The NBA All-Star Game has been at a steady drop ever since its peak in viewership in the 1990s. Recently it hit its lowest in 2023 with 4.6 million views according to Nielsen ratings. 2025 wasn’t much better with only 4.7 million viewers. The fans don’t enjoy the product as much as they did in the past because the players don’t put in enough effort to be better. The NBA is trotting out its America vs the world format, but due to the lack of hype around the game this year, it needs serious fixing.
The NBA hopes that the world vs America will create a sense of pride in the players and get them to compete. This is extremely doubtful though because the world players still aren’t playing for their country, and most of these players just recently had their chances to play for pride in the Paris Olympics. FIBA basketball seems to be when these players will actually play for national pride, while this All-Star Game doesn’t seem to be creating the same effect.
This year several stars won’t be in the All-Star Game due to injury, and overall it just won’t have the same feel that All-Star Games used to have. Part of this is due to how the stars of the league treat the game. Like it or not the stars dictate how hard a player will compete in a game. If Nikola Jokic went out there and gave it his all then he would lead others to do so. Instead he doesn’t care about the game and it sparks a trickle-down effect of not caring about the game. Due to this the format of the game is in desperate need of a makeover. With All Star weekend going on right now, the time is here to address these needed changes.
Nick Wright's viral solution
Nick Wright went on the Bill Simmons Podcast and came up with his own idea to fix the All-Star Game. He claimed that with the emergence of Rookies Cooper Flagg and Kon Kneuppel, the league should do a blacks vs whites All-Star Game. He claimed that the league's talent would finally be balanced enough on both sides, and that the main problem with the all star game is that players don’t play hard enough, and that this would get the players to play hard.
Wright's idea seems extremely interesting on paper, but doesn’t seem like a realistic thing to happen in today's world. This idea did however spark the purpose of this article. Are there realistic ways to fix the All-Star Game and get players to play hard, or is the All-Star Game too far gone?
Solution one
My first idea for a solution is to create a team of under paid players and give them real financial earnings for if they win the game. There are plenty of players out there that are talented ball players, but aren’t making millions upon millions of dollars like a large part of the league is. Get a group of hungry lower level NBA players together that have to face up against the superstars of the league.
The actual all stars would be playing to avoid the embarrassment of losing a game to these bench players. And if that isn’t enough, have it be the actual all stars who have to pay these bench players if the bench players are to win. Everyone loves a Cinderella story and that is what this would possibly create.
The NBA All Stars would be playing for pride, and would have to put in legit effort, because these bench players would be playing hungry. This would get what fans want, which is to watch the best players in the world, play together and play hard.
Solution two
My next solution would be to do a three-on-three tournament. There would be 24 total all stars with eight team captains. These team captains would simply just be the eight players with the most all star fan votes who got selected. The draft order would be a completely randomized draft order, and would be a snake draft. The game would be the same ruleset that the Olympic three-on-three games are.
Then there would be a twist. The eight teams would play a tournament, and then the champion of that would play against the most recent three on three Olympic gold champion. The winner of that would gain a cash prize and all three of them would receive a trophy.
This would make the games have a more fast-paced style of play and would potentially create more excitement around the games as a whole. It would also give the players a chance to play for cash. Sure there might be some players who lose in the first round, and there might be some blowout games, but when we get to the team that had won games later in the tournament it should be good matchups.
Solution three
My last solution would be to add a one-on-one tournament that is there in addition to the normal game. This one-on-one event would be king-of-the-hill style, and would be simply just a game to three by ones and twos. It would be an event that copies the format of WWE’s Royal Rumble.
There will be a new contestant who enters the arena every three to five minutes. These will consist of some NBA All-Stars, some rising stars, some former players, WNBA stars and any celebs that sign up for it. It will have walkout music for every new player coming in and just be a full spectacle event.
Imagine that Giannis Antetokounmpo just beat Anthony Edwards in a one-on-one, and then all of a sudden the song “Sirius” starts to play, and then Scottie Pippen walks out of a tunnel and faces Giannis. Then next could be WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark. The possibilities are endless. It wouldn’t replace the All-Star Game, it would just be another event that the NBA adds to create more hype around the whole weekend.
These solutions are all a bit wacky and there might be some old heads out there that are against changing this format, but everyone needs to recognize that what they are doing isn’t interesting to a common fan at all. The players don’t care about the game and it shows. These solutions are all a bit out of the ordinary, but that is what the NBA needs right now.
If they want this weekend to stay as a must-watch television event, then they need to think outside of the box and make some serious changes. The old format of the All-Star Game is too far gone, but there are ways to make the weekend as a whole more entertaining. The format of a normal stars vs stars basketball game isn’t an intriguing product, but the idea of creating something new is very intriguing. The NBA needs to do something to change this, and they know it.
