Adam Silver and the NBA front office have made several tweaks over the years at the All-Star game. In 2024-25, the competition introduced an event in tournament on the traditional East vs. West.
This decision has received a lot of criticism from media members in the competition, including ESPNs Michael Wilbon. He believes that the NBA should follow the NHL and replace the All-Star game with another event.
Is replacing the All-Star game a smart move for the NBA?
Michael Wilbon calls NBA to ‘follow Pak’ with NHL when getting rid of all-star game https://t.co/e8d1woaje
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This year the NHL said goodbye with their traditional All-Star game. Instead, they kicked off an eight-day tournament of the 4 Nations Face-Off. The event contains four teams with 23 players who represent Team USA, Team Canada, Team Sweden and Team Finland. Canada and Sweden had an exciting game that went in OT on Wednesday. It has been drawn a lot of buzz for the NFL. More than they would have received for a traditional All-Star game.
That is why ESPN’s Michael Wilbon wonders whether the NBA should follow the NHL and replace their all-star game. Wilbon discussed this on the edition of Pardon The Interruption on Thursday. He said that the NBA “should follow very quickly” and replace the All-Star game. Over the years we have seen the NBA try to make changes to the All-Star game to make it more competitive. The complaints last year were that no defense was played and they were just Dunks and three-Pointers.
We have seen the NBA implement the in-season tournament (NBA Cup) and seem to buy players in that small tournament. Perhaps an international friendly between countries can achieve more reviews. Similar to what the NHL does with their 4 nations face-off. For basketball, the NBA Team USA, Team Spain, Team France and Team Serbia could invite. That is just an example and there can even be more teams. If the All-Star game flopped this weekend in reviews, expects Adam Silver to make a change.
