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Tim Bontemps
SAN FRANCISCO — After last year’s NBA All-Star Game did a collective face-plant in Indianapolis, the NBA got together with its players — including one of its standard-bearers in Stephen Curry — to figure out what it could do to improve the league’s signature midseason showcase.
The result was a reimagined format — one Curry himself played a part in creating — that turned one 48-minute game between two teams into three shorter games featuring four teams, culminating with All-Star MVP Curry and Team Shaq routing Team Chuck in the championship.
So it was fitting that, on a weekend that wound up being as much about celebrating Curry’s legendary career with the Golden State Warriors as it was anything else, it was Curry who was asked whether the format he helped create had worked — and what, exactly, should this event look like?
“We needed to change,” Curry said, referring to last year’s game that featured nearly 400 combined points. “We needed some new life, new juice in the game — something kind of unexpected. …
“The way people consume basketball is different. It’s not going to look like it used to. But it can still be fun for everybody. I had fun. Our team had fun. That’s kind of all that matters.”
Curry had plenty of fun when he buried a halfcourt shot during the final Sunday night, and then immediately beelined his way to the other end of the court to find rapper and fellow Bay Area icon Mistah F.A.B. to celebrate.
Overall, there were fewer moments of completely lethargic play on the court than previous editions and even multiple notable defensive plays, including blocks at the rim by Jaren Jackson Jr. and Victor Wembanyama.
But at the end of the night, in what’s become a tradition for how these All-Star weekends have gone for the NBA in recent years, there was far from a consensus about how the night played out, and where things should go from here.
“I think maybe we should focus on some other things than All-Star,” Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic said. “I think it’s always going to be like this so we should accept it.”
THE ENTIRE DISCUSSION around the All-Star Game over the past several seasons could be distilled down into one brief interaction the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player had with reporters Saturday during his media availability.
When Jokic was asked about Charles Barkley picking him first as part of TNT’s “Inside The NBA” draft for the three eight-man All-Star rosters earlier this month, Jokic smiled and said, “I think I’m not built for this game, for this kind of game.”
Minutes later, Jokic was asked what he actually meant.
“I think that’s not a question for me, my friend,” he said, another smile forming on his face as he spoke. “If you want my opinion, I cannot give you because I think it’s not going to be nice.”
If Jokic, a three-time MVP averaging a triple-double while shooting close to 60% from the field and 45% from 3-point range, isn’t a fit for the All-Star Game, then who is?
That’s precisely what the NBA set out to try to fix in shifting to this three-game mini-tournament, with each game being played to a target score of 40 points.
Sunday’s games were relatively competitive — more so than in recent seasons at least — dating back to the last truly competitive one: the 2020 All-Star Game in Chicago, which came a few weeks after the death of Kobe Bryant and was played with an edge the Hall of Famer would have been proud of.
And while this night didn’t have anything resembling that, the consensus was the event had been improved.
“I think it was a good step in the right direction to reinvigorate the game in some way,” Curry said, “and then you tinker with it again next year.”
“I think we’re starting to see All-Star Weekend and the competitive nature in the game starting to creep back in,” Kevin Durant said. “I think it was solid tonight … I felt like guys were trying to play hard.”
At the same time, however, not much basketball was played. Sunday night featured several extended breaks in the action. Among them, a shooting competition after the first game that involved Milwaukee Bucks All-Star guard Damian Lillard. And then there was the ceremony celebrating TNT’s 40-year relationship with the NBA that is coming to an end after this season, a 20-minute pause in play that none of the players seemed to know was coming.
“I think the toughest part [was when] they stopped the game to do the presentation while we were kind of halfway through it,” Celtics star Jayson Tatum said. “It was kind of tough to get back into the game after that.”
The inclusion of the winners of the Rising Stars Challenge — a tournament of its own featuring first- and second-year players that took place on Friday night — as part of the All-Star Game on Sunday night drew its own round of criticism. Warriors player Draymond Green, taking part in TNT’s broadcast of the event, declared that the new format was a “zero” on a 1-to-10 scale, and that “it sucks.”
For Team Chuck, which beat Team Kenny to open the night, there was over an hour between games.
“It was kind of tough,” Donovan Mitchell said of the way the night played out. “I think at the beginning you have the energy, the adrenaline, you’re going and then you sit for 30-45 minutes. That was tough, to be honest with you. It’s a work in progress.”
NOW THAT THIS All-Star Weekend is over, and the game is shifting to the LA Clippers‘ new arena in Inglewood, California, next year, the focus will inevitably shift to the only certain question to come out of these festivities:
What will happen to the All-Star Game now?
As usual, there were many possible answers. Curry wasn’t the only one who lauded the new format; Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, Curry’s coach in the game, thought it worked, too.
“I liked it,” Atkinson said. “It’s much better. It wasn’t a layup drill.”
His emerging star big man, Evan Mobley, liked it, too.
“Honestly, it was pretty fun out there,” Mobley said. “I feel like it was a little more competitive. I feel like if the game was a little closer, it would probably be even more competitive, but it was a different game. But I feel like as it keeps going, I think it’s going to be a good thing for the league.”
Others, though, disagreed.
Both Tyler Herro and Darius Garland — first and second-time All-Stars, respectively — said they felt like the game was over almost before it started and would prefer to go back to the traditional East-West format.
“But who am I to say?” Garland told ESPN with a laugh. “I’m a two-time All-Star, so I ain’t got no say in that.”
One thing virtually everyone agreed on, though, was that when NBC takes the baton next year and begins showing this event as part of the new television format, there needs to be far fewer stoppages in the action.
“I feel like the fans want to see us playing more,” Trae Young said, “rather than just some little shows in-between breaks.”
Another topic that came up repeatedly over the course of the weekend was the idea of having a “Team USA vs. The World” format. While sources said there was no straight directive from the NBA on how the teams would be drafted by Barkley and his fellow TNT analysts Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, ideas were discussed on how to divvy up the stars. The fact that one of the teams — Chuck’s Global Stars — included seven international players was emblematic of that.
A move to such a format could create more issues. The All-Star Game features just 24 players, creating plenty of arguments about what stars are being slighted and left out of the competition. Going to 12 international and 12 American players would only exacerbate those issues and leave out even more deserving candidates than those already kept at home.
But that didn’t stop some — including both Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo — from endorsing the idea.
“I would love that,” Antetokounmpo said before the game, which he didn’t play in because of a calf injury. “I think that would be the most interesting and most exciting format. I would love that. For sure, I’d take pride in that.”
“My opinion is that it’s more purposeful,” Wembanyama said Saturday. “There’s more pride in it. More stakes.”
Moving forward, the NBA’s hopes for increased pride and stakes in this event will rest on Wembanyama and his 7-foot-4 frame. With LeBron James seeing his 20 consecutive All-Star starts streak end Saturday due to foot and ankle discomfort forcing him to sit out the game, Wembanyama’s own All-Star streak began.
And, after declaring he would play the game with a purpose, he went out and did just that — including one sequence in the first game where he had a post-up dunk, a block and then started a fast break ending in another dunk, this time by Alperen Sengun.
“He took it serious,” Curry said. “He was playing hard. He was showing his unique skill set all across the board.
“You make the game what you want it, and everybody has a choice to do that.”