This past week, the NBA made a major announcement regarding the format for the All-Star game. Over the past few years, the league has tweaked various aspects, hoping to bring back competition amongst players. Their mini-tournament was a recent addition to the long list of failures. Now, the NBA has introduced a Team USA vs. World format. However, Draymond Green doesn’t seem to be rocking with the concept.
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The reception around the All-Star Game has reached a point where fans just want to see an entertaining product. Nobody is expecting players to treat this exhibition game as Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Nonetheless, people are spending their hard-earned money to watch the best players take the court. It doesn’t make for a fun watch to see players barely try while attempting a plethora of three-pointers.
The NBA realized there’s a difference in the passion players bring when they’re representing their country. This new Team USA vs. World concept looked to tap into that. Unfortunately, the reception hasn’t been the best, which concerns Draymond Green.
“It was a little underwhelming [to see] the attention that this drew,” Green said on The Draymond Green Show. “This was announced, and nobody cared. It was shocking because I thought USA versus the world would do that.”
Typically, the All-Star game has been one of the main events of the NBA season. That doesn’t seem to be the case for yet another year. Of course, this could turn out to be a great series of games, which Green hopes is the case. However, he is already preparing for the worst-case scenario.
“The lacklustre response to this news really just showed me, All-Star may really be dead. I think people have just moved on from the whole entire idea,” Green proclaimed.
He does see potential in a USA vs World format succeeding, but it would require the NBA taking a page out of the NHL’s book.
“It almost has to be like the Four Nations tournament that happened last year in hockey,” Green declared. “That thing was so fun to watch. As a fan, that was so much better than an NHL All-Star Game.”
The tournament featured teams represented by Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. The entire experience led to an amazing show of competitiveness from all players. It didn’t even seem like an All-Star Game replacement but a form of international competition outside of the NHL.
If the NBA hoped to replicate that, it would have to distinguish players by country. The only problem is that players like Nikola Jokic (Serbia) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) don’t have enough countrymen in the NBA to form a 10-12-man roster.
With enough time, the NBA could certainly figure out a workaround. The success of what they currently have in place will be telling for what they may do in the future regarding the All-Star game.
