Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
I want to get to the NBA and the changes reportedly coming to the All Star Game. Sources tell ESPN the league wants to introduce a new fourteen tournament style format this season that's expected to have two semi final games played to forty, with the winners advancing to the final match played to twenty five. The event would be the first of its kind, expected to have competition that resembles pick up games in an effort to curtail lackluster performances seen in recent years. Again, according to ESPN, the NBA was in serious discussions to have three All Star teams of eight players each and the winner of the Rising Stars Game take part in an All Star Game tournament. I hate it. I have no use for it. It means absolutely positively nothing to me. Matter of fact, I don't even want to go. I'm gonna call it what it is. It's straight bullshit, it really is. Let me tell y'all something, Okay, Nobody should expect the players on All Stars Sunday to play as hard as they play during the regular season or the playoffs. I understand that, but you're trying to tell me you can't play as hard as you play in the summer time, when you're working out to get yourself a shape, you can't do that. We've seen plenty of footage footages of n NBA players working out in the offseason, practicing in gyms, going up against one of the one another. They play harder than we see what we see on Sundays for All Star weekend? How come you can't do that for the All Star Game? Now, from everything that I'm being told, you know what the problem is, y'all. It's the sponsors and advertisers because the league caters to them, and the NBA players don't get anything out of it. I had somebody text me this, so I'm gonna share with y'all right now to make sure that we go with it, Okay, to make sure that y'all know what I'm talking about. Okay, It says here is deeper than that. Steven eight players know that the league does all of this for their corporate partners. They're paid heavily for this weekend, and the players can't even get decent seats for their families. They feel like this is some bullshit. They're like, we have to show up for this stuff, but we don't have to play, Okay, that's what he said. They got fifty one different partner's fair enough. It's cool, and the players want to talk about, well, we ain't getting any of that. Well, one hundred thousand dollars apiece goes to the winner of the All Star Game, twenty five thousand dollars go to the loser, according to CBA. I guess you can bring stuff like that up, but that ain't even a point. This is a multi billion dollar league. You got cats in the league worth over one hundred million dollars worth of a five hundred million dollars worth of a billion dollars. You can't show just a little bit of effort in front of a packed house, inside of arena, nineteen twenty thousand press stars at press roll all over the place. You can't just play ball like you playing ball in the offseason. That's where it gets a bit extreme. That's where it gets a bit extreme. This is an eleven year, seventy seven billion dollar deal that was just agreed to that kicks in for next season. Players are getting that fifty percent of that. You can't show up. I mean, the effort has been lackluster. And don't get me started with that. Sorry ass slam Dunk contest. I swear to Lord, I want to sponsor my own slam Dunk contest nation wide. I could do a better job. And I'm not blaming the NBA one bit. I'm blaming the players. You can't play as hard as you play while working out in the summer. Really, you just gonna have a glorified layup line all Start weekend. Really, really, That's why I was so proud of Steph Curry when he went over Againstabrina and Escu in a three point shooting contest. He didn't have to do that, but he's the elite shoot of the game has ever seen, and he was going up against one of the great shooters in the w NBA. And I hope Caitlyn Clark does it in the future, and Klay Thompson gets in on it and other people. I hope all of that happens. It promotes the game. Rising Todd lifts all boats. But when you think about previous players, when you think about Jordan and Dominique and and and Isaiah and Magic and everybody else, and how they will perform for All Star weekends, and then you see the absence of pride and fervor and vigor from today's players. You got yours. Huh, you got yours, so you don't have to care. And see, Dan, I'm an asshole. I'm a clown. I'm a jerk because I point stuff like this out facts. But I'm the bad guy. It's just ridiculous, just ridiculous jump shots from half court. Even though Damian Lilla made one, Steph Curry made another. But damn, it's a joke. I have no desire. I love basketball. I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for the NBA. I am incredibly grateful, and I love the job that Adam Silva has done. I love him as a commissioner. I love well, you know what the NBA has done overall. But there's a lot of people out there that have been turned off by the NBA product. It's still big time and social media. It's still big time in the digital stratosphere. But on linear television is a reason for that. People got better things to do with their time because they can tell when people ain't giving max effort. I'm just saying, y'all, somebody got to say it, so I said it.