The NBA held its 74th annual All-Star Game on Feb 16th in the city of San Francisco, home of the Golden State Warriors. With an entire weekend filled with events like a dunk contest and a three-point shootout along with an endless amount of media coverage, the festivities offered an opportunity to highlight the league’s best and brightest players while celebrating the first half of the season.
Historically played under an Eastern vs. Western Conference format with typical 12 minute quarters, the game has struggled to create the intensity of a real competition. In response to ongoing criticism, the league introduced a reimagined format featuring four teams playing in three shorter games under a tournament-style framework.
The result was ultimately a product that would make any basketball coach groan from the onslaught of wild shot attempts and minimal defensive efforts— there was no sense of competitiveness sustained across the board. According to reports from Front Office Sports, the 2025 contest produced the second-worst ratings in All-Star Game history. The total of 4.7 million viewers was a 13% decrease from last year.
It didn’t help that some of the league’s most famous names, such as Lebron James and Anthony Edwards, sat out due to injury. Additionally, there were multiple extended breaks in the action that players and fans collectively loathed.
The same critiques followed Sunday night’s display, describing it as yet another insufferable viewing experience. Current Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green joined TNT’s broadcast of the event and shared his distaste for the new format: “This sucks, it ain’t basketball,” said Green.
Many of the selected All-Stars echoed Green’s sentiment.
“To be honest, I didn’t like it at all,” said Trae Young, an All-Star guard for the Atlanta Hawks. “I didn’t like the breaks. The games were so short. Obviously, we can score. So, they’re trying to, I feel like, trying to extend the game, extend the TV time with the breaks and things like that.”
This quote from Young perhaps best encapsulates why no solution seems to work when attempting to reconceptualize the NBA’s All-Star showcase. The entire weekend becomes so busy and hectic that it eventually dismisses the initial intentions of putting together an All-Star event. The intention is to honor the league’s best players, yet each year it elicits the same criticisms from pundits and fans, who ultimately question their drive and passion as athletes.
Being named to an All-Star team is considered one of the highest individual achievements a player can receive within a single season. There are only 24 slots available in a league consisting of over 500 players, and a weekend dedicated to the top players should be aimed at commemorating those who have performed at the highest level over the first half of the season. It’s rather insincere and mindless to conclude every weekend with scrutinization about how uncompetitive the exhibition game is.
It’s often forgotten that the selected All-Stars who end up participating in all the events throughout the weekend end up sacrificing a week-long break from their hectic team schedules. In an 82-game season, rest is essential especially for the players that carry a substantial amount of weight from leading their respective teams. While most express immense gratitude for receiving the honor, playing in a game that means nothing towards pursuing an NBA title ends up being quite low on their priorities.
2025 All-Star and 3-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets offered some valuable insight regarding the state of NBA All-Star weekend: “I think maybe we should focus on some other things than All-Star,” said Jokic. “I think it’s always going to be like this, so we should accept it.”
It seems that the NBA will never be able to replicate the intensity of a regular season game for an All-Star game, and I think that is perfectly fine. God forbid anyone sustains a serious injury in an exhibition game. I know that if I saw a Celtics player get injured during a non-regular season game, I’d be devastated, knowing my favorite team would be without a key player in the midst of a tough playoff push to finish out the season.
For NBA fans, I believe expectations of All-Star weekend need to be reevaluated. Rather than trying to turn an exhibition game into something it’s not, we should embrace the opportunity to see the league’s top players showcase their skills and personalities in a fun, relaxed environment. The real value lies in the celebration of basketball, not in the pursuit of a regular season-like atmosphere.