The NBA experimented with a new format this year for the All-Star game, replacing its annual exhibition game with a tournament format instead. The All-Stars were split up into three teams with the fourth team being the winner of the Rising Stars challenge. Each game of the four-team tourney was played to a target score of 40 points.
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Celtics All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were part of the winning team on Team Shaq. They beat Team Candace, the Rising Stars, in the semifinals 42-35. Then they downed Team Chuck’s Global Stars 41-25 in the finals. But after the game, Tatum had a unique issue with the format.
“I got mixed emotions or feelings, I guess, about the Rising Stars part,” Tatum said. “Obviously happy for those guys. But there is something to be said, it’s kind of a big deal to be an All-Star and play Sunday night. Some guys get snubbed and other guys have to work really, really hard to make the All-Star Game.
“Playing on Sunday night is special, and it always has been. I’m not saying that that was the right or wrong decision. I think whoever we play in that first game, the new format, would have been competitive. Trial run, I guess. They’ll continue to make tweaks or whatever.”
Others weren’t fans of the format either. Warriors forward Draymond Green was a commentator for TNT throughout Sunday night’s broadcast. The four-time All-Star was vehemently against the idea of the new format, saying the Rising Stars portion took away from the actual All-Stars.
It’s also fair pointing out, though, the format changed for a reason. For years now, the All-Star game featured little-to-no-defense as fans got bored watching the game’s best players not take the event seriously. It’s why NBA commissioner Adam Silver shook up the entire event into its current format. There were odd years where the game was competitive, but fans bemoaned the on-court product more often than not.
There was also another odd wrinkle throughout Sunday’s broadcast. During the finals, after the game was underway, the broadcast shoehorned in a long break midway through. The teams had to wait 17 minutes midway through the finals because actor Kevin Hart presented a tribute for TNT and the “Inside the NBA” crew because it was their final year broadcasting the All-Star game. While the intentions were nice, the side effect was that the players sat around waiting for it to be over ... in the middle of the game.
Regardless, the NBA at least tried something new with the 2025 All-Star weekend. Silver clearly wasn’t happy about the All-Star game in its past form, which is why he introduced the tournament style format. Tatum makes a good point in that the night itself didn’t focus much on the All-Stars as there were also other activities going on. So it remains to be seen what the league does going forward with the All-Star game.
“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.”
