Adam Silver is putting pressure on American NBA players to take the All-Star Game seriously by changing the event to a USA vs. the World format.
Silver announced the new format for its 2026 All-Star Game during an appearance on FS1’s Breakfast Ball Wednesday morning. The change comes after seeing the All-Star game deteriorate from a must-see event into a meaningless product. Players stopped caring about the game, which has led to fans and analysts losing interest.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is among those who stopped caring, previously saying he avoids the game “like the plague.” And after seeing Silver’s latest attempt at reviving the All-Star Game, Windhorst said it’s also an attempt by the NBA commissioner at shaming players into caring.
“This is an attempt to shame the players, because Adam Silver and the league has tried all kinds of different things to get them to care…so, now this is a move to hit them as Americans” – Brian Windhorst on NBA All-Star Game moving to a USA vs World format pic.twitter.com/cBHyqd4d73
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 5, 2025
“This is an attempt to shame the players, because Adam Silver and the league has tried all kinds of different things to get them to care,” Windhorst said Thursday morning on First Take. “They tried money. They tried to incentivize their play by giving them more money, that did not work. They tried to incentivize their play by their sense of duty and history. A couple of years ago, Adam Silver brought in these veterans, these legends, to talk to the players to try to get them to feel the sense of the need to invest in All-Star weekend…the players didn’t care.
“So, now this is a move to hit them as Americans. To go at an area where maybe they will feel a little bit of a pinch if they get embarrassed as an American…It’s an attempt to find a spot where there will be a reaction. They’re trying anything they can to get a reaction…they’ve lost me as a viewer. I did not consume one second of the All-Star Game or whatever they called it.”
The dwindling competition has coincided with a decline in ratings and interest for the NBA All-Star Game. Silver wasn’t going to cancel what was historically an important event for the NBA, leaving the league no choice but to tweak it again.
Earlier this year, Stephen A. Smith alleged the NBA would never allow a USA vs. the World event because American All-Stars fear “they’d get their a** kicked by those international players.” But with the NBA coming off arguably its worst All-Star event this season, as compared to the success of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, moving to a USA vs. the World game seemed inevitable. And if the players really were against it, as Smith noted, they could have tried harder to put on a better show in recent years.