The NBA All-Star game is dying.
That’s it; that’s the statement. That may be harsh. That may be a very simplified version of larger issues. It may even be a belabored point at this stage, but the game is dying.
Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel reported that viewership for the 2025 All-Star Game was down 13 percent from the 2024 game, with 4.7 million watchers. It was the second-lowest All-Star Game viewership since 2000, which generated 10.5 million viewers by contrast. The previous three iterations are all among the lowest and the only games that produced fewer than 6 million watchers. The 2023 All-Star Game drew a measly 4.6 million viewers.
This year’s version featured multiple eight-minute mini-games between four teams, with extended breaks in between the games for a multitude of YouTuber cash grabs and stunts that took away from the actual basketball. Even when there was play going on, high-level competitive basketball wasn’t being played. There was rarely a defensive stance seen or actual plays being run. Just a glorified light shootaround session with extended ad breaks.
Twenty-five years removed from that 2000 All-Star Game, it was the first time the event returned to the Golden State Warriors’ arena. A lot has changed. A lot besides the obvious physical change of the location of the game from Oracle Arena in Oakland to the new Chase Center in downtown San Francisco across the Bay Bridge. The culture and seriousness the players bring to the game have seen drastic changes as well.
Don’t take my word for it; take it from the players that were in that game, like former New York Knicks all-star guard Allan Houston.
“That (physicality and effort from players) was the culture,” Houston said. “It was an all-star game. You work all your life to play in that game.”
The opportunity to get a chance to showcase their talents while playing with the best players in the world, against the best players in the world, mattered. When else would Houston get the chance to play with Allen Iverson, Ray Allen, Grant Hill, and Vince Carter all in the same jersey?
It meant something. The players competed like it meant something.
“It was a tribute,” Houston said. “It was an honor. It was a badge of honor, and you played that way.”
Many, even Houston, have come to the defense of the current generation of players. They claim it’s impossible to know the exact circumstances for each player and why the effort level is near non-existent.
“I can’t put myself in the mind of today’s guys,” Houston said. “We can make these assumptions or hypotheses—that money, social media, or (they) don’t want to be embarrassed. But they’re all just notions that we assume, and they can be accurate or not.”
Luckily for Houston, young superstar and 3-time NBA All-Star Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves answered that hypothesis for him. No testing needed.
“For me, it’s an All-Star Game,” Edwards said in his media availability ahead of the 2024 game, per CBS Sports. “I don’t think I will ever look at it being super competitive. I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive. It’s a break. I don’t think anybody wants to come here and compete.”
Fun.
A once-proud honor and tribute to a life of hard and strenuous work to get to this moment has been reduced to a “fun break.” This is coming from a player who’s considered a candidate to be the next face of the league once LeBron James (who opted out of playing in the 2025 All-Star Game the morning of) retires.
Again, don’t take this sentiment from me. Take it from them.
The mindset behind the All-Star Game from 2000 in Oakland, has completely shifted to its most recent version in San Francisco. It seems as if the grittiness of the city coined “The Detroit of the West” has been ditched for the glittering corporate world of “The City.” All-Star appearances have become nothing more than another counting number on Hall of Fame resumes and not a chance to stake your claim as the best among the best.
“I played in two of them,” Houston said. “I was like, ‘Wow, man, I made the All-Star team.’ So I didn’t really think, ‘Now it’s the time to go out and just chill and enjoy the notch on your resume.’ That was a competitive game.”
In just the past eight years, the All-Star Game has seen three different formats, with the NBA trying to generate interest. They tried introducing a school-ground draft as opposed to splitting by conferences. They tried adding a target score instead of just letting the teams run up 200-point games. In the end, no format shift will save the All-Star Game from the death of irrelevancy.
Monetarily incentivizing the players might work, as might adding playoff implications to the winning conference, as the MLB does. However, the emphasis must be on getting the players to care. You can dress up the game in whatever clothes you want, but if the players aren’t smiling in them, then you don’t have a desirable product.
In order to bring viewers back to this fading event, they have to want to play, feel the honor of being there, and want to compete and win.
Allan Houston: Press Conference Recap
The NBA All-Star game is dying.
That’s it; that’s the statement. That may be harsh. That may be a very simplified version of larger issues. It may even be a belabored point at this stage, but the game is dying.
Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel reported that viewership for the 2025 All-Star Game was down 13 percent from the 2024 game, with 4.7 million watchers. It was the second-lowest All-Star Game viewership since 2000, which generated 10.5 million viewers by contrast. The previous three iterations are all among the lowest and the only games that produced fewer than 6 million watchers. The 2023 All-Star Game drew a measly 4.6 million viewers.
This year’s version featured multiple eight-minute mini-games between four teams, with extended breaks in between the games for a multitude of YouTuber cash grabs and stunts that took away from the actual basketball. Even when there was play going on, high-level competitive basketball wasn’t being played. There was rarely a defensive stance seen or actual plays being run. Just a glorified light shootaround session with extended ad breaks.
Twenty-five years removed from that 2000 All-Star Game, it was the first time the event returned to the Golden State Warriors’ arena. A lot has changed. A lot besides the obvious physical change of the location of the game from Oracle Arena in Oakland to the new Chase Center in downtown San Francisco across the Bay Bridge. The culture and seriousness the players bring to the game have seen drastic changes as well.
Don’t take my word for it; take it from the players that were in that game, like former New York Knicks all-star guard Allan Houston.
“That (physicality and effort from players) was the culture,” Houston said. “It was an all-star game. You work all your life to play in that game.”
The opportunity to get a chance to showcase their talents while playing with the best players in the world, against the best players in the world, mattered. When else would Houston get the chance to play with Allen Iverson, Ray Allen, Grant Hill, and Vince Carter all in the same jersey?
It meant something. The players competed like it meant something.
“It was a tribute,” Houston said. “It was an honor. It was a badge of honor, and you played that way.”
Many, even Houston, have come to the defense of the current generation of players. They claim it’s impossible to know the exact circumstances for each player and why the effort level is near non-existent.
“I can’t put myself in the mind of today’s guys,” Houston said. “We can make these assumptions or hypotheses—that money, social media, or (they) don’t want to be embarrassed. But they’re all just notions that we assume, and they can be accurate or not.”
Luckily for Houston, young superstar and 3-time NBA All-Star Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves answered that hypothesis for him. No testing needed.
“For me, it’s an All-Star Game,” Edwards said in his media availability ahead of the 2024 game, per CBS Sports. “I don’t think I will ever look at it being super competitive. I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive. It’s a break. I don’t think anybody wants to come here and compete.”
Fun.
A once-proud honor and tribute to a life of hard and strenuous work to get to this moment has been reduced to a “fun break.” This is coming from a player who’s considered a candidate to be the next face of the league once LeBron James (who opted out of playing in the 2025 All-Star Game the morning of) retires.
Again, don’t take this sentiment from me. Take it from them.
The mindset behind the All-Star Game from 2000 in Oakland, has completely shifted to its most recent version in San Francisco. It seems as if the grittiness of the city coined “The Detroit of the West” has been ditched for the glittering corporate world of “The City.” All-Star appearances have become nothing more than another counting number on Hall of Fame resumes and not a chance to stake your claim as the best among the best.
“I played in two of them,” Houston said. “I was like, ‘Wow, man, I made the All-Star team.’ So I didn’t really think, ‘Now it’s the time to go out and just chill and enjoy the notch on your resume.’ That was a competitive game.”
In just the past eight years, the All-Star Game has seen three different formats, with the NBA trying to generate interest. They tried introducing a school-ground draft as opposed to splitting by conferences. They tried adding a target score instead of just letting the teams run up 200-point games. In the end, no format shift will save the All-Star Game from the death of irrelevancy.
Monetarily incentivizing the players might work, as might adding playoff implications to the winning conference, as the MLB does. However, the emphasis must be on getting the players to care. You can dress up the game in whatever clothes you want, but if the players aren’t smiling in them, then you don’t have a desirable product.
In order to bring viewers back to this fading event, they have to want to play, feel the honor of being there, and want to compete and win.
Devon Henderson