The 2025 NBA All-Star Game featured many new experiments to enhance fans’ experiences. In addition to the new mini-tournament, the NBA added comedian Kevin Hart as the first-ever on-court emcee. Hart didn’t shy away from making jokes throughout Sunday night’s festivities, and as a result, he found himself on the receiving end of a few, too.
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The majority of them were about his height, which is something he should’ve seen coming. Shaquille O’Neal, Stephen Curry, and a few WNBA stars mocked the actor for his stature. However, Hart, in typical comedian fashion, refused to let them get the final laugh.
Hart took to Instagram to share three separate posts, taking digs at everyone who trolled him. The first of his social media onslaught featured a picture of Hart with Rickea Jackson, Courtney Williams, DiJonai Carrington, and Aaliyah Edwards.
However, due to their jokes regarding his height, Hart cropped their faces out of the picture only showing himself. In the caption, he said, “Me & My WNBA Sisters… This is my payback.”
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Hart didn’t forget about Shaq, who was extremely vocal with his disses regarding the emcee’s height ahead of the game. And why wouldn’t he be? At 7 feet tall, Shaq towered over the actor and used every opportunity to remind him of that fact.
In retaliation, Hart posted a picture of himself, Shaq, Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Damian Lillard, following the same format as before.
He cropped everyone’s head except for his. His caption said, “Off with their heads!!!!!!!”
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The final installment of Hart’s Instagram trilogy featured Warriors star Stephen Curry. He hilariously shared a potential fake quote from Curry asking Hart to spare him from cutting his head from the picture.
His words weren’t convincing enough, as Curry suffered the same fate as everyone else.
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Hart along with the broadcast stars seemed to have fun during the event. However, the majority of fans didn’t share the same sentiment toward Hart’s involvement in the game.
Fans react to Kevin Hart emceeing the 2025 NBA All-Star Game
The NBA attempted to provide more life to the All-Star Game with Hart’s inclusion but it didn’t quite hit the mark. According to the majority of the general public, it came across as a gimmick, which the NBA could’ve done without.
NBA analyst Skip Bayless spoke as the voice of the people sharing his distaste for Hart’s comments mid-game on X. He wrote, “I’m sorry, these game-disrupting stunts emceed off the top of his head by Kevin Hart are just … painful. Just endless. Just lame and awkward.”
Bayless wasn’t the only person who felt this way about the All-Star Game.
For plenty of fans, the constant breaks and comments from Hart took away from the product on the court. One user wrote, “All-Star game is doing too much. Just play basketball. No one is trying to watch Kevin Hart in 2025.”
This may seem like emotions coming from the heat of the moment, but fans are still expressing their distaste the following day. Adam Silver admitted that the league was drifting too far from the root of the All-Star Game, which is basketball.
However, the additions to this year’s game pushed it further than it’s ever been. One user wrote, “Never let Kevin Hart near the basketball court with a mic ever again. The fans wanna see basketball being played! What we don’t want is what we saw last night. How many brains does it take to figure that out?”
It is clear the NBA’s experiment involving Hart as an emcee didn’t work. They are going to need to start from the ground up to bring the All-Star Game back to its former glory.
