Another year, Another disappointing weekend of stars. THE Nba has changed the format of the mid-season signing event for the league three years in a row, but that the teams are decided by a draft or a conference, or if the game is singular or a tournament, nothing seems to generate the genre excitement that the league has hoped for. Once again, the conversation has turned into a change in format. The popular idea at the moment would be to play a game between the stars of American origin and the stars of origin abroad.
“I would love. My opinion is that it is more useful,” said the French phenomenon Victor Wembanyama Tell to journalists Sunday.
“There is more pride. More participations.” The Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo added. “I would love it. Oh, I would love it. I think I will give myself a little more additional juice to compete.”
Anyone who has already seen Team USA participate in a major international tournament sees the appeal here. Players born abroad are proud to compete with Americans. It is a measurement stick, a chance to prove that they can resist the dominant superpower of world basketball. Hockey was very successful with the 4 nations confrontedA tournament featuring an American team as well as Swedish, Finnish and Canadian lists. If the goal is simply to generate a competitive game, the USA format against World has real potential.
Problems have less to do with the game itself than the selection process. Of the 24 players chosen as All-Stars initially this season, only six were born internationally. A seventh cities of Karl-Anthony, plays for the Dominican Republic internationally, and a replacement star, Kyrie Irving, is in the process to try to change his classification so that he can play for Australia. Even with the two and a healthy antetokounmpo, the lists are far from uniform. Obviously, a game of 16 against eight is not possible. The lists should be balanced. How will the NBA do this?
The obvious way to do so would be to choose 12 players in each swimming pool, but it obviously creates a problem of equity. There are many more players of American origin in the NBA than players born abroad. It could one day change, but it seems unlikely that all kinds of balance 50-50 will never be reached. International players would have an easier path to the All-Star game, and all the advantages that come with this.
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The NBA lists have long widened beyond 12 players, but the lists of stars have remained firm at 24 in total. A probable explanation for this is that it is logical that the league limits the number of players who can use “All-Star” as a negotiation tool in contractual talks. Being an All-Star is delivered with a lever effect. It is difficult to imagine that the NBPA allows some players to access this lever effect more easily than others. This also eliminates the other possibility of simply appointing the 24 most deserving players, then adding stars to the team with less until it reaches 12. The NBA probably does not want 30 total stars during of a given season. If it was, well, the star lists would probably have already developed.
The tournament format introduced this season has offered an elegant solution possible in smaller list sizes. The Chuck team was essentially this year’s international team because it included all the international all-stars originally. It was far from perfect, however, because short games, long breaks and divided American talents prevented the kind of drama and intensity that a real USA game against World could have created.
One day, it might be logical that the All-Star format moves to a USA game against World. Today, there are still logistical questions to answer. If the league can solve these problems, it is worth it to be considered. After all, it is not as if something else he had tried worked.
