Adam Silver could be going back to playing the hits.
The NBA commissioner Silver appeared Wednesday on ESPN’s “First Take.” During the interview, Silver noted that the league is considering a major change to the annual All-Star Game. He said that the format could go back to Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference, thus doing away with the player draft at All-Star Weekend.
“I think we’ve lost sight a bit that it’s about the game at the end of the day,” said Silver. “Maybe [we will do] a return to something more traditional in terms of how the teams are presented. We went to, sort of this captain-draft notion, but clearly, historically, it was East vs. West. That is something we are looking at.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is considering a return to the East vs. West format for the All-Star game 👀 pic.twitter.com/cmFVbpkrsN
— First Take (@FirstTake) October 18, 2023
The All-Star draft is a fun little spectacle for the fans and has produced some really incredible (and often times awkward) viral moments over the years. But it was something that was only implemented five years ago in 2018. From the inception of the NBA All-Star Game in 1951 all the way through the next six-and-a-half decades, the format was always East vs. West. From Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas as begrudging teammates in the 1980s to the Detroit Pistons teaming up to lock down the entire Western hemisphere in the 2000s, many of the greatest moments in NBA All-Star history have been born out of the East-West format.
In terms of pure watchability, the NBA All-Star Game seems to get worse every year (with even some stars voicing their unhappiness with it). While a return to the East-West format won’t suddenly make the players start caring (or start playing some defense for that matter), it could be a step in the right direction for the floundering event.
