NBA’s Commissioner Adam Silver and the Silver and players’ union are trying to make the All-Star game more competitive, as well as keep fans interested throughout the week.
Request and ideas have been laid out on the table, but a foundation has not been built yet. “You hear people talking about 4-point shots, something that’s not about to happen in the NBA, but maybe in an All-Star Game,” Silver said. “Maybe there’s a few spots on the floor where it’s a 4-point shot. Maybe there’s a half-court shot in the last minute that’s 10 points. I don’t know. Those are crazy ideas.”
“We collectively want to try to make All-Star weekend better for the fans,” Chris Paul told reporters in Milwaukee on Friday. “All the way around. Even in CBA talks and stuff like that, that was one of the things that the players, the owners and everybody was talking about. Trying to fix that, spice it up a little bit to keep it interesting.”
For the last few years, the All-Star ratings have gone up and down, but after the amazing slam dunk competition in 2016, fans wanted to see if something new was going to happen or if Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant was going to be on the court at the same time.
The average rating for this year’s All-Star Weekend was 7.8 million views. This was the highest rating since 2013, but a lot of fans walked away unimpressed with the Dunk contest and the All-Star Game. A lot of critics complained about the non-competitiveness that was displayed in the game.
“In an All-Star game like this, guys aren’t trying to get hurt,” Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving said after the All-Star Game. “We all enjoy the company of each other’s presence. But at the same token, us as competitors, when it starts getting close, you can feel it. For me, I would love to play in a competitive game.”
“I encourage people to email [email protected],” Silver said. “We will change it by next year. It shouldn’t be playoff intensity, but the guys should be playing.”
