It’s hard to find anyone who enjoys the modern version of the NBA All-Star game—even within the walls of TNT Sports, which will broadcast it this Sunday.

Announcer Brian Anderson, who will be on the call for the league’s new mini-tournament format, couldn’t even fake his excitement for the game.

“There’s a piece of (it) that is nostalgic, and I love the league,” Anderson said this week on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast. “But I don’t love the All-Star game as what it’s been. It’s not the game that I grew up on, listening to Marv Albert.”

If you need any inkling of how TNT feels about the event in its final year as host before its NBA rights lapse this fall, look no further. Anderson will call the game for the third straight year amid a viewership nadir. The event hit a new low in 2024 as commissioner Adam Silver admonished players on-court postgame for their lack of effort.

Anderson is TNT’s No. 3 NBA announcer, better known for baseball. That he has jumped his colleagues to call the game signals how its host network feels.

“I have not been a part of it to be so nostalgic about it,” Anderson admitted. “On my list of things that I love doing, it’s down the list, but I do enjoy doing it.”

The event has seemingly become a joke within the network. Anderson said that talent and producers at TNT are teasing game analyst Reggie Miller this year that the All-Star game will be his problem from now on. This fall, Miller will jump to NBC, which, under the new NBA rights package, will broadcast the All-Star game each year.

That likely explains why Anderson didn’t hold back or play nice with the league.

But it does beg the question of whether NBC will allow the event to slip further into irrelevance or apply pressure to the league. Does NBC really want to spend resources on a laughingstock event for the next decade or more?

If Anderson’s attitude is any indication, that will quickly get old.