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The NBA is currently counting down the days until All-Star weekend in San Francisco, with commissioner Adam Silver recently naming multiple injury replacements for the big game and making last minute preparations for the festivities. The All-Star game has come under intense scrutiny over the past several seasons, with players being accused of not trying very hard to actually win the game, and with some of the All-Star Saturday night activities also having fallen off in recent years.
In an attempt to remedy this, Commissioner Silver tweaked the format of the game itself this year to include a tournament style layout with three different teams, coached by Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith of TNT's Inside the NBA.
However, even that decision was met with backlash, and now, Silver is already looking around for other options regarding future All-Star games.
“Now that we've moved to the new format, it's not unimaginable to me in a few years people will be longing for the traditional format,” said Silver on KNBR radio, per Brett Siegel.
“Silver also talked about the idea of having a ‘Ryder Cup' format like golf does with USA players vs. European players,” reported Siegel.
Silver noted that the NBA is now comprised of about 30% international players, which would make a USA vs international format a distinct possibility in the future. It should also be noted that arguably the league's best four current players–Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander–were all born outside of the United States.
In any case, Silver and the rest of the NBA brass will likely wait to see what fan reception is to this new format before making any more changes. The All-Star game is set for Sunday evening from the Chase Center in San Francisco and will be televised on TNT.
