The NBA season is coming to its half way point, and with that, the all star break is beginning. The all star break is a good time for players to get rest after a long opening half to the season and get a chance to regroup for a playoff push in the second half.
And while rest for the players is important, the NBA still provides some entertainment for fans, even if the regular season is in a pause. The all star weekend is the NBA’s solution to this issue. They bring all the best players in the league to one place, and have them compete in competitions like the three point contest, dunk contest, and most importantly, the all star game.
The all star game is the main draw of the weekend as it puts all the best players in the world on one court at one time. The all star game in recent years however has been heavily criticized by fans and viewers for being boring and views for the event have rapidly been declining.
The league has seen this backlash and realized they need to make a change, so they announced this year that they would be changing the format of the game. As international players continued to dominate the league, interest began to grow for an international vs USA competition to see if the USA was still the best place for basketball talent. The NBA gave the fans what they asked for when they announced that the new format would be USA vs the world.
This new format however, would not be as simple as just one game between the two sides. It will be a round robin style tournament with two American teams (Stars and Stripes) and one world team. The teams will battle it out in 12 minute games until it culminates in a championship game at the end of the event.
Fans are happy to see a change being made to the game and to see the international talent take on the best of the USA. While some other fans are not pleased with the round robin format and would prefer to just see one regulation game between the two sides, they also believe that this format won’t entice the players to try anymore than they did in previous years.
”The all star game is boring to me, they don’t try and I just gave up on watching it,” junior Ace Armstrong said.
Regardless of how fans may feel, it is good to see a major league like the NBA responding to the fans and attempting to give them a solution and put a more entertaining product on the court.
