The long work of the NBA All-Star Game and the failed attempts to fix the problem

Imagine an NBA All-Star Game where one superstar broke another's nose by playing aggressive defense at the edge of the game third Quarter.

Imagine one of the greatest players in NBA history angrily reprimanding another all-time star at the final whistle because one of them missed the final shot.

These things happened in the same All-Star Game, not too long ago. In the 2012 game in Orlando, Dwyane Wade broke Kobe Bryant's nose to prevent a layup with eight minutes left in the third quarter.

That night was more memorable for Bryant than he barked Lebron James “shoot the damn ball” as James I passed it twice in the final 10 seconds with his team, the East All-Stars, trailing Bryant's West by two. In a timeout before the final possession, Bryant decided to cover James and was determined to stop him right away. The West won 152-149, but Bryant finished the game scowling as James, frustrated, refused to challenge him.

A few days later, in front of Wade's intense heat were just about to play Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers, Wade called to make sure there were no hard feelings. He was pleasantly surprised when Bryant told him that he “loved” that Wade played so hard on the show.

In a memorable All-Star moment of 2003, Michael Jordan tried to get into Bryant's head as he berated the young star as Bryant had a chance to make three free throws with one second left in overtime to win. Bryant failed and the game went into double overtime, Jordan had made it meet a miraculous jumper That almost won the East in Atlanta.

So Bryant, who loved the All-Star Games, was raised to participate in these events. Two decades later, it's hard to calculate what's more unimaginable for an All-Star Game: real competitiveness at the end of the game or either one doubling overtime.

All-Star Weekend has long been more about style than substance, but last year's version in Salt Lake City was certainly the nadir.

After it's won, no one remembers Denver Nuggets Coach Michael Malone told it like it was.

“It's an honor to be here, it's an honor to be part of a great weekend with great players,” said Malone, who was coach of the losing Team LeBron (Team Giannis won). “But this is the worst basketball game ever played. … I’m not going to lie.”

It's been a long battle – full of highlights but a lot of apathy – to get to this point in All-Star history. The NBA is hoping for a turnaround. Malone was the most outspoken, but far from alone in his feelings that the game had reached its lowest point, he convinced the league to try to bring some excitement back to the midseason show.

The All-Star Game MVP trophy is named in Bryant's honor, a testament to how seriously he took the game. There were complaints that performance deteriorated over the course of Bryant's career, but he was one of the few who tried to keep it at a certain level. As he began to retire, the game really seemed to get out of hand.

Consider the changes each All-Star edition has undergone in less than a decade:

• In 2016, Bryant's final game in the NBA, the defensive scheme, already an All-Star rarity, was retired. The defenders rarely ran and rarely jumped. The West team scored an obscene 196 points.

• In 2017, the two teams combined for a record 374 points as there were more stands than anything else. There were 83 dunks, virtually all uncontested, 12 of which were successful Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo alone.

• In 2018, perhaps recognizing that things were getting out of control, the NBA tried a new format to inspire passion: team captains selecting their teammates on the court a week before the game. But the game would be highlighted not by the format adjustment, but rather by the dizzying number of 3-pointers made by the players. There were only 27 dunks…but there were 123 3-pointers attempted, the most ever in the All-Star Game, which the teams converted at a less exciting rate of 29%. Instead of the usual dunk fest, players mostly stood around and took turns watching each other lift each other deeper and deeper.

• A staggering 167 3-pointers were attempted in 2019 as the game became even more monotonous.

In 2020, the NBA's attempts to restore player competitiveness reached a new level with the introduction of the Elam Final, in which the fourth quarter was played without time and a target value was set. In honor of Bryant, who tragically died a month before the game, the target score was set at 24 in honor of his jersey number.

After three quarters, 24 points were added to the leading team's score and set as the target score. But there were also individual quarter competitions in which the teams played for charity.

Sound confusing? This was especially the case as fans sometimes found it difficult to keep track of which team their favorite players were playing on and then needed a tutorial to keep track of the score.

In that first year in Chicago, it actually produced a great drama that ended with the Elam ending the most competitive game in an All-Star Game in modern times. There was defense, there was trash talk and there was plenty of shenanigans, with Team LeBron pulling off a comeback win against Team Giannis.

But the postponement of the 2021 edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic and confusion over the format never allowed it to flourish even if it did some notable moments when it was introduced.

Last season, in a game where players took turns throwing the ball off the backboard and shooting from halfcourt, all momentum was lost.

“It wasn’t basketball. It was just highlights, layups and jump shots,” the Celtics All-Star said Jaylen Brown said after last year's game. “I don’t know how much notoriety you want to achieve with this. It was just a glorified layup line.”

The selection of the teams in 2023 only took place shortly before the game. James, one of the captains, did not arrive in Utah until the day of the game after being suspended by the NBA from Saturday's events for personal reasons.

The selection may have been arbitrary because of the reigning two-time MVP Nikola Jokic He accidentally joined James' team when he didn't know his hometown Utah Jazz player Lauri Markkanen was not yet selected.

“I wouldn’t enroll either,” said Jokic. “I’m not cut out for this game.”

The players changed locker rooms. Afterwards, performances and pre-game ceremonies dragged on.

“Some people stayed in the same dressing room [with players not on their team],” Damian Lillard said. “Everything just felt long. There was an hour between everything. It felt like the longest All-Star I’ve ever been a part of.”

This disarray and lack of seriousness affected the game, which was a poor display of effort and interest even by All-Star standards. In 1993, 62 fouls were committed. In 2023 there were seven.

Fittingly, James Malone promised he would try to get a defensive stop, and when he denied a shot, he hit his finger on the rim and didn't play the rest of the game.

The number of viewers was 4.6 million – the lowest number in more than two decades, it is said Watch sports media.

“I was in the middle of, 'Do I play hard or should I just take it easy?' You don't want to be that [only] “The guy that's out there running around doing body checks, you stick to the limits,” LA Clippers All Star Paul George said after the game.

“Ultimately the fans want a more serious game. …This will elicit the most oohs and ahhs, [more] than giving a guy a wide-open dunk. But that's how it is played in our time. I would like to see the game become more competitive.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous Alexander suggested adding a financial component to offer a better product. The players say this is an incentive for better performance in the NBA's first tournament of the season the winners a cash prize of $500,000 increased the competitive nature of this event.

Instead, the league is attempting another shakeup. Or rather, a redesign. The rosters will switch back to the East-West format for Sunday's All-Star Game. The Elam ending was scrapped and the NBA has vowed to limit lengthy pregame ceremonies because players said they made it difficult to properly warm up and prepare for the game.

“Last year, no one was happy about the experience, no one at all,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said during a Nov. 8 interview on “The Old Man and the Three” podcast after the changes were announced last fall. “I’m not necessarily saying we expect you to play like you’re in the final, but we need a game.”

Silver's goal this season is to “rebalance” the league as part of what he has repeatedly referred to as a “back to basketball” agenda that includes not only returning the All-Star Game to its roots, but also returning to the All-Star Game a player participation policy The aim was to prevent star players from taking a break during important nationally televised games.

The in-season tournament largely had the desired effect, as the intensity increased significantly in the early games of the regular season. Whether the players will collectively heed the call for better performance at the All-Star Game remains to be seen. Things probably couldn't get any worse.

“We need to get the message across to players,” Silver said after announcing the changes last fall.[so] Guys come out and say, “It's a game.” Let's try to win it.''