NBA commish skeptical of regaining competitive All-Star Game. But he has one idea

NBA commissioner Adam Silver is still trying to come up with a solution for the lack of quality on display in the All-Star Game, and he made a big admission about whether the issue is even fixable.

In an interview on CNN’s “King Charles” with Charles Barkley and Gayle King, Silver admitted this year’s All-Star festivities represented “a great weekend, but it wasn’t a basketball game.” Silver said the league has looked into pursuing an All-Star Game that consists of American players against the rest of the world, but conceded that he was not even sure if the game could be salvaged.

“Had I not seen what happened this year, I think we were ready to do U.S. vs. international,” Silver said (5:25 in the video). “I’m just wondering now whether this generation of players … see it as a midseason break. I talked to a lot of players after the game, and I didn’t get the sense that they went out there and said, ‘Well, we know what the league wants. We know they want us to play hard, but we’re just not going to do it.’ I think it’s sort of once they got out there, particularly the young players, they see it as a midseason break, an opportunity to have fun, an opportunity to take a break from a very long season.

“We’re going to look at U.S. vs. international. I just think maybe we’re past that point where we’re going to play a truly competitive game.”

Silver noted how much fans enjoyed the three-point contest between Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu and suggested that something like that could be the foundation of changes to the event. Ultimately, Silver envisions All-Star Weekend becoming a “celebration of basketball” without as much of a focus on the game itself.

Silver has tried very hard to make the All-Star Game more watchable, and his irritation at the low quality of this year’s game was pretty obvious. He is correct that players ultimately see it as a break, and that teams and players alike do not want to risk injuries from guys playing hard in a meaningless contest. It is unclear what an alternative might look like, but Silver’s conclusion that a competitive game may be out of reach is hard to argue with.