INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Just when it might have appeared the NBA sunk to another low with another uneventful All-Star weekend filled with gimmicks, apathy and forgetful play, the league staged an unexpected comeback.
The NBA All-Stars provided excitement. They showed emotion. Dare, we say, they actually tried?
“It was hot,” New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “I thought it was one of the more competitive ones to be a part of.”
Surprisingly, the NBA’s plan to change its All-Star format yet again actually worked. For the first time in its 75 years, the league featured a round-robin tournament that featured the Americans’ veteran stars, the Americans’ young prospects and the international stars competing against each other in 12-minute increments. It brought out patriotic and generational pride. It sparked competitive juices. It made players have fun again. It made the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome an exciting venue instead of a punchline.
In the first three games, a different star decided the outcome on a game-winning 3-pointer. Toronto Raptors guard Scottie Barnes started things off to help the young Team USA Stars to a 37-35 victory over Team World. San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox followed suit to lift the veteran Team USA Stripes to a 42-40 win over the youthful Team USA Stars. Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard ensured the Team USA Stripes’ 48-45 win over Team World with his winning 3 to cap a 31-point performance while shooting 11-for-13 from the field and 6-for-7 from deep. In the championship game, the Team USA Stars exacted revenge over the Team USA Stripes with a 47-21 romp.
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“I kind of liked how we played today,” said Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant, who played on Team USA Stripes. “I thought all three teams came out and played good ball. Last game was tough. They hit a lot of good shots. But I definitely think it was a step up in the competitive department compared to last season.”
Yeah, about last season. Then, the NBA tried another format that featured the former TNT crew selecting four All-Star teams to play in a single-elimination tournament. That tweak flopped amid lengthy commercial breaks, an elaborate halftime presentation and little effort. Ironically, the NBA made this tweak after the 2024 All-Star teams set a league record for most points by playing little defense and jacking up 3s.
Hence, the NBA faced nearly universal skepticism from around the league, media outlets and fans on whether another change would work. The NBA didn’t throw a Hail Mary in a last-ditch effort, though. It breathed new life into an event that once entertained old and young fans. That only happened because of a simple reason.
“We wanted to play hard,” said Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey, who played for Team USA Stars. “It doesn’t matter what the format was. I came in thinking, ‘I’m going to play some defense. I’ll score when I can, but I want to play hard, bring energy, get some steals, and have fun.’”
The NBA stars sure did. The first game started with San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama throwing down a dunk on the first play and then making a 3 on the following play. After vowing all week to make the game more competitive, the Spurs’ third-year center backed up his words with actions.
“Being honest with ourselves is good,” Wembanyama said. “When it’s a game we love, it’s a game I personally cherish, so being competitive is the least I can do.”
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It was plenty enough. Minnesota Timberwolves forward Anthony Edwards said that Wembanyama “set the tone.” That included Edwards, who finished with the All-Star MVP following double-digit performances in Team USA Stars’ win over Team World (13 points), their near-comeback against Team USA Stripes (11 points) and their rectified championship win over Team USA Stripes (eight points). Edwards helped the Team USA Stars bounce back over Team USA Stripes. He was even more compelled, however, to shut down Team World in the first game.
“They say they’re the best players in the world,” Edwards said of Team World. “So beating them is the best feeling in the world.”
Not exactly. NBA players don’t feel their best until they win an NBA championship or an Olympic gold medal. They don’t try their best until they play in a decisive Game 7. The league office, media and fans never expected players to showcase that kind of intensity and emotion, though. They just wanted them to compete and entertain. Once again, it appeared that this year’s NBA All-Star Game would become another embarrassing showcase.
Intuit Dome featured mostly empty seats during a boring Rising Stars event on Friday and unoriginal dunk contest on Saturday. Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard won the NBA’s 3-point shooting contest on Saturday in inspiring fashion after spending the entire season rehabbing his left Achilles tendon. But he did so mostly before flashing lights and loud music to camouflage the lagging attendance.
Neither NBA commissioner Adam Silver nor the league’s All-Stars conveyed much confidence on the All-Star Game itself.
Silver spent most of his All-Star press conference addressing the league’s issues with tanking, an outside investigation on whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s recently investment in a prediction market platform. Silver didn’t spend much time talking about the game itself.
It didn’t help that the NBA already knew several key stars would sit out with injuries, including Antetokounmpo, the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The participating ones didn’t offer much confidence they would pick up the slack.
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Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić seemed giddy about playing in his sixth All-Star Game and first since joining the Lakers, but he would play limited minutes after missing the previous four games with a strained left hamstring. Other All-Stars conceded confusion about the format and expressed a wish to play a traditional game between the Eastern and Western Conference players. Durant contended he rewatched All-Star Games from previous generations and didn’t find them that competitive. Edwards conceded he wouldn’t feel as compelled to compete against international talent with the same intensity as he did in the 2024 Paris Olympics. On Sunday morning, Lakers star LeBron James expressed apathy in playing an All-Star Game in the LA area for the third time because he considered Intuit Dome to be a road game. The attendance looked sparse leading into tipoff.
That all changed once the game started. The seats filled up. Musician John Tesh performed the famed “Roundball Rock” that NBC played during its telecasts in the 1990s. Wembanyama immediately tried to dominate. His opponents countered back, making Wembanyama visibly upset after both losses. James was sweating during a postgame interview. Leonard made AI look obsolete with his machine-line efficiency.
“Obviously, these guys aren’t competing at a regular-season schedule game, but it’s always fun to go out and compete with those guys and just cherish the court with them,” Leonard said. “They’re all legends, and they’re playing great basketball.”
Can the NBA All-Stars still play great basketball under this format? Every other tweak quickly fizzled out, including an All-Star draft (2018), a target score (2020) and another draft again (2023).
“I don’t know. We’ll have our meetings and we’ll talk about it,” Towns said. “We’ll see what the reaction is. But right now, it’s a positive All-Star.”
That’s because the NBA players finally played like ones.
Said Durant: “I think we did what we were supposed to do for the fans.”
Mark Medina is an NBA contributor for Athlon Sports. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
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