Why it is time for the NBA to kiss the All-Star Game goodbye

After another year with a total dud of an NBA All-Star Game, it’s time to replace the mid-season clown show in favor of a different type of basketball festivity, an international tournament.

This season’s All-Star Game layout consisted of a tournament-style format which started on the Friday of All-Star weekend with the Rising Stars tournament. The skills competition, 3-point contest, and dunk contest were on Saturday. The winners of the Rising Stars challenge went on to play in the actual NBA All-Star tournament on Sunday.

The past few seasons the league did a Rising Stars game consisting of first and second-year players on All-Star Friday. The actual NBA All-Star Game had your typical four-quarter basketball game and then the teams had to reach a “target score” which was implemented in honor of the late Kobe Bryant.

The mid-season showdown between the NBA’s best players has turned into a joke over the years. Gone are the days of NBA players hating each other and taking pride in their talents and accomplishments.

If you went back and watched an All-Star Game in the 90s, you would see guys actually trying, playing with passion and taking pride in being an All-Star. It also helped that these guys hated each other in the '90s and would try and kill each other on the court every chance they got.

Now it is unwatchable. A show of abysmal basketball. No defense is played, it’s a glorified 3-point contest and at certain times it just becomes a half-court contest.

And no one, I mean no one asked for the winners of the Rising Stars challenge to be in the NBA All-Star Game.

The NBA implemented the tournament style format this year as a way to try to improve play, which it did marginally, but for the most part, made no difference.

The league needs to stop changing the format of the game and just do away with it. This generation of players ruined the All-Star Game because they all have zero pride in being professional basketball players and are all buddy-buddy.

The NHL 4 Nations Face-Off took national sports coverage by storm on a weekend where sports media is normally dominated by the NBA All-Star Game. The 4 Nations Face-Off is a small international hockey tournament that replaced the NHL All-Star Game this year and it sure delivered, but we aren’t here to talk about hockey.

Instead of having an All-Star Game next season, the NBA should learn from the NHL by hosting a small international basketball tournament. Not just a USA vs. The World challenge because that would just be a glorified All-Star Game itself.

Get the USA, Spain, France and Canada together in a round-robin style tournament similar to the 4 Nations Face-Off. Maybe if you replace All-Star weekend with an international tournament then this soft generation of players will care if it means they can wear their nation’s colors.

Replacing the All-Star Game with an international tournament isn’t just because the All-Star Game is terrible. The dunk contest is a joke now. No stars participate in it anymore. Instead, we have Mac McClung who is a G-Leaguer winning three years in a row.

No disrespect to McClung however, he absolutely deserved to win all three years in a row and some argue that he saved the dunk contest.

Even in this potential international tournament, they can still do a 3-point and dunk contest earlier in the week, but with the best basketball players in the world instead of random players no one has ever heard of before.

“I would love to. My opinion is that it’s more purposeful,” said San Antonio Spurs star center Victor Wembanyama when asked by the Associated Press about a potential USA vs. The World format. “There’s more pride in it. More stakes.”

Like I said earlier, if the NBA does a USA vs. The World format, it needs to be an actual tournament with other international basketball powerhouses, not just a simple USA vs. The World game.

The only way to get this generation of NBA players to care is if you put them in their nation’s colors. If the NHL was able to fix its dying All-Star Game by replacing it with an international tournament, so can the NBA.

As the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off thrives in place of a mid-season clown show, many NBA fans would like to see their beloved sport follow suit and replace its All-Star Game with something similar.

To NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, it’s your move. You can either allow your players to ruin the All-Star Game even more or you can give both fans and players something they will both care about.

Ian Rothenberg is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email imr5327@psu.edu.