The New-Look NBA All Star Game: Welcome to 2018

The new NBA season is approaching and I can’t wait for the start of the season!  With many new faces in new places, this year is bound to be a good one. That being said, one of the most criticized parts of the upcoming NBA season is All-Star Weekend.  The NBA has messed around with the Dunk Contest enough and they finally returned to the original format. They also have added some cool things in years past like the Celebrity Game and the Skills Challenge, but the one thing that has been the topic of discussion for change was the All-Star Game and for good reason.

Before the 2000’s, the All-Star Game was pretty competitive and really was compelling to watch.  The NBA’s top talent all playing at their best to put on a show for the fans.  The game has become a lot different recently, and just to show an example, the score of the 1991 NBA All-Star Game score was 116-114 East over the West.  In last year’s game the score was 192-182 West over the East. Get my point? Of course watching today’s game is cool, as guys basically pull off flashy passes, insane alley oops, crazy dunks, and show off their incredible shooting range. The only problem is it’s not even really a game anymore, it’s more of a show and I miss when it was actually a game. All that said, let’s get to the changes that the NBA has made to this year’s game.

This season, the revolutionary All-Star Game is going to take place in Los Angeles at the notorious Staples Center.  What a great venue to start off this new style for the All-Star Game.  This year they will do away with the East vs West idea for the first time in the history of the NBA.  The leading vote getters in each conference will be named as captains for the ASG and select their team regardless of conference from a pool of players.  That pool of players is made up like such: There will be a total of 24 players in the game, 12 from each conference. The starters will be chosen (2 Guards and 3 Frontcourt players) 50% from Fan Vote, 25% from current players, 25% from Basketball Media.  The coaches will be selected as usual with the best record 2 weeks before the ASG, excluding Steve Kerr and Brad Stevens since they were the coaches last year.  The two coaches from each conference will select the remaining reserve/bench players to fill out the roster consisting of 2 Guards, 3 Frontcourt players, and 2 players regardless of position.  Starters and the two Captains will be announced Thursday January 18th, 2018 on TNT and the reserves will be announced January 23rd, 2018.  

The biggest reason for these changes is caused by the lack of competition, as the West have been victorious in 6 of the last 8 All-Star Games, and with stars Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Paul Millsap all heading West, it would result in a stacked West All-Star team and a East All-Star team left in shambles.  This new twist could have LeBron and KD squaring off against Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo.  I think the ability to mix and match the rosters while picking from the great players in the NBA will be fun. Hopefully in the future the pool will consist of the best 24 players in the NBA because with stars moving to the West, players like Damian Lillard and may have trouble making the ASG because of all of the talent in the West now.  

Only time will tell how they modify the game but this new change is something extremely promising and will hopefully bring a new competitive game this year.  I am looking forward to it.

Written by Nick Kazandjian