Silver: “We failed in the new form of All Star Game”

Admitted the failure in the new form of the All Star Game by the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver. The former celebration of the top league has been a constant decline in recent years. This year it raised 4.7 million viewers on TNT platforms – a 13% reduction compared to last year. The only All-Star Race with a lower viewership was 2023, with 4.6 million.

“I think we have noted almost incalculable progress“, Silver said. “It was a little better, but we failed. We have not yet reached the point of creating an all-star game that we can be proud of, both of us and our players”

This year’s event included four teams competing in a three-race mini tournament, with 24 all-stars sharing in three teams in San Francisco. The fourth team came from the winner of the Rising Stars Event, which took place two days earlier.

“We have remoded this year“, Silver stressed. “The breaks were very big. And I understand the rationale: It was an opportunity to honor the TNT, as this was the last of the All-Star Game. The intentions were good”

The next year’s All-Star Game will be broadcast by the NBC, which undertakes the coverage after 23 years of TNT, and will be held in parallel with the Winter Olympics in Milan-Kortina.

“NBC is highly excited to transmit the All-Star Game as a top sports product“, Silver said.

Despite the success of the Four Nations Face-off in NHL, the NBA Commissioner said the league does not seem to be seriously considering a US format against the rest of the next year’s All-Star Game, which will take place in Inglwood, California.

“I’m not sure that it would make sense, given the level of development of players. I don’t know if it’s fair to put all other countries in the same set nowadays“, Silver commented.

The form that next year’s NBA All-Star Game will have remains uncertain, as Commissioner Adam Silver said the league “returns a little to the drawing board»As it moves away from the three -race mini tournament implemented this year.