NBA players taking a wait-and-see approach to new All-Star format

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard is the reigning NBA All-Star Game MVP, after scoring 39 points last February in the highest-scoring game the league has ever seen.

East 211, West 186.

It rewrote the record book. It did not make the league happy.

So, the NBA is changing the how the midseason showcase works once again. The league is expected to announce the finalized changes soon for the reimagined All-Star Game, turning it into a one-night tournament — the Sunday night of All-Star weekend — and follow the format that the Rising Stars Challenge for rookies and second-year players has used in recent years.

The NBA's hope is simply this: By getting players to compete even a little bit more, the product will be more compelling, and more people will watch. Ratings have plummeted in recent years, viewers evidently not loving the constant stream of lobs, 3-pointers, dunks and zero defense.

“I understand what’s being attempted,” Lillard said. “You want to create some type of competitiveness in that game on Sunday. You want to try to mix it up to try to find a way to make it more entertaining. We’ll see.”

The Rising Stars format, since 2022, has been this: The NBA brings the best rookies and sophomores to All-Star weekend and splits them into four teams. There are two semifinal games — the first team to 50 points was the winner in Year 1, the first team to 40 points has been the winner of the semifinals in 2023 and 2024. And the semifinal winners meet in a championship game that same night, first to 25 points winning.

In November, The Associated Press and other outlets reported that this year's All-Star Game will follow a similar plan. It would seem that 24 All-Stars will be selected — like usual — only to be split into three teams of eight, instead of two teams of 12. Those three teams, along with the Rising Stars Challenge winning team, would play in the new All-Star tournament.

“If I get a chance to go, obviously it’s a blessing,” Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I support whatever they do because it’s an honor to be there."

Improving the All-Star product has been a priority of Commissioner Adam Silver and the league office for some time. Nobody is expecting a Game 7, playoff-type level of competitiveness. Nobody is hoping to see something akin of Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse at home plate in the 1970 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

What the league wants, yet again, is just a little more competition. The league tried it with a target-score ending for a few years, tried it with captains picking their own teams, and now will try the tournament.

“We’re looking at other formats,” Silver said on Nov. 2, which was his way of announcing that changes were coming without formally announcing that changes were coming. “I think there’s no doubt that the players were disappointed as well in last year’s All-Star Game. We all want to do a better job providing competition and entertainment for our fans.”

This year's All-Star weekend is Feb. 14-16 in San Francisco. The rookie-sophomore event headlines the Friday night lineup, followed by All-Star Saturday — the dunk contest, the 3-point contest, the skills competition and almost certainly another version of last year's Stephen Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu shootout event between NBA and WNBA stars, those two quite possibly set to be joined this year by Klay Thompson and Caitlin Clark.

And then on Sunday, it's the All-Star Game — or this year, the games. There won't be 397 points scored this year, for certain.

“I’m definitely more a fan of the originality,” Lillard said Monday, the eve of the NBA Cup final that he and the Bucks are playing in Las Vegas against the Thunder. "I think being able to play on Sunday is a special thing. The top players get to do it. Not everybody has that experience.

“One side of me is like, why? Why change it? But I think just like this NBA Cup, there’s some incentive in there for people to get after it earlier in the season and try to get something done,” Lillard added. “So, I think that’s a possible route for that, as well. We’ll see. I know they switched it up a little bit this year, and we’ll see how it goes.”

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