The all-star season for the National Basketball Association (NBA) officially announced its start as they entered a break from its regular season games. The all-star game for the 2025 season took place on Feb. 17 at the Warriors’ Chase Center, with the Shaq’s OGs taking victory over Chuck’s Global Stars to claim the title of the 2025 all-star champions, with the key player Stephen Curry on the Shaq’s OGs nominated as the MVP.
The all-star game is an annual event held on the third Sunday in February. However, the format and game system for this season’s all-star game looked different from the previous years.
One major change this year was the addition of teams. The NBA decided to transform this year’s format to reduce score inflation and increase competition among the players from its original format of having two teams, split into the top players from each Western and Eastern Conferences. Instead, they introduced a mini-tournament format consisting of four teams: three comprised of all-stars and one from the winners of the Rising Stars.
Additionally, another novel change from its normal 48-minute game with unlimited points has been implemented by ending the game once a team reaches 40 points due to the abundance of teams.
Even though the NBA incorporated the new change looking for a fresh change from the old structure, some fans expressed disappointment with the new format.
“I do not really like the changes they made in this year’s NBA all-star game,” Aiden Kim (10), NBA enthusiast, said. “I think they are doing irrelevant things to the game by dividing the teams up more. I would prefer it if they brought the old format [of having the NBA versus the world] once again as the games were more entertaining to watch back then.”
Despite the disapproval voiced by partial fans, others saw potential in the system by sharing their input on how the games could be altered to improve in the future.
“I think the new NBA format of the all-star game needs more improvement,” Sungjoon Hur (10), varsity basketball player and frequent NBA spectator, said. “The all-star games are becoming so boring and no longer provide entertainment for their fans. I believe the all-star games can be improved if they incorporated a one-on-one duel system.”
Although definite improvements exist to improve upon the format of the NBA all-star games, fans should restrain from toxic criticism and tune in to future all-star games as it is a recent modification made aimed to enhance the quality of games for their spectators.
