If you are a fan of long pauses, commercial breaks, broadcasters who are confused, comedians who get more air time than basketball players, and awkwardly extended intermissions during games, you probably loved the 2025 NBA All-Star Game.

But chances are you are not a fan of those things and instead were either disappointed with this year’s All-Star show once it was all said and done, or you tuned out once you realized you were in for far more advertising than basketball.

The NBA has been trying to “fix” the All-Star Game for years. The powers that be have tinkered with the format of the game itself, they’ve added drafts, they’ve added gimmicks, comedians, playing to point totals rather than timed games, and everything else you can imagine.

And it just feels like we’re just getting farther and farther away from a product that is actually pleasing.

Every year All-Star Weekend becomes more corporate and more about pleasing advertisers and investors than pleasing the fans. On the broadcast, fans were treated to the TNT broadcast crew not understanding the format, Draymond Green bashing the All-Star Game during the broadcast, comedian Kevin Hart yelling that the players should stop taking 3-pointers, and more time showing ads than actual basketball.

For the fans at home watching, the product on the television was awful. Fans just want to watch their favorite players do cool stuff. It’s really that simple. You can make the game whatever format you want, but ultimately, fans just want to watch All-Stars play basketball.

For the players involved, it might also just be that simple. Where the All-Star Weekend used to be about a few appearances for players and then mostly a time to hang out with other NBA players and then play in a game together, the weekend is now a multiday commitment to being rushed around with barely any downtime.

There are appearances with endorsement companies, appearances for the league, a media obligation here, a photo op for someone there. Everyone wants a piece of the players during All-Star week. Their agents want them to meet this person and that person, there are Adidas, Nike, New Balance reps, Red Bull, Starry, Stance, Kia, Taco Bell and Under Armor reps and all of them want time from the players.

By the time the game rolls around, the All-Star players are likely burned out. Then they get ready to go play a game and they’re constantly interrupted. Even second-year Rising Star Keyonte George noticed the timing issue.

“The real answer is, if you want people to play hard, get them a couple days off,” George said. “Try to make it as simple as possible, try to do everything the days before — Friday and Saturday — and then Sunday just kind of leave it for the game. Because we’re all waiting to watch that game. Maybe just a little bit more time.”

A number of players including George had to play a regular season game on Thursday, then the Rising Stars had to be in San Francisco to play on Friday. Appearances all day Saturday and Sunday and then the All-Star Game on Sunday night. Regular season play resumed on Wednesday.

The All-Star break is so named because it is supposed to be a break, but for those involved in the All-Star festivities, it’s not a break at all. So it’s no wonder the games are a little more relaxed than a normal NBA game.

It’s important to also take into consideration that the game doesn’t matter that the stakes are low and the players don’t want to get injured. Of course, those things have always been true and people have still tuned in to watch their favorite players do cool things during the game.

This year, the All-Star Game was turned into a tournament — the All-Stars were split into three different teams and the winning team of the Rising Stars tournament was a fourth team. Two games were played and then the winners of each of those games played one final All-Star championship game.

There have been a number of analysts and pundits who have said that the format needs another change and that the game would be more exciting if it was something different. But the truth is that the more that is added and the more things are changed, the more the All-Star Game loses it’s luster.

Jazz forward John Collins said that he use to love tuning in to watch the All-Star Game, but he felt like as they’ve changed things he just misses the way it use to be.

“I honestly didn’t watch the game this year because of the format,” Collins said. “I didn’t think it made much sense, to put it nicely. … Just go back to East versus West. Where are the cool jerseys? Where’s the first half where everyone puts on a show and in the second half they kind of lock in a little bit? You know? I thought that was sort of the flow of the All-Star Game, but I guess not.”

Yes. Where is that? What happened to just bringing together the best players in the NBA and giving the fans a fun game? How did we get so far away from that? How did we end up with a three-hour broadcast that featured 42 minutes of basketball?

If the NBA wants to fix the problem, there’s no need to brainstorm for the next cool thing they can add to All-Star Weekend. All they have to do is give the players a little more time and give the fans a game.