President Adam Silver is considering not allowing top stars to choose teammates at the upcoming All-Star match.
In an effort to increase the quality of its All-Star week, the NBA has used the captain’s team selection format since 2018.
However, that could soon change. Sharing on ESPN, President Adam Silver wants to return to the traditional East vs. West format, possibly right at the 2024 match in Indianapolis.
LeBron James won 5 out of 6 matches as captain at the All-Star GameAdvertisements
The goal of the tournament organizers is to bring competition back to the All-Star Game – an aspect that has been somewhat lost in recent years.
“The purpose is to reinforce to the players how important this is to the fans ,” Adam Silver explains in detail. “You can’t take for granted that young players new to the league understand the generations and traditions that came before them.”
“This is when the tournament organizers need to intervene. Of course we cannot ask for the tension of a Playoffs match, but we expect a competitive match for the fans.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo has been an All-Star captain three times
Silver is clearly concerned about losing parts of the NBA audience, as entertainment options are increasingly diverse. That is also the reason why the tournament applies load management regulations – ensuring continued television/media copyright agreements worth billions of dollars.
The NBA president also disagreed with the idea of Team USA vs. the World in the All-Star Game. He admits that while it works in other sports – like the Ryder Cup – the reality is there are fewer international players to choose from and it’s easy to skew the true results.
