On Sunday night, the NBA tried a different All-Star format at Chase Center in San Francisco, home of the Golden State Warriors.
There were three games that featured no quarters and no game clock. A game will end, and a team will win when the team reaches or surpasses 40 points.
In the final round, led by Jayson Tatum’s 15 points and Steph Curry’s 12 points, the OGs defeated the Global Stars 41-25.
Curry was named All-Star Game MVP for the second time in his career.
The All-Star Game has lost its luster, but Curry believes that this new format was a good first step toward improving things.
We needed to change, needed some new life, new juice in the game, something kind of unexpected,” Curry said after the game. “What that answer was, was a collaborative effort to — I think one, condense the amount of time you’re actually playing so that it gives us more clarity on like, all right, so we can raise our level of competition and keep it fun for everybody. I think that was a big part of it. Obviously, there was a lot of conversation around the fourth team and the Rising Stars. The All-Star experience on Sunday is very sacred, and you have to work your way into that. But I think it was a good step in the right direction to reinvigorate the game in some way, and then you tinker with it again next year and see what changes you can make.”
Tatum liked the format but didn’t like breaks in between, which included a musical performance and tribute to the “Inside the NBA” crew.
“The format was cool,” Tatum said. “I think the toughest part, they stopped the game to do the presentation while we were kind of halfway through it. We were sitting down for 20 minutes, whatever it was. It was kind of tough to get back into the game after that. But besides that, I thought it was cool. First two games were pretty competitive. But whatever. So if they could just find a way to not have that long intermission in between the games or during the game, I think it would be a lot better.”
Like Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did not like the breaks but enjoyed the new format.
“Yeah, breaks, I guess, weren’t ideal,” he said. “I would rather play without breaks. But I had fun nonetheless. I feel like it was a little bit more towards the competitive side tonight, which is a good feeling. A step in the right direction. I guess it’s up to the guys that handle all that stuff to figure out what’s next and how to keep making it more and more interesting, and hopefully, we get there one day.”
This is a good first step for the league. What would really make things exciting is if they scrapped the game and just did a 1-on-1 challenge. That would add a lot of intrigue, but to the league’s credit, this new format is a step in the right direction.
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