LAS VEGAS — Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard is the reigning NBA All-Star Game MVP after scoring 39 points last February in the highest-scoring game in league history.
It rewrites the record. This did not please the league.
As a result, the NBA is once again changing how its midseason showcase works. The league has announced final changes to the redesigned All-Star Game, turning it into a one-night tournament — the Sunday night of All-Star Weekend — and following the format of the Rising Stars Challenge for rookies and second-year players used in recent years.
The NBA’s hope is simple: By getting its players in the game a little more, the product will be more compelling, attracting more people to watch. Ratings have plummeted in recent years, with viewers clearly not enjoying the constant stream of lobs, three-pointers, dunks and zero defense.
“I understand what’s being tried,” Lillard said. “You want to create some kind of competitiveness going into Sunday’s game. You want to try to mix it up, try to find a way to make it more interesting. We’ll see.”
The new format largely mirrors the format used by the Rising Stars competition since 2022. For rising stars, the NBA brings its best rookies and sophomores to All-Star Weekend and divides them into four teams. There are two games in the semi-finals – the first team to score 50 points is the first-year winner, and the first team to score 40 points is the winner of the 2023 and 2024 semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals will meet in the championship game that night, with the first to win by 25 points.
There will be 24 players selected for this year’s All-Star Game, with 10 designated as starters and 14 designated as reserves, although that won’t be the case on game night. The 24 players will be divided into three teams of eight players each, and the winning team will continue to participate in the All-Star Game as the fourth team. The semi-finals will feature two 40-point games, followed by a 40-point final.
“If I get the opportunity to go, obviously it’s a blessing,” Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I support everything they do because it’s an honor to be there.”
Improving the All-Star roster has been a priority for commissioner Adam Silver and the league office for some time. No one was expecting Game 7, a playoff-style level of competition. No one wants to see anything like this Pete Rose runs over Ray Foss Home plate in the 1970 MLB All-Star Game.
All the league wants is a little more competition. The league has experimented with goal-score endings for a few years, tried captains selecting their teams, and will now experiment with tournaments.
“We’re looking at other formats,” Silver said on Nov. 2, which was his way of announcing the impending change without officially announcing it. “I think there’s no question that the players were disappointed with last year’s All-Star Game as well. We all want to do a better job of providing competition and entertainment for our fans.”
This year’s All-Star Weekend will be held in San Francisco from February 14th to 16th. Friday night’s rookie-sophomore game headlines Friday night, followed by Saturday’s All-Star Game — a dunk contest, a three-point contest, a skills contest that will almost certainly feature the most recent of last year’s NBA and WNBA stars. Ry Thompson and Caitlin Clark will likely join those two players this year.
Then Sunday comes the All-Star Game — or this year’s game. There will definitely not be 397 points this year.
“I definitely prefer originality,” Lillard said Monday, on the eve of he and the Bucks’ NBA Cup final against the Thunder in Las Vegas. “I think it’s something special to be able to play on Sunday. Top players can do that. Not everyone gets that experience.
“Part of me is, why? Why change it? But I think just like this NBA Cup, there’s an incentive to grab it early in the season and try to get something done,” Lillard added. “So, I think that’s a possible avenue as well. We’ll see. I know they made some adjustments this year and we’ll see how it goes.”
