The NBA has cooked up a new format for the 2025 All-Star Game, giving four teams, including the team that would win the Rising Stars Challenge. This is in hopes of increasing attention and competitiveness in the event, which have decreased over the past few years.
However, former player Lou Williams believes players can do one thing to change everything for the event. According to Williams, if the players compete, the attention from the fans will increase and bring back recognition from the fans.
“All of these gimmicks, all of these ideas, it is a simple fix,” Williams said. “Fellas, for 12 minutes just play hard.”
“It’s so many questions about this new format. ‘What happens if the G-League goes beat your top 8 guys?’ Do you think that’s something that the fans wanna see? No. They wanna see the best of the best compete against each other and the keyword is compete. Just for a quarter, they understand it’s an All-Star game. They’re gonna be cool with the dunks. Even the dunks are going [away]. Now it’s just a 3-point shoot out from half court. No, we don’t want that.”
“Give us the dunks, give us the lobs,” he continued. “In the fourth quarter, we wanna see some separation. We wanna see who’s the best of the best, simple and plain. This is not science, this s**t is not rocket science. Fellas, for 12 minutes, show these people why they love you so much.”
. @KOT4Q says he’d rather watch the NBA All-Star Game from the couch than the court 🛋️👀 pic.twitter.com/BI9Qry6ah4
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) December 23, 2024
Victor Wembanyama wants to bring back the competitiveness of the All-Star Game
Victor Wembanyama is playing like an All-Star in his sophomore season. The big man has played 23 games in the 2024-25 NBA season, averaging 24.7 points, 10.0 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3.8 blocks. With his numbers, he has the chance to be named in the All-Star Game this year.
Wembanyama wants to bring back the event’s competitiveness, even with the new format, which features four teams. However, he pointed out that having the old-school format of the East vs. West is unbeatable and something that fans would love to see.
“I’m personally wondering how to put competitiveness back into the All-Star game. When I set foot on that court though, I’m gonna be competitive for sure. But I don’t think anything beats the old school East vs. West format.”
Victor Wembanyama on the new All-Star game format:
“I’m personally wondering how to put competitiveness back into the All-Star game. When I set foot on that court though, I’m gonna be competitive for sure. But I don’t think anything beats the old school East vs. West format.”… pic.twitter.com/cvhTWYn5et
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) December 22, 2024
Other stars like the Phoenix Suns duo of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker share the same sentiment. Both stars want to bring back the East vs. West All-Star Game format in the event.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
