How one picture exposed the big problem… and possible solution to the NBA’s All-Star game joke’

Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone known as it the “worst basketball game ever played”.

Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, in the meantime, likened it to a “glorified layup line”.

Even reigning back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic merely felt like he didn’t belong, telling reporters: “I’m not meant for this game”.

“Fix this,” basketball author Josh Eberley tweeted, tagging the NBA in a screenshot of Brown going up towards Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum as all different gamers on the ground watched on.

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Funnily sufficient, a 1-on-1 match of some form is precisely what some NBA followers have been calling for and what some see as probably the most logical resolution to fixing the All-Star recreation.

The recreation was presupposed to rejoice the perfect of what the league and its famous person expertise has to supply however as a substitute, someplace alongside the way in which, it has grow to be nothing greater than a novelty.

Even final 12 months, when the NBA resolve to nonetheless host the occasion amid a worldwide pandemic, LeBron James made a couple of telling feedback which spoke to how gamers actually strategy the sport.

Outside of calling that call a “slap in the face”, James additionally mentioned he had “zero energy” and “zero excitement” about enjoying within the recreation, including he and his teammates had been trying ahead to a “nice little break”.

Load administration is already one of many largest points dealing with the league proper now however there isn’t any simple resolution. The similar rings true for fixing the All-Star recreation.

Malone, who branded this 12 months’s instalment the “worst basketball game ever played”, mentioned so himself.

“I don’t know if you can fix it,” he mentioned after the sport.

“I give Joel Embiid and Kyrie Irving [credit], those two guys were competing. They tried to get some defence in. No one got hurt, they put on a show for the fans, but that’s a tough game to sit through, I’m not going to lie.”

It was equally robust for these watching at residence and even the gamers themselves, with Brown telling reporters the league must discover a solution to make it “a little bit more competitive”.

“All is fun in games like this,” Brown mentioned.

“Real basketball is different. This was like a layup line. I don’t know how much notoriety we would want to to get from this. This was a glorified layup line.

“We’ve got to figure out how to make the game a little bit more competitive. If the fans like it, that’s all that matters.”

But the final consensus was they didn’t — and the numbers backed it up.

This 12 months’s recreation was the least-watched version in historical past, dropping 29 per cent in rankings and 27 per cent in viewership from 2022, per Sports Media Watch.

Prominent NBA journalist Zach Lowe even known as it “unwatchable” whereas talking on his podcast earlier within the week.

“The whole game was a complete joke,” he mentioned.

“.. The game was unwatchable and even the participants in the game said it was unwatchable.”

Former NBA participant turned media character J.J. Redick agreed, saying it was “not remotely fun to watch” whereas echoing comparable ideas to Brown and Malone.

“I tend to agree with what Jaylen Brown said,” Redick opened.

“Which was, ‘That was not basketball. That was a glorified lay-up line’. I tend to agree with Michael Malone [who said], ‘That was the worst basketball game ever played’, maybe a little harsh but I tend to agree with it.

“I feel for the fans who want to see a show but also want to see guys compete.”

The downside although as Redick defined is that the sport and All-Star weekend as an entire is just not arrange in its present format to generate the extra aggressive strategy followers could also be after.

“I did the All-Star Weekend two years, I was not an All-Star all I did was compete in the 3-point content on Saturday, got out of there Sunday morning both times,” Redick mentioned.

“It was non-stop, all day long. You obviously have appearances, there is community events that every player that participates in All-Star Weekend has to do. So you’re travelling all around, constantly moving from one event to another.

“The game itself is a f***ing spectacle. I love the draft before the game. Then there’s a Post Malone concert. It’s not meant to be competitive. How the day of the game is set up, how the pre-game is set up — I was watching the pre-game show [and] there were guys doing their shooting two hours before tip-off. I don’t know of a single All-Star who does that.

“The game preparation to get yourself in a place to compete does not exist. The idea we are supposed to watch LeBron and Giannis try to crack jokes for what seemed like 35 minutes and then watch a Post Malone concert and then expect these guys to go out at full tilt, it never has been realistic and it’s not realistic with the way it’s set up now.”

That in itself begs the query. Sure, there are options that making it USA vs The World or enjoying a 1-on-1 match may deliver out the aggressive firepower everyone seems to be after.

But even nonetheless, that alone wouldn’t handle the “non-stop, all day long” nature of the week itself that Redick mentioned is a part of the issue within the first place.

“I feel for fans,” Redick added.

“I don’t know what the solution is. I think what fans want is what Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dion Waiters gave us a few years ago at the Rising Stars game.

“What fans want is a little bit harder than what Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum did in the third because they were still moving at about 60 per cent when they were going one-on-one. Fans want to see that and I get that but there was none of that, zero resistance, and it was not remotely fun to watch.”

So, it’s a low bar, however how can the NBA make the All-Star recreation even remotely enjoyable to observe?

Well, Oklahoma City Thunder guard and first-time All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a easy resolution when requested after the occasion.

“Money talks you know,” he mentioned, whereas sporting a fur coat after all.

“If there’s more incentive I think guys will take it seriously.”

But would cash actually make a distinction for the league’s largest names, who pocketing lots already?

It actually made a distinction for Mac McClung, who almost matched his profession earnings with the $1000,000 dunk contest win after signing a two-way contract with the 76ers.

“But what’s the value for Ja Morant?” requested Redick.

“There’s more downside than upside.”

Even throwing more cash at it poses questions, as Lowe defined, beginning with the place the additional money would come within the first place.

“Everyone on the winning team right now gets $100,000,” Lowe mentioned on his podcast.

“Everyone on the losing team gets $25,000. That’s obviously not enough to make the players care. The money thing is complicated for two reasons.

“One, where is the money coming from? Because if it’s $1 million a player, that’s $12 million. That’s got to come from somewhere. I don’t think the union would be happy with it coming out of the 51 per cent BRI (Basketball Related Income). It’d have to become extra money. Who is supplying the extra money? Is it the owners, sponsors?

“I just don’t think it’d go over well with fans if it is, ‘Oh, now they’re trying’. I just think any solution where the players get an enormous amount of stuff, the optics are going to be bad, unless you get $1 million and get to donate it to a charity of choice.”

So if paying the gamers more cash to compete isn’t the easy repair, may a return to East vs West or perhaps a matchup of the perfect U.S. and worldwide gamers be a part of the answer?

Ohm Youngmisuk, an NBA reporter for ESPN, doubts the latter would have the specified impact.

“If you were to do Team USA vs International All-Stars, I think that’d be interesting for the fans but at the same time, what would make the players want to try win that game?” he mentioned on Lowe’s podcast.

“Are they really playing for international or country pride? It’s not like they’re playing for a global medal. At the end of the day it’s still going to be the same thing, they don’t want to get hurt.”

As for the East vs West options, Lowe mentioned it could be “insane” to resolve residence courtroom benefit for the Finals sequence with an exhibition recreation that in any other case has little which means.

After all, it’s extra being named an All-Star than enjoying within the recreation itself that’s the honour.

And from chatting with these on the bottom in Utah, Youngmisuk left with an identical impression that the league wants to seek out some solution to higher get gamers to purchase into the occasion.

The downside although is that he, doubtless many individuals proper now, doesn’t know precisely what that’s.

“I got this sense talking to players in the leading days up to All-Star when they were selecting teams that guys were kind of just looking forward to having the break,” he mentioned.

“Some of these guys will say, ‘It’s always an honour to be named an All-Star’ and you want to be an All-Star but they also don’t want to be there. And I don’t know what the answer is to wanting them to be there.”

If there’s any hope for the All-Star recreation, the NBA can look to McClung, who Shaquille O’Neal mentioned “definitely saved the dunk contest”.

McClung went from being known as up from the G League earlier that week to the speak of the city.

He did it with precisely what the All-Stars recreation may’ve carried out with — a little bit extra effort and aggressive spirit.

Rediscovering each of these issues although could also be a lot more durable than it appears.