The NBA is contemplating altering the format of the All-Star Game to be performed in San Francisco this season, commissioner Adam Silver stated Saturday evening.
Silver, talking earlier than the Miami-Washington recreation in Mexico City, had lengthy needed a extra aggressive All-Star occasion. The Eastern Conference beat the Western Conference 211-186 final season, scoring essentially the most factors within the recreation’s 73-year historical past and marking the primary time a workforce topped 200 factors.
“We are evaluating different codecs,” Silver stated with out specifying what may change. “I believe there isn’t any doubt that the gamers had been additionally dissatisfied with final 12 months’s All-Star Game. We all wish to do a greater job offering competitors and leisure to our followers.”
Silver added that the league is seeking to make the All-Star Game “not a standard recreation format,” however stopped wanting saying what which may imply.
The league has tinkered with the All-Star formulation a number of occasions lately. Among the makes an attempt had been to get rid of the previous East vs. West format for a draft chosen by workforce captains and transfer to an untimed fourth quarter with a goal rating to make sure the sport ended with a made shot.
Last 12 months’s recreation returned to the standard format: 4 full 12-minute quarters, East versus West. And it was nothing if not an offensive showcase, with the groups combining for 168 3-point makes an attempt and practically 400 factors.
“Obviously, it wasn’t excessive depth in any respect,” Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton stated after the sport in Indianapolis, the place 5 gamers scored at the least 30 factors and Karl-Anthony Towns scored 50 on 35 photographs off the bench.
Silver stated that for the reason that recreation will likely be held in San Francisco, he has enlisted Golden State star Stephen Curry to assist him discover a option to make the All-Star Game extra aggressive this season. Any adjustments would virtually definitely additionally contain the management of the National Basketball Players Association.
“It’s a house recreation for him,” Silver stated, including that he has had “direct conversations” with Curry on the subject. “I do know he has plenty of pleasure and needs to ensure the gamers give their all.”
Curry stated final 12 months that gamers had talked “slightly bit” about making the All-Star Game extra aggressive ultimately. The league has needed this for a while, hoping that an improved All-Star contest will result in higher tv rankings for the sport and extra outdoors curiosity.
“I believe everybody was dissatisfied with what they noticed final 12 months,” Silver stated. “It wasn’t simply the league. It was additionally the gamers, the gamers affiliation. I believe all of us did what we thought we might do, particularly pondering that in Indiana, kind of the heartland of basketball, we’d see a extra aggressive recreation “. .”
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Silver additionally identified that nobody expects the All-Star Game to have the depth of the playoffs. He stated league executives Byron Spruell, Joe Dumars and Evan Wasch have shaped a committee to speak with workforce representatives and the gamers affiliation to attempt to discover a answer.
“We wish to do one thing that excites the followers and in addition excites the gamers, so it is one thing they will be excited to play,” Silver stated.
Associated Press reporting.
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