The NBA’s next generation recognizes that the All-Star game isn’t what it once was and knows that they can be the players to do something about it.
“I think the only thing we can do is just go out there and just play like a real game,” Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 pick by the Portland Trail Blazers last year, told ESPN after practice for the Rising Stars game on Friday.
“And there’s been sparks like that in the game in recent years but I think all that we can do as young guys coming up is try to continue to have that competitive edge.”
Detroit Pistons guard Jaden Ivey, the No. 5 pick in the 2022 draft, echoed the hope that this weekend’s festivities would begin to turn things around from a competitive standpoint.
“I think things are going to hopefully be different this year – we’re going to see people competing at a higher level,” Ivey told ESPN. “It’s something that I know a lot of people want to see.
That competitiveness and desire to win and not just treating it as a practice game. Just really taking it to another level. I know we all want to feel that. Even myself, I want to take it to another level this year with my competitiveness.”
Last year’s All-Star game, a 184-175 win for Team Giannis over Team LeBron in Salt Lake City was widely panned for its lack of intensity, defense and overall care factor from the players.
“We get it, like, nobody was happy about the experience last year, no one at all,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver admitted as a guest on JJ Redick’s podcast in November.
While scoring has increased across the league in recent seasons, the All-Star game has featured an exponential amount of scoring as of late.
There have been nine 40-point games by individuals in All-Star history and seven of those have come since 2015, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information – including all three instances of a player scoring 50-plus (Anthony Davis in 2017, Stephen Curry in 2022 and Jayson Tatum’s record 55 points last year).
The top eight highest-scoring All-Star games in terms of combined points have all come since 2014.
Illustrating just how different the game has become compared to a regular season matchup, the last time a player fouled out in the All-Star game was Hakeem Olajuwon in 1987.
Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Chet Holmgren, one of the front runners for Rookie of the Year this season, noted one of the “sparks” that Henderson referred to was Tatum and Jaylen Brown going 1-on-1 against one another last year and temporarily putting their Boston Celtics camaraderie on the shelf, but he admitted there’s room for improvement.
“Obviously nobody wants to have anything bad happen in terms of injuries or anything during the All-Star Game,” Holmgren said. “But I think it just comes down to competing and having fun with it at the same time.
A lot of guys are friends with each other from being in the league and seeing each other all over the place growing up playing basketball, so, if the guys have a little friendly competition and go back and forth, I think that will be great for the game.”
Utah Jazz rookie Keyonte George acknowledged that even the recent All-Star games have found some semblance of fiery back-and-forth. More of that would be welcome.
“You got to find that fine balance, but also find a way to entertain the fans,” George told ESPN. “But definitely, how it kind of gets competitive in the fourth, I’d definitely like to see a full game like that.”
