The All-Star, more precisely the all-star game, continues to be a headache for the NBA. For some time now, this match has completely lost the intensity of yesteryear to become a festival of triples and dunks. The League has been fighting against this reality with imaginative formulas that even changed its rules, including a player draft. It didn’t work.
Looking ahead to 2024, the NBA announced that it was returning to the traditional All-Star Game system, but it did not do so as a step forward, but rather as a calm impasse before deciding what direction they wanted to take. Well, now everything indicates that facing American and international players is one of the best-rated options. And it’s not us who say it, but the commissioner of the American competition, Adam Silver.
«I think that instead of trying to create a super competitive basketball game, which I’m not sure the teams or the players really want, we should do things different and make it a celebration of basketball. We are going to analyze the option of a clash between Americans and international players. I think that perhaps we have already surpassed that point where a truly competitive match can be played », he comments in statements to CNN in conversation with Gayle King and Charles Barkley.
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The truth is that the NBA has known for a long time that it has to do something and if there is one thing it cannot be described as immobile. They have already tried in various ways and perhaps touching the pride of the US players could be the key. In the style of other competitions such as the Ryder Cup of golf – here it is Americans against Europeans – a match like this could become a tradition, but it is obvious that it would depend on the level of the foreign players.
Currently, the League has many international players among its best players. Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the great example. Will this still be the case in 10 or 20 years? We don’t know, but Victor Wembanyama bets so.
Beyond the issue of talent of the different generations, a change like the one proposed would reduce the places of American players for the All-Star to 12. Of the 26 chosen for the 2024 edition (two reserves had to be called) to 20 They were from the United States. A change this drastic would have to go through the Players Union and we don’t know what they would think.
(Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
2024-03-24 08:00:00
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