The NBA All-Star Weekend has produced a photobook of memorable snapshots from NBA history: Jordan’s free-throw line dunk in ‘87, White Chocolate Jason Williams’ elbow pass in ‘00, and the MJ-Kobe matchup in ‘98 to name a few. The 2024 All-Star Weekend produced the first 3-point contest between Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu, a fun NBA-WNBA collaboration to attract viewers from different groups. But as veteran PG Damian Lillard hoisted his Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP Award on the final night of the All-Star Weekend, fans could only wonder, “Why put Kobe’s name on the award if none of the player’s follow his competitiveness?”
The NBA All-Star Game has experienced several problems with its declining competitiveness and effort. Adam Silver lamented his concerns over the competitive ambivalence exhibited by NBA’s top stars, as he expressed, “We’re not necessarily looking for players to go out there as if it’s the Finals necessarily, but we need players to play defense, we need them to care about this game… I think we’re going to see a good game tomorrow night.”
But the 2024 All-Star Game received immense backlash for a lack of the players’ effort to play, resulting in the most points scored and most three-pointers attempted ever in an All-Star game. The All-Star Game has degraded into a game of unguarded layup lanes and 3-point bombs. Fans have expressed their frustration that if the players do not care about playing a high level of basketball, then the fans themselves will also not waste their time to watch the All-Star Weekend.
While a lack of effort from the league’s best players is not a sight anyone wants to see, perhaps NBA fans’ frustration over these issues are not realistic. After all, the game has transformed into something completely different from what it was 15 to 30 years ago, when Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant dominated the league. Since then, Stephen Curry fundamentally altered the game by sinking long-range 3’s that were rarely attempted in the earlier days, contributing to the high scoring games seen today.