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NBA All-Star Game: Lack of Competitiveness and Fan Engagement
SportsGrid
Follow
2/19/2024
Category
🥇
Sports
Transcript
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00:00
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03
I did not watch the All-Star game.
00:05
My son was watching it and sort of giving me some commentary.
00:09
He's 11.
00:09
And so he's like, was this the way it always
00:12
was, where it just looks like they don't want to play?
00:14
I'm like, actually, no.
00:15
It really was semi-competitive through the years.
00:19
But we're reaching levels now, Carlin, of--
00:24
you cannot even call this pickup basketball,
00:25
because in pickup basketball, the defenders defend.
00:28
So I just don't know what the answer is here.
00:32
A lot of complaining on social media.
00:34
That's nothing new.
00:35
People complain about everything.
00:37
But do you think that we've come to the end of the line
00:40
as far as keeping the game the way it is?
00:44
Because what I would say is there's
00:47
nothing wrong with playing an All-Star game that's
00:49
150 to 140 or 170 to 160.
00:52
But it did seem like there was some apathy,
00:55
I got to be honest, on the side of the players,
00:58
meaning that just get me out of here,
01:00
because I know we have four days off after this, too.
01:04
So complicated answer, I know.
01:06
And I guess I'll put your commissioner hat on for a minute.
01:09
What do you do?
01:11
Yeah, it's interesting, because it really
01:14
feels like the NBA is actually officially back, right?
01:17
Like, people are complaining that it was in a cold weather
01:19
city.
01:19
People are complaining that the All-Star Saturday night
01:22
didn't live up to the hype.
01:23
And then complete people are complaining
01:25
that the All-Star game didn't have any competitiveness
01:28
at all throughout the 48 minutes that they played.
01:31
You're right, Craig.
01:32
It wasn't a great game.
01:33
It wasn't a great showcase for the league.
01:35
And when the league talks about this All-Star game,
01:38
they talk about a couple of things.
01:39
One, it's a showcase for the greatest players on the planet.
01:42
We did not see a showcase of the greatest players on the planet.
01:45
All we saw is the greatest players on the planet kind
01:47
of walk through, really, a basketball game.
01:50
The second thing they say, it's really for the fans.
01:53
And when they say the fans, they mean kids, right?
01:55
They mean the younger generation.
01:57
They introduce them to the stars so that maybe they'll
02:00
beg mom and dad to bring them to the game.
02:01
Maybe they'll beg mom and dad to have them buy a league pass
02:04
so they can follow their favorite stars all throughout.
02:07
And when you start the game--
02:09
it was supposed to start, by the way, at 8 Eastern.
02:12
When you start the game at quarter to 9,
02:14
is it really about the kids at that point?
02:16
No, it's not about the kids, right?
02:18
You look at the All-Star game in the NHL.
02:21
They started that at 3 Eastern on a Saturday.
02:23
That's a perfect family-friendly viewing experience.
02:27
Same with the Pro Bowl.
02:28
Everyone always says, we're not going to watch the Pro Bowl.
02:30
You check the ratings.
02:31
People actually watch the Pro Bowl.
02:33
That started at 3 Eastern on a Sunday.
02:35
Why is the NBA All-Star game starting at a quarter to 9
02:40
Eastern time, and then you try to say that you're
02:43
going to market this to kids?
02:44
Kids got to go to sleep at some point,
02:46
and normally they're in bed by quarter to 9.
02:48
I hope they are anyway.
02:49
So when you look at this, it's the Leafs kind
02:52
of slapping everybody in the face by saying one thing
02:54
and doing the other.
02:56
And you know what?
02:57
I'm not going to get too bent out of shape over one game.
03:00
The All-Star game is never going to be competitive.
03:02
I've come to terms with that.
03:04
But Craig, I actually think this is a larger picture deal here.
03:07
And what I mean by that is the competitiveness overall
03:11
in the NBA has waned throughout the years.
03:14
I grew up on '90s basketball, early 2000s,
03:17
where guys wanted to beat each other regardless
03:20
of whether it was a regular season game, an All-Star game,
03:23
a preseason game.
03:25
Now we only see people really try when it's in the playoffs.
03:29
It used to be at some point, hey, we're on national TV,
03:31
we're going to try.
03:32
We're going to try to compete through 182--
03:35
through 82 games.
03:36
We're going to try to compete.
03:37
It's not the case anymore.
03:39
You can watch a random Wednesday night NBA game
03:42
and see some lack of effort there.
03:44
And that's kind of seeped into the All-Star game.
03:46
And the All-Star game is just a little bit of, to my opinion,
03:49
a microcosm of what's happening overall in the NBA
03:51
is that players don't want to compete
03:54
unless they're playing for those 16 wins from April, May,
03:57
and June.
03:59
(upbeat music)
04:01
[BLANK_AUDIO]
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