INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Another NBA All-Star Weekend has passed, and another round of nitpicking begins.
Who is the annual showcase truly for at this point: regular fans or corporate sponsors? Why don’t enough true NBA stars participate in the dunk contest? Is the marquee All-Star Game finally the right format (actually, it looks like it is)?
Though the weekend had its moments, including megastar Damian Lillard surprising everyone by not just participating in the 3-point contest but winning it while still rehabbing from a ruptured Achilles, it remains an event we can’t help but wish to reshape. (No shade to Keshad Johnson, whose dancing en route to being named dunk contest champion was delightful, but that event was won by a guy who has played 37 career games. No stars participated!)
So how would we change things?
The Athletic’s NBA writers who attended All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles sounded off how they would tinker with the events and what they would change.
David Aldridge: There’s so much. But three easy things. One, yearly NBA-WNBA cooperation/content. The Steph Curry-Sabrina Ionescu shootout a couple years ago in Indianapolis really had the building buzzing. Two, make the 3-point contest – the only event of the entire weekend that truly has real drama, not something contrived by an over-caffeinated PA guy – the last event of All-Star Saturday. Three, have a postgame concert Sunday night after the game. The NBA insists it’s the league that the coolest kids like best. Prove it. Get Bad Bunny or Beyoncé or Chappel Roan for a 30-45-minute set after the final buzzer.
Sam Amick: So I’m getting close to saying the slam dunk contest needs to come to an end. This slow death has been so painful for so long. But … let’s try to work it into the next CBA that actual All-Stars are obligated to take part in it if called upon (with some guardrails so it’s not always the same four guys). Work in some incentive that makes it worth their while, but the process of picking participants can’t be this current system in which the vast majority of players duck the smoke and the fans pay the price for it.
Shakeia Taylor: Stars should dunk! The slam dunk contest should have an “it” factor. It should be something everyone looks forward to. There should be creative dunks, NBA alumni on the sidelines enjoying it, and highlights for us to discuss for weeks and years to come. A lot of longtime fans have dunks they remember from guys they love. The young crowd deserves the same.
Dan Woike: Like everyone else, I’d like to see bigger names in the dunk contest. But with the understanding that there probably isn’t a way to incentivize tha (especially after Jase Richardson’s hard fall), let’s figure out a way to end the night with the 3-point contest and the biggest stars. No reason Devin Booker and Damian Lillard should be the opening act.
Mirin Fader: I would love to see more stars dunk. That’s what we all want to see, and I miss the creativity of it. The stakes. The competitiveness.
Jared Weiss: The dunk contest is the crown jewel of the weekend, and the league needs to put some serious effort into reviving it. Credit to the contestants this year for putting on a solid show, but the league needs to create some larger incentive to get star players involved again. Maybe they raise the prize money from $100,000 to a million bucks or something smaller like a jersey patch, like they are doing with awards now. There just has to be something substantial the league can do to make it work. The dunk contest should be a loss leader, investing at a loss in order to get tangential gain. It has long been a premier moment for the sport, and they can get that back.
Zach Harper: I would make the stars compete in the events. Yes, it’s good to get some role players and young guys involved, but it’s All-Star Weekend. People will invest if they see the stars perform. Maybe holding out of certain events means you’re no longer an All-Star? That’s a slippery slope for sure and probably not something commissioner Adam Silver wants to broach. Maybe it’s just taking a bunch of money and offering it up as prize money. Regardless, the structure needs to change. King of the Court. Stars dunking and shooting. And make sure the format of the Sunday game(s) keeps things moving quickly like a pickup-game feel. This celebration of the league needs to feel like an event they care about as a product and not the corporate love-fest it is.
Jason Jones: The 3-point contest needs to be the finale on Saturday night until further notice. It’s the event the stars didn’t mind being in and has the best chance at a dramatic ending.
Law Murray: Shooting Stars is awful. There was a reason it was canceled, although the skills challenge did need to be canceled (thank you, Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama). Take a page from Unrivaled and have a 1:1 contest to replace Shooting Stars. And have the 3-point shootout as the last piece of the night. That’s your main event, and it has been for several years now. I’m going to remember Damian Lillard showing up and winning a thrilling 3-point contest that ended before the sun set in Los Angeles.
John Hollinger: I think the league needs to put more thought into where it holds the weekend. Intuit Dome is a great arena but not a great place at all for a multi-day event; it’s inconveniently located, not on mass transit and with not a whole lot right around it. Even in L.A., it didn’t feel like a big deal, and frankly, the city cares a lot more about the upcoming World Cup games and Olympics. Either go big by sending the game to Paris/London/Tokyo etc., or stick to a small core of warm-weather cities and arenas who can reliably pull off the weekend. Thankfully, next year’s host (Phoenix) qualifies on that point.