The 2025 All-Star game has come and gone and yet again, the weekend was the source of immense debate in the NBA world. The All-Star game is often under immense scrutiny as the level of play has been deemed too lackadaisical in recent years, which has caused the NBA to scramble to improve the product.

This year the NBA went with a different format for the All-Star game than what we have seen in previous years. This year they decided to have the winning team from the Rising Stars tournament that takes place on All-Star saturday, face off against a team of All-Stars in a tournament style All-Star game matchup. This drastic change in format unsurprisingly drew criticism from NBA players, namely Draymond Green. During the TNT broadcast of the All-Star game, Green repeatedly voiced his frustrations with the new format.

“When you’re talking about chasing after the points record — ‘Melo and Kobe, all of these guys who have had great scoring nights. They don’t get the opportunity to do that with this game.

“All so we can watch some Rising Stars. Now we get the treat of watching the Olympic team play against a U-19 team. Come on, what are we doing?”

Green feeling this way is his right, and is fine in itself, but to have him repeatedly disparaging the game while on the broadcast underlines a larger issue with NBA media in general. Too often on national television broadcasts the analysts say the product is inadequate, which no doubt contributes to the ratings issues that the NBA faces. It is also hypocritical for Green to complain about a change in format when it is due to the players putting on a poor product in the All-Star game that the NBA felt compelled to make these changes to begin with. Had the players put on a show that people enjoyed, this change would have never happened. All these things being said, this All-Star game was far from perfect.

The actual games themselves were undoubtedly better than last year’s. In all but the championship game you saw more of a sense of urgency than in previous years, a bit more competition. The All-Star game is never and has never been wire to wire 100% intensity from the players, but this year it felt like the players at least gave a couple minutes of effort, especially when they faced the rising stars team. That game was closer than expected and you saw the All-Stars make an effort to put the young guys away. The issue with this All-Star game was not the basketball itself, it was everything else.

This year, the NBA seemed to focus on everything but the actual game itself. The amount of advertisements and tributes, and fanfare interfered with the game immensely, even the players themselves appeared visually irritated with all the interruptions. The flow of the evening was all over the place, there were multiple awkward and out of place moments, and it just seemed that the league did too many things outside of the game in an effort to improve their ratings.

The truth of the matter is, no matter how many format changes the league implements for the All-Star game, none of them can force players to care about the game. The All-Star game has never been the peak of competition, despite what nostalgists might try to tell you. But in the same breath, the All-Star game has very scarcely been a game that fans could be interested in wire to wire. Outside of the 2020 All-Star game after the tragic demise of Kobe Bryant which sparked a fire in the All-Stars that season, the game is always filled with showboating and highlights, which it should be.

Realistically speaking, the All-Star game is likely not fixable, it is extremely difficult to get players to give their all in an exhibition game. The different formats over the years have provided a fresh feeling for the game, but no matter what, the game is not going to be enjoyed by 100 percent of the audience. Endlessly complaining about the game accomplishes nothing, and ultimately, unless you have an obligation to cover the game for some sort of media publication, fans can just choose to not watch a product they know they are not going to enjoy.