Charles Oakley Makes Luka Doncic Prediction While Endorsing Adam Silver’s USA vs. World Format to Save NBA All-Star Game

The All-Star Game has been struggling to entice viewers for years. It has become an excuse to try absolutely anything, and fans have been missing the old-school days of competition between the best of the best. Unfortunately for everyone involved, you can’t force the players to play harder, and most players are not willing to risk injury for a glorified exhibition. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has tried to find ways to fix the mid-season event, notably wanting to turn to a USA vs. World format that the Rising Stars challenge adopted. Charles Oakley agrees but has some additional thoughts on how Luka Doncic would be affected.

Oakley was selected to be an All-Star only once, in 1994, but he took the honor seriously, playing hard defense and protecting the rim as others thought it would be a layup line. The now 61-year-old has taken a backseat since retiring but recently shared his thoughts about the event on the Nightcap podcast.

During the episode, Oakley went through the current playoffs landscape with hosts Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson and Shannon Sharpe before settling on some smaller-scale conversations. While he liked the potential change in teams for the All-Star Game, he did not have high hopes for the USA’s chances.

“Man, they gonna kill the US,” said Oakley, “Luka would be coming off the bench. I think they might get a little bit of traction off of that because the US guys and the European guys, the European guys are definitely going to play harder…”

Oakley has a point. The World team would have an absurd amount of talent. Four of the top five players in the league (Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) are all international players. Add in Victor Wembenyama, Karl-Anthony Towns and Franz Wagner, and that is a virtually unmatched group.

On the American side of things, with Jayson Tatum’s injury, it’d likely be up to Anthony Edwards, Donovan Mitchell and the old guard of LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant to put up monstrous numbers against their imposing opponents.

Even the teams may change, the game will not. The purpose of the All-Star Game has never particularly been a competition but a celebration of the great players and the season they are having.

Nikola Jokic has made it known in the past that he doesn’t enjoy the All-Star Game. In a 2023 interview, he said, “It’s always going to be like this,” implying players aren’t going to change their lackadaisical attitudes or put more passion into their participation.

While the tweaks come, there will always be hope that things will improve, but until it does, people will keep proposing new ideas.