NBA commissioner Adam Silver recently announced that next year's NBA All-Star Game is going to look a little bit different. After another All-Star weekend dud mixed with the NHL having tremendous success with the Four Nations Face-Off, the NBA has decided to adopt a similar approach. Next year, the All-Star Game will feature the best players from the USA going up against a team compiled with the best players from the rest of the world.
If this USA vs. World format is anything close to what the Four Nations Face-Off, then it should be a big success for the NBA. After a long stretch of disappointing All-Star Game formats, the league desperately needs it. In fact, Stephen A. Smith thinks that this is the NBA's last hope for All-Star weekend.
“If this doesn't work [USA vs. World], I think you're going to see the NBA do away with All-Star weekend,” Stephen A. Smith said on Thursday. “And this era of players will forever be stained for the rest of their lives because ASW was banished because of a lack of effort. That's never happened before. Football is violent, that's why they do flag football, football is so violent so you can get hurt. These guys, oh my god. Effort.”
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No other professional sports league has as big of an issue with their All-Star Game format than the NBA. Like Smith said, it's hard for the NFL to replicate an actual game because of how dangerous the sport is, but that isn't the case in the NBA. Injuries are always a risk, but after seeing how the players competed in the Four Nations Face-Off, there is no excuse for these basketball players.
The NBA has mixed in a ton of different events during All-Star weekend, and they have changed up the format multiple times. At the end of the day, nothing has worked yet. The product hasn't been good, and fans aren't interested. Like Stephen A. Smith said, a big part of it comes down to the effort by the players.
As soon as people saw the success that the NHL had last year, calls for this USA vs. the world format started. The NBA has done a good job acting fast and getting this done as soon as possible. It's going to be exciting to see how this goes for the league and if it can make fans excited for All-Star weekend again.