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SAN FRANCISCO — On the court, it was a Hollywood scriptwriter’s ending: Hometown hero Stephen Curry’s team (the veteran-filled Shaq OG All-Stars) wins the title and Curry gets to take home the MVP trophy.
One takeaway from the 2025 All-Star Weekend is that it was a good time to be Stephen Curry — “The hosting experience was unbelievable,” Curry said.
What are the other takeaways from All-Star weekend? Here are five.
Was new All-Star format better? Marginally.
“I actually sweat. I didn’t think I was going to sweat,” the Thunder’s Jalen Williams said.
That damning with faint praise pretty much hit the nail on the head. The NBA changed the All-Star format to a four-team mini-tournament with games up to a target score of 40. When the plan was announced, prominent players such as Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis said they hated it, but the players have only themselves to blame — the NBA went back to East vs. West a year ago and the players didn’t try. The product was unwatchable, and the league had to try something.
This year, with the new format, there was a more competitive feel and more defense in Sunday’s All-Star Game than we saw a year ago — Victor Wembanyama said he was going to try and did (it reminded me of a young Giannis Antetokounmpo). However, there wasn’t a lot of it. We got maybe 10% more effort and competitiveness.
“It was better than I expected,” Wembanyama said, joining the damning with faint praise crowd.
Is that enough to bring the format back a year from now with some tweaks? The format worked better on Friday night in the Rising Stars game, but those players also had something tangible to play for — if they won, they would play as the fourth team in the Sunday tournament (and make at least an extra $25,000 for doing so).
“I think it’s interesting,” the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson said of the changes. “It’s different. The games are kind of short [to a target score of 40]. I like the format. It’s something new, something unique. Maybe just score to 50.”
The better question is: Should the NBA hold a traditional All-Star Game at all? The idea of players treating this like an All-Star Game from 30 years…
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Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2025-02-17 16:32:00
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