SAN FRANCISCO — The NBA All-Star Game reached a low point in 2024.
The league’s annual showcase, once the anchor event of All-Star Weekend, had devolved to such an extent that the final score was 211-186. Players on the East team, which won, openly admitted they were chasing the first-ever 200-point total.
In 2025, the NBA reformatted the All-Star Game to a tournament. Four teams would compete in brief games to 40 points.
The new format was more successful. There was a smattering of defense here and there.
In the semifinal round, Shaq’s OG’s, featuring Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, narrowly beat Candace’s Rising Stars 42-35 in a game where the outcome was briefly in doubt. The other semifinal between Chuck’s Global Stars and Kenny’s Young Stars was less competitive but still relatively close. Chuck’s team won 41-32.
In the final, Shaq’s team beat Chuck’s team 41-25 in a wholly uncompetitive contest.
So did the new structure work?
“The format was cool,” said Jayson Tatum, a member of Shaq’s team. “The toughest part was that they stopped the game to do the presentation while we were kind of halfway through it. We were sitting down for 20 minutes, whatever it was. It was tough to get back into the game. But I thought it was good.”
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who dressed out for the Global Stars but did not participate in either of their games, endorsed a United States-versus-World competition.
“The U.S. versus the World, that would be an exciting format,” Antetokounmpo said. “I feel like that would make people play hard. Hopefully we can get it back — I wasn’t there, but get it back to where it was. I remember the first couple of years that I was an All-Star, everybody was playing hard.”
Perhaps just as the Olympic gold medal game was a spirited affair between France and the U.S. at the Paris Olympics last August, a more prominent international flavor would bring increased intensity.
“I would rather play without breaks,” said Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a native of Canada and member of the Global Stars team. “But I had fun nonetheless. I feel like it was a little bit more towards the competitive side tonight, which is a good feeling. Step in the right direction.”
Curry, the game’s MVP, provided input on the format to NBA commissioner Adam Silver. He left pleased with the overall results.
“I don’t want to compare it to any other era because the world has changed,” Curry said. “Life is different. The way people consume basketball is different. It’s not going to look like it used to. But it can still be fun for everybody. I had fun. Our team had fun. That’s kind of all that matters.”
Damian Lillard, an Oakland native and member of Shaq’s team who hit the game-clinching 3-pointer in the semifinal, endorsed a return to the long-tenured East-West format. The All-Star Game was East-West from its inception in 1967 to 2018.
From 2018-2023, teams were formed from a draft undertaken by the top vote-getters in each NBA conference. The league returned to East-West in 2024 before abandoning it once again.
“I’m a fan of the original way,” the Bucks guard said. “Just put more on the line, heightened incentives – a financial incentive is what we’re talking about. That’s something that I’m sure would get people going.”
Lillard had lots of ideas. He also suggested putting home-court advantage in the Finals on the line, as well as creating a team of All-Star snubs to compete in the four-team tournament.
Clearly, the event is still a work in progress. But multiple players thought this year’s edition was closer to the ideal version than last year’s uncompetitive debacle.
“Kyrie (Irving), yesterday at practice when we came in right before we took the floor, he’s like, ‘Yo, we playing this year?’ I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and he’s like, ‘All right.’” Curry said.
“You saw him, he was guarding Donovan Mitchell physical, he was in short spurts playing, keeping the intensity going and all that. So it all mattered. Everybody was professional tonight. Everybody showed up, did their job and did right by the game.”
