Takeaways from NBA All-Star weekend, which culminated with a (checks notes) 211–186 Eastern Conference win in Sunday’s All-Star Game.
- Don’t complain about the lack of competitiveness of the All-Star Game. It is what it is. The NBA has tried everything—literally, everything—to get players to care about the game. They dumped the traditional East-West format. They let team captains draft. They reset the score after quarters, adopted the Elam ending and added financial incentives. This year, the league went back to the old format. The result was the first 200-point game and the highest-scoring All-Star Game in history.
Deal with it. Don’t gripe about it on podcasts. Don’t bellyache on social media. There’s simply no way to get today’s players, many of whom have contracts that exceed the GDP of small countries, to treat the All-Star Game as anything more than a glorified pickup game. In 2023, the All-Star Game drew 4.6 million viewers, more than any non-Christmas game from the 2022–23 season. It’s not changing. And it’s not going anywhere.
