NBA – Adam Silver obviously no longer thinks that the All-Star Game can become competitive again. And suggests that it could completely disappear…
Even if there were a few timid bursts, the All-Star Game has generally lost interest over the past 15 years.
Adam Silver and the NBA tried to modify the formula, again and again, in order to make it competitive again, with a Draft system or the Elam Ending, but the effects were only temporary.
“It was a great weekend but it wasn’t a basketball game”
Guest on CNN, the “commissioner” was questioned by Charles Barkley on the possibility of transforming the match into an opposition between the United States and the rest of the world. Except that for Adam Silver, this new change of formula would probably not change anything about the problem, which is much deeper…
“We thought about it. The feeling, going to Indiana this year, was that we had one last chance to rediscover the basketball essence of the game. Larry Bird was an honorary captain. We think of Larry Bird, in basketball, in Indiana. We returned to the traditional East/West format, we left out the Draft of recent seasons, these special end-games, we spoke to the players before the match… I had fun, the fans did too, it was a great weekend. end but it wasn’t a basketball game » recognizes the big boss of the Great League.
As a result, Adam Silver believes the problem lies in the players’ perception of the match itself.
“If I hadn’t seen what happened this year, I think we would have been ready to change the format, to make it a match between the United States and the rest of the world. But I wonder if this generation of players… And the franchises are complicit too, because no one wants them to play hard in the All-Star Game. Nobody wants to get injured and they see it as a break in the middle of the season. »
For young players, the All-Star Game is just a break
So, like the NFL, which transformed the uninteresting Pro Bowl game into different contactless contests and oppositions, the NBA could completely remove the All-Star Game from All-Star Weekend.
“We should do more fun things” explains Adam Silver, taking the example of the shooting contest between Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu. “I talked to the players after the game and I didn’t get the feeling that they were saying, ‘Yeah, we know what the NBA wants, what TNT wants, but we’re not going to do it.’ I think, especially the younger players, they just see it as a break in the middle of the season, an opportunity to have fun, an opportunity to rest in a very long season. We have almost 1,300 games every regular season, all of which are very competitive, and they look at it (the All-Star Game) differently. There is still this show aspect but it has changed since your time (looking at Charles Barkley). When I see the popularity of Steph vs. Sabrina, we should look to do other things and make it a celebration of basketball. »
2024-03-23 14:27:42
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