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The NBA All-Star Weekend was full of mixed reviews, but it felt like the actual All-Star Game received a lot of criticism from the players themselves. The thing that seemed to bother some people was how long the breaks were between the games, as they had side challenges with fans, dedications, and performances. At the end of the day, the players were barely competing with a target score of 40.
Instead of calling out the actual product, Stephen A. Smith took another route and put the blame on the players, saying that they're only looking at the league as a cash cow.
“If you watch these guys simply working out in the offseason, they gave ten times more effort there than they did the last three or four All-Star weekends,” Smith said. “It has been an absolute travesty and an embarrassment.
“You have players who are making generational money that are snubbing their nose at their own product. I've had a very prominent agent say to me, ‘The problem is the players look at the NBA like a bank instead of as partners.'”
Even with the complaints that the All-Star Game received, it's safe to say that it felt more competitive than the past few years. And even if the league is giving these players generational money, they should be able to have a voice in what they think is best for the game.
Draymond Green, others call out NBA's All-Star Game format
There were a lot of talks about how the new format for the All-Star game was not the best for the players, and Draymond Green was one of the first people to say something while he was on the broadcast for TNT.
“You work all year to be an All-Star and you get to play up to 40 and then you’re done. This is so unfair to Victor Wembanyama who just took this game seriously. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who just took this game really seriously. When you talk about chasing the points records — Melo, Kobe, and all the guys we’ve had. They don’t get the opportunity to do that with this game,” Green said.
Green also mentioned how he didn't think that it was right how the Rising Stars were able to play on Sunday; which didn't make sense to him.
“Now we get the ‘treat’ of watching the Olympic team against a U19 team. C’mon. What are we doing? This is ridiculous. Awful,” Green said.
He wasn't the only player that said something, and the ones who actually participated weren't happy with the new format as well.
