For the past few years, the NBA has tried to give players more incentive to take the All-Star Game more seriously. They installed the ever-entertaining All-Star draft, and even made it live and in-person during the 2023 festivities. The league also used the Elam Ending to give the game more thrill as teams raced to hit the target score in the final frame. However, all these changes weren't enough, and Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul has conveyed it to commissioner Adam Silver in a convincing manner.

According to Marc J. Spears of ESPN, it was Paul who opened Silver's eyes that these changes weren't enough to give the players a greater sense of obligation to take the NBA All-Star game more seriously. Per Spears, the Warriors floor general told Silver that the pregame introductions run too long, which was made worse by the fact that the captains drafted their teams live on stage for the first time around nine months ago. Moreover, Paul also made note of the lengthier halftime intermission, which runs for more than the 15 minutes players have grown accustomed to.

Thus, there's a bit of cognitive dissonance for players; on the one hand, the NBA wants them to take the All-Star Game seriously. And yet the NBA is responsible for making it feel like an exhibition game that's meant to be played more so for fun. At the very least, Adam Silver is taking responsibility for sending these “mixed signals”.

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“So that's why I say, I'll take responsibility for that. We're sending mixed signals,” Silver told Andscape. “If we want players to treat it[like a real game], we have to treat it that way. And so, it means that the introduction is going to have to be a little bit shorter and halftime's going to have to be a little bit more typical, starting in Indianapolis.”

Only time will tell if these small changes can end up breathing new life into the All-Star Game after the festivities devolved into meaningless once again in 2023, which is quite a shame after fans saw a few competitive matchups from 2018 to 2022. The 2020 and 2022 editions of the ASG, in particular, stand out as incredibly fun games.