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The NBA All-Star Game used to be a nice midseason diversion that allowed fans to watch the game’s best play with and against each other, but in recent years, its popularity has seemingly declined.
Critics assert that no defense is played in the All-Star Game, and that deficiency reached a new nadir in last year’s edition.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he is considering a big format change where Team USA would take on international players during the All-Star Game, similar to the Ryder Cup in golf, per Brett Siegel.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver says the NBA is considering the idea of a “Ryder Cup format” to the NBA All-Star Game where Team USA would face off against a team made up of international players. https://t.co/aKL5ArHd4P
— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) November 6, 2023
Basketball has become a very international game over the past couple of decades, and it has gotten to the point where a number of the NBA’s best players weren’t born in the United States.
The reigning regular-season MVP is Joel Embiid, who is from the Republic of Cameroon, and in the previous two seasons, Nikola Jokic from Serbia won the award.
During the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, Greece native Giannis Antetokounmpo took home the MVP, and in 2021, he won his first NBA Finals MVP award after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to the world championship.
For most of the NBA’s history, the All-Star Game had players from the Western and Eastern Conferences compete against each other, but in recent years, the format was changed to have two team captains that would pick players to be on their respective games, a la a pickup basketball game on the playground.
Another change to the format to pit American-born players against foreign-born players would certainly make things a little more interesting.
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