FOR A LEAGUE WITH SO MUCH STAR POWER, the National Basketball Association may just have the worst All-Star festivities of any major sports league in America. They’re desperate to change the narrative surrounding the event, but it doesn’t seem likely that this will change any time soon.
Recent news broke from Shams Charania that the NBA is expected to change the All-Star Game format (yet again) for the 2026 edition of the event. A three-team, round robin tournament with two-thirds representing the USA
and one Team World to round out the slate. In some bastardized version of the NHL’s Four Nations Face-Off event, the NBA is scrapping together anything in its power to change public opinion on its All-Star Weekend.
The NBA is desperate to get your attention. But the problem isn’t the format. It isn’t the names on the rosters. It’s not even the on-court product.
The critical issue with NBA All-Star is that from the stars to the fans to the coaches and everyone in between, nobody cares. No one cares. That indifference trickles from the players sleepwalking through the events down to the consumers watching from their living rooms with their eyes glazed, and Instagram reels parasitically consuming their vacant minds on the side.
The NBA is desperate to get your attention.
In recent years, the players on the court aren’t willing to play all-out for an insignificant reward. Defense has evaporated from the game itself.
They tried using team captains, and while the draft itself was fantastic with the help of TNT’s Inside the NBA, the game was another low-effort 48-minute layup line.
They tried the ELAM ending. Say goodbye to the adrenaline rush of fighting against the relentless tumbling sands of time.
They’ve gone from East vs West to USA vs World and back (and back again). They tried a four-team tournament.
They’ve held meetings with the players in a desperate plea for the participants to take the game seriously.
Nothing is working. Be it the league’s culture, injury avoidance, the need for a vacation, or some other factor, it simply isn’t cool to actually “try” to win until the final few minutes of the game.
But the cornerstone All-Star Game itself isn’t the only aspect of the weekend that’s struggling to retain fan interest; nearly every event feels uninspired. Empty. Heartless.
Be honest with yourself: do you actually care about who wins the skills challenge, no matter how many relay teams are involved? Are you seriously excited to see Adam Silver dig up and reanimate the corpse of G-League mainstay Mac McClung to do some airborne tricks and win the Dunk Contest for the millionth time just to be banished back to Osceola?
It doesn’t matter how many ways you rearrange a tortilla, lettuce, beans, and rice — call it a salad, but your Cafe Rio order is still a burrito. No, this format change isn’t the cure for the atrophied perception of NBA All-Star Weekend; shuffle the ingredients all you want, it’s the same thing year after year.
Until the players care to try, the fans won’t care to watch.
Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the Utah Jazz and BYU athletics since 2024.
