Beginning this season, the All-Star Game will no longer feature a single matchup between two teams composed of the league’s best players. Instead, it will adopt a four-team mini-tournament format with special rules. While players like Kevin Durant have voiced their dissatisfaction with the All-Star format change, Stephen A. Smith has entered the debate with a strong critique.
“The players have ruined All-Star Weekend. It’s their fault this is happening,” the analyst declared on First Take. “They play harder in summer training with each other than they do in front of thousands of fans on the court and millions of spectators during a star-studded All-Star Weekend event.”
Smith argued that the NBA’s leadership had no choice but to reimagine the format due to dwindling fan interest and player effort. “You think Adam Silver and the NBA, in concert with the Players Association, want to be huddling for weeks, if not months, trying to come up with different formats of All-Star Weekend?,” Smith asked rhetorically. “All you had to do was go out there and play with effort and not have it be a glorified layup line or shooting contest.”
The NBA All-Star Game has faced a steady decline in public interest over the years. In the early 2000s, the event regularly drew over 10 million television viewers. By 2024, those numbers had dropped to just 5.4 million.
Smith placed the blame squarely on the players, accusing them of apathy and undermining the event. “This is not Adam Silver’s fault, it’s not the league’s fault. This is the players who have basically said, ‘You know what? We don’t feel like the NBA caters enough to us. So we don’t give a damn,’” Smith said. “They have shamed the game of basketball, they have shamed the event. It is an absolute embarrassment.”
Kevin Durant #35 of the Phoenix Suns reacts during a 125-119 Suns win over the the LA Clippers at Intuit Dome on October 31, 2024 in Inglewood, California.
Stephen A. Smith calls out NBA stars
Stephen A. Smith’s criticism didn’t end there. “The Slam Dunk contest is an atrocity,” he remarked. “And the All-Star Game is even worse. The lack of effort that they have shown has been such a disgrace. I personally have no desire to be in attendance for it. It’s an embarrassment.”
The NBA analyst then proposed a bold idea for the future. “At some point in time, I’m going to have my own. I’m going to sponsor my own Slam Dunk contest nationwide. I believe I can go throughout the streets of America and find five to ten elite slam dunkers in this country, that would do ten times a better job than the Slam Dunk contest in NBA All-Star Weekend and the All-Star Game itself.”
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Mixed reactions from NBA players
Not all NBA stars were critical of the new format. Unlike Kevin Durant, some players found merit in the changes. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said: “Obviously with the elephant in the room being us competing, them trying to shake things up is expected and makes sense.”
Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks echoed a more measured view. “I understand what’s being attempted…You want to try to mix it up to try to find a way to make it more entertaining.… One side of me is like, why? Why change it? But I think just like this NBA Cup, there’s some incentive in there for people to get after it earlier in the season and try to get something done.”
