NBA All-Star Weekend: Does anyone care anymore?

NBA All-Star Weekend: does anyone care anymore?

I absolutely love what the NHL did this year with their All-Star week. They eliminated the same old, uncompetitive game and brought the 4 Nations Face-Off.

It was a genius move from whoever was involved with that decision. The hockey world is excited to tune into the world’s best play for their country to cheer them on.

With the NBA numbers going down yearly, introducing an international-style tournament like the NHL just did would have been brilliant.

NBA Trade Deadline

This past trade deadline brought life back into the NBA. While the numbers were 5% down from last year (according to the Sports Business Journal), the trades this past week have improved the viewership numbers slightly.

For example, Luka Doncic’s debut for the Lakers drew an average audience of 2 million viewers, above the national average of 1.7 million in the United States.

The NBA had an opportunity to have multiple big weeks, with a change during All-Star Weekend, but they failed to do so.

All-Star Weekend

There is no change from the NBA, with Saturday’s events being the Skills Challenge, 3-Point Contest and Slam-Dunk Contest. 

Let’s be honest: Most people are tuning in for the dunk competition, if at all. We haven’t seen competition since the 2016 Aaron Gordon vs. a good Slam Dun Zac LaVine battle.

Recently, we have seen younger players or bench warmers in the dunk competition, which makes it difficult to get invested in.

This year’s participants:

Mac McClung of the G League ( two-time champ)

Stephon Castle (Rookie)

Matas Buzelis (Rookie)

Andre Jackson Jr.

Who are these guys? If you put these four guys on a poster to advertise this dunk contest, you won’t draw anyone’s attention, especially the casual fan. Sure, if you're a dunk enthusiast, you will know Mac, but he is not even in the NBA.

Sunday All-Star Game

8 p.m ET / Sunday, Feb 16

Location: Chase Center – San Francisco

The worst of all is Sunday. I will surely tune into the Saturday events briefly, but I have zero interest in the Sunday pick-up game.

In 2023, we saw the lowest viewership in the United States by a long shot, at 4.6 million. Surprisingly, it went up last year by roughly 900,000 viewers; however, it is still the second-lowest viewership ever in the United States.

I expect them to eventually change the format from its current to the USA vs Everybody (International) in the near future; however, I would love to see the same style of the tournament the NHL is doing.

We don’t see enough big tournaments with players getting to play for their country, and I believe this would be an excellent opportunity to try something different and help make the NBA get some new and old eyes back.

You will never see a pick-up-style game under the bright lights when a player plays for their flag. Passion, heart and players giving it their all for the country is what I want to see.

Let's make NBA All-Star weekend a week of International play and great again!