We are one week removed from the NBA All-Star Game, and overall it was a weekend of change. The Rising Stars Game still featured the new four-team tournament format introduced last year. The Dunk Contest judges rated each dunk out of 50 instead of the traditional ten. The All-Star draft took place on gameday instead of weeks beforehand.
But the most significant change to All-Star weekend: ratings.
According to Paulsen Sports Media Watch, Sunday’s All-Star Game was the least-watched and lowest-rated of all time with only 4.59 million views. It had fewer views than this year’s NFL Pro Bowl (6.2 million), the MLB All-Star Game (7.51 million), and the Daytona 500 (8.17 million).
Clearly, fans have become less interested in the product of the weekend’s most famous event, but what seems to be the cause? Simply put, a lack of effort from the players.
The All-Star Game has never been one that was highly competitive on the defensive end, but Sunday’s game was an all-time embarrassment defensively. Denver Nuggets Head Coach Mike Malone, who coached Team LeBron in the contest, said “that is the worst basketball game ever played.”
The game mimicked a pre-game shootaround, with island-style 1-on-1 isolations, halfcourt heaves, and dunk-contest levels of transition defense. ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith shared the same sentiments as Coach Malone on First Take this past Monday.
“We don’t need to see an all-star game taking place where you play harder in summer competition when you’re working out,” Smith said. Just three years ago in the 2020 All-Star Game, the first with the Elam ending, we saw defensive intensity similar to playoff basketball, with Kyle Lowry even taking a charge late in the fourth quarter.
Smith continued his rant on the effort of the players this year, stating, “We should not be able to look at a basketball game and know that anybody can be on the court with you, based on the effort you’re putting on display.” For the All-Star Game to be billed as the greatest pick-up game on Earth, but have less competition than actual pick-up games at the local YMCA is an embarrassment for the league, and it’s clearly losing its novelty among fans.
And if they don’t want to suffer another year of record-low viewership in Indianapolis, players should implement a change in their approach to the main event of the weekend.
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