LeBron James endorses new NBA All-Star Game format: ‘Something had to change’

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After the Los Angeles Lakers’ shootaround on Thursday in Sacramento, LeBron James endorsed the changes to the 2025 NBA All-Star Game, telling reporters “something had to change.”

The NBA officially announced a change to the midseason showcase, going with a tournament-style format featuring four teams made up of eight players each.

One of the teams will be the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge, made up of first- and second-year stars or G League Standouts. The other three teams will be more traditional All-Star teams, each drafted by TNT’s Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith.

LeBron James, when asked about changes to the NBA All-Star Game format, touched on more issues with the league: “Our game, there’s a lot of f—ing 3s being shot. So it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star Game” pic.twitter.com/weKJVSyXfB

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 19, 2024

“We’ll see, we’ll see when we get there. It’s different,” James said. “Obviously, anytime you make some type of change it’s gonna be some buck back. I don’t know. I mean, I have my ideas of what could possibly work.”

Asked what those ideas were, James opted not to reveal those thoughts — at least on a random NBA Thursday in Sacramento.

“You got to do something,” he added. “Obviously, the last couple of years have not been a great All-Star Game that Sunday night.”

Last season’s All-Star Game was universally criticized for a 211-186 outcome which wasn’t very competitive and featured little defense.

While James’ support wasn’t enthusiastic, it was more than what Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant offered after the new All-Star format was announced.

I asked Kevin Durant what he thought about the new format for the NBA All-Star Game: “I hate it. Absolutely hate it. Terrible….We should just go back to East-West.” pic.twitter.com/T7owR5aJY7

— Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet) December 17, 2024

“I hate it,” Durant said. “Absolutely hate it. It’s terrible. All-Star Game formats changing — all the formats are terrible in my opinion. We should just go back to East-West, just play a game.”

Yet in James’ view, the issues with the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lebron-james-endorses-new-nba-all-star-game-format-something-had-to-change-232247994.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-19 23:22:00

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