Though a new All-Star format will be in play this year that will see a team of international players competing against two American teams, the general feeling among fans is that this is just another flailing attempt by the league to save an event that is on its deathbed.
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The NBA All-Star Game has lost its luster, because for years now, fans have been treated to the best basketball players in the world playing some of the worst basketball imaginable. It’s a shame, because it used to bring out the best in players, but somewhere along the line, something changed.
This new format was installed in the wake of the 2024 Paris Olympics, a thrilling event that saw Team USA, led by Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant, topple both a Nikola Jokic-led Serbia team and a Victor Wembanyama-led host French side in thrilling fashion to win the gold medal.
The hope is that national pride will force the American players to bring their A game, while much like golf’s Ryder Cup, the international players will want to band together to take down the big bad USA.
The success of the All-Star Game comes down to motivation and effort, and Durant was asked last night if his team, which features mostly older players, will put forth their best effort. His retort instilled some hope that maybe fans might actually see players battling on Sunday.
“You should ask the Europeans and the World team if they’re going to compete,” KD said. “
You look at Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic now, let’s go back and look at what they do in the All-Star Game. Is that competition? So we haven’t questioned what they’ve been doing, but we gonna question the old heads, the Americans, but these two dudes out there, Luka and Jokic, they don’t care about the game at all,” Durant argued.
“They always be laying on the floor, they’re shooting from half-court, but you gotta worry about the old heads playing hard. I can read between the lines, bro”, the former NBA champion noted.
KD was smiling as he said this, so he was obviously having some fun with the question, but what he did was low-key brilliant. By calling out the top European guys, he’s begging for a battle. It’s not unlike when a boxer, UFC fighter, or wrestler talks trash about his opponent in the lead-up to a big fight.
Durant might have saved the NBA All-Star Game
On Get Up this morning, Jay Williams expressed hope that KD’s comments could invigorate the All-Star Game. “I don’t think that Kevin Durant was taking a shot at the Europeans, I think Kevin Durant was taking a shot at the media,” he said. “But unintentionally, what door he just opened is a door that I better see all the Europeans run through.”
Williams laid out the difference in the European and American approaches to youth basketball, a gap that has led to many of the best players in the league hailing not from the country where the game originated, but from half a world away instead. He then implied that if that doesn’t motivate both sides, nothing will.
“When Kevin Durant says, ‘Oh, they ain’t taking it seriously,’ I hope Luka, I hope Jokic, I hope Wemby, I hope all of them hear that, and I actually hope that gives us the type of competition we need in this All-Star Game,” he said.
If Sunday’s All-Star Game defies recent trends and becomes a must-watch war, we’ll have KD to thank. Check it out beginning Sunday at 5 p.m. ET, live on NBA and Peacock from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
