits designed to TED Talk the NBA into the next generation, though? How well have those worked on balance? The altered playoff formats, All-Star formats, tournaments, etc. You can argue for any of these individually, but in totality it’s a lot of noise generated by a game many Americans tuned out over the last decade.

So, I ask the NBA to simply stop “fixing” their way towards this general problem, starting with the All-Star Game. Have the players do a little less during that weekend. Get the stars to try a little harder. That’s it. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Just show a little reverence for the roundball we’ve always loved.