3 reasons the 2025 NBA All-Star weekend could be the worst ever
Adam Silver is trying new ideas to make the 2025 NBA All-Star weekend's final game as interesting for fans as possible.
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2025 NBA All-Star weekend could be a disaster
The 2025 NBA All-Star weekend is around the corner and Adam Silver‘s league gears up for its annual festivities. Last season, the 3-point contest between Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu was a major hit, but the concluding All-Star game was a major disappointment.
That game was so boring that fans started voicing their opinions on social media while they were still playing. Many felt that TNT’s Alt Cast featuring Charles Barkley and Draymond Green was more entertaining.
After the game, analysts joined fans to slam Silver, the players and the league as a whole. They could not believe how casual the players were taking the events. Their lack of effort meant the NBA, which was already struggling with declining viewership numbers understood they could lose more this season.
Preemptively, they went about trying to change the way the All-Star game would be played. They wanted to inject some life into the game so that fans have some semblance of interest in watching it. However, in their attempts to try and fix those problems, it seems this 2025 NBA All-Star weekend could be the worst ever.
Rejuvenated All-Star game might not be entertaining at all
Earlier in the season, news came out that the NBA decided to split All-Star squads into four. Inside the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal, Barkley and Kenny Smith would draft the players. At the time, Kevin Durant and some others felt it was the worst way to move forward.
Then when the time came for the Inside the NBA crew to create their teams, it was all too apparent that the league had asked them to select players based on certain criteria. The selection of the All-Star starters was already a head shaking affair.
On top of that, O’Neal selected all the veterans along with the Boston Celtics’ two J’s. Barkley selected all the international players and Kenny Smith selected the rising superstars. This seemed very intentional, and those teams have the possibility of upsetting what Adam Silver might be trying to do.
The logic is that players are anyway not serious about competing. Therefore, fans could see the same players logging a lot of minutes whereas some will be relaxing on the sidelines. Now with shorter quarters, the likelihood of them even sharing the floor shrink, making matters worse for fans.
Slam Dunk and 3-point contest do not have big names
This season, the NBA All-Star weekend is in San Francisco. Knowing that, the league could have added Steph Curry to the 3-point contest. Along with him, they could have added a young Golden State Warriors star to the AT&T Slam Dunk contest.
But those home fans will not get to see Curry battling reigning 3-point contest champion Damian Lillard. Instead, they chose Buddy Hield. They will also not see any of their players in the slam dunk contest. In fact, the rest of the world will not see any significant name in that event.
For years the single biggest complaint has been that superstars are shunning the Slam Dunk contest. Last season, Jaylen Brown controversially won it. This season does not have any major name. Unless one of those youngsters can turn the excitement up, that event could again end being a bore fest.
Steph Curry vs Sabrina Ionescu 3-point contest version 2.0 gets cancelled
The 2024 NBA All-Star weekend’s most popular event was the 3-point contest between Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu. That event pitting together the best shooters from the NBA and the WNBA was a novel idea that was loved across the world.
The success of that event led to speculation that the NBA might try to rope in Caitlin Clark for this season’s contest. The idea was to pair her with Ionescu and pit them against the Splash brothers. However, Clark has declined the event and wants to make her debut in the contest at the WNBA All-Star weekend this coming season.
In addition to all this, earlier today it dawned that the original contest was also cancelled. It is not known why the event was cancelled, but ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith believes the WNBA stars are telling the men’s league that they are not going to help them with their ratings.
Now with all of this going down, chances are high that the 2025 NBA All-Star weekend could be the worst ever. It just won’t be one or the other event. Rather, there is a chance that all four events disappoint fans. If that happens, the Adam Silver’s league will be in a world of trouble.
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Joseph Varghese
(2477 Articles Published)