NBA All-Star Game: Adam Silver says league considering return to East vs. West format

In an effort to boost its All-Star Weekend, the NBA went to a draft format in 2018 with the 2 avid gamers with the best fan vote totals serving as captains. 

On Wednesday, commissioner Adam Silver, all the way through an look on ESPN’s First Take, mentioned the league is considering losing the draft experiment and returning to the normal East vs. West format, in all probability as quickly because the 2024 sport in Indianapolis. 

“I think we’ve lost sight a bit that it’s about the [All-Star] game at the end of the day,” Silver mentioned. 

This, after all, is a roundabout approach of claiming the fanatics need to see precise festival moderately than a walk-thru, and in all probability hanging some convention pleasure again into the equation will spark a return to the aggressive juices we used to see a minimum of within the ultimate stretch of All-Star video games. 

Silver then were given extra particular. 

“A lot of it comes down to reinforcing with our teams and our players how important this is for our fans,” Silver mentioned. “… You can’t take for granted, particularly with young players coming into the league, that they understand the generations and traditions that came before them. And I think this is where the league has to reinforce, we don’t expect playoff intensity, but we expect a competitive game for our fans.”

Silver is obviously very focused on shedding any portion of an NBA target market with extra leisure choices than ever. It’s why the league has cracked down with load control rules, a minimum of making an attempt to make sure that the most efficient product is continually at the flooring because the league seems to be to safe a brand new multi-billion-dollar TV/media deal. 

Making adjustments to the All-Star Game, which has grow to be an absolute snooze, can be in the similar spirit of pondering. Ultimately, the avid gamers have to perceive the facility they dangle over the recognition in their sport, which equates to extra money of their wallet. After all, fanatics pay their salaries via wildly dear price tag costs, cable programs and products. 

So, if the avid gamers need to proceed being paid the large salaries they recently are (and those numbers are going to skyrocket within the coming years most likely), they have got to play, firstly, and they have got to play exhausting. That is going for the common season, and to some extent, it additionally is going for the All-Star sport.