Still after Another disappointing weekend of the NBA All-StarThere was another series of discussions on how to “repair” the annual window of the League. The ultimate conclusion may be that there is no way for the League to force players to participate in events or do everything in an exhibition game during their only break from the season, but that will not prevent Everyone to present their ideas
The last one who wins traction is a unique tournament. In fact, the league would have discussed the implementation of a price of a million dollars, According to the sports of the front office.
During the star weekend in San Francisco, Rachel Nichols asked a number of players if they would be interested in such an event. The answers seemed to be extremely positive.
“Yeah,” said Giannis Antetokounmpo. “If I was lucky to play head-on with anyone, I would like to do it. Everything that can make the weekend more exciting, more fun, for viewers and fans and fans and fans and fans and fans and fans and fans For players, I would do it I love participating.
Anthony Edwards said “Hell Yeah” when he was asked if he was registering, while James Harden called the “Fire” idea. Damian Lillard added that “all real competitors would be open to it”, that Kyrie Irving echoes.
However, the most notable answer may have come from Donovan Mitchell. “I think it would be dope,” said Mitchell. “Do I think we would do it? I don’t know.”
UnrivaledThe new 3 to 3 off -season league for WNBA players, co -founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, recently finished its first acclaimed tournament 1. There were two main reasons for its success: membership of stars and a highly desirable reward.
Including those who ended up being injured and lost their default first round match, the Invalided Tournament presented five All-WBA players (out of 10) and 12 All-Stars of the 2024 season. And the only reason For which these figures were not higher, it is because many stars, including A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark, do not play in an inexquisite for this season.
While necklace ended up winning the tournament, there were inevitably some surprise results, notably Stewart getting out in the first round by striker Aaliyah Edwards. No one really thinks that Stewart is suddenly a bad player, but there have been a lot of jokes at his expense in the initial consequences. Would NBA players be ready to face an equally embarrassing moment?
In addition, unequaled put a pool of $ 350,000 on the table, which included $ 200,000 to the winning player. A regular maximum contract for the next season of the WNBA 2025 is $ 214,466, and – with the warning that some players remain not signed – only 25 players remain to win $ 200,000 or more this summer.
Winner of the tournament unequaled in 1 against 1: Napheesa Collier beats Aaliyah Edwards in the final to win a prize of $ 200,000
Jack Maloney
Of course, it is much easier for unrivaled to provide a legitimate financial incentive when WNBA wages remain in the six low digits. The equivalent of the NBA of the highest 25th salary for the 2025-26 season will be around 45 million dollars, and nobody implements this kind of participation for a 1 tournament against 1. The price of 1 million Is reported dollars sufficient to attract players who do more than that in two regular season games? Probably not. If they could reach the range of $ 5 to 10 million, however, it could be another story.
As for real games, there would be room for many debates on the rules. Unforeseen played by 2 and 3 to 11, except for the series of championships for the best of three, which had a winning score of new, and there were complaints that the matches went too quickly. Likewise, only one goalkeeper reached the semi-finals, like the Gros, in particular the versatile attackers, dominated. A certain consideration should be taken to prevent players like Antetokounmpo from simply increasing everyone, for example.
All these concerns, however, are secondary to obtain at least 10 to 15 big names to commit. As the Invalide has shown, you don’t need all the great players, but you need a few legitimate superstars and a certain number of stars to fill the support and create a real plot.
If the NBA can get there, everyone will connect, regardless of the format or rules. Otherwise, you may have the best designed tournament and no one will care.
Unfortunately, the recent history of NBA Stars suggest that we should not expect them to show up at a tournament 1 against 1 in the future – at least not on a large scale. In the past decade, only two players who had previously been All-Stars, Dwight Howard (2020) and Jaylen Brown (2024), participated in the Slam Dunk competition. Steph Curry did not even participate in the 3 -point competition this year when the Warriors organized the festivities.
It would be great if the best NBA players suddenly reversed the course and delivered an optimal competition in 1 against 1, but no one should hold their breath.
