The 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend Carnival came to an end at the Golden State Warriors’ home court. There were some highlights, but there were also constant criticisms.
The biggest highlight was NBA Development League slam dunk master McClung, who won three consecutive championships in the Slam Dunk Contest. He went all out for three consecutive years and got full marks for all three slam dunks in this year’s defense, bringing his slam dunk skills, jumping, explosiveness, air retention, creativity, and shock to new heights in the Slam Dunk Contest.
Every year during the All-Star Weekend, McClung is always called from the NBA Development League (G League) to the main stage of the All-Star Weekend to save TV ratings and popularity, unite the hearts of fans, and create topics and attention for the All-Star Game .
McClung has given the most perfect interpretation of slam dunk skills, creativity, props, visual effects and plot, which has surpassed the purest basketball and slam dunk performances.
The second highlight was the “Zebra” Wen Banyama, who was selected for the All-Star Game for the first time. Zebra played attentively every minute and every second in the All-Star Game.
Zebra was asked by the media what was the biggest gain from this year’s All-Star Game?
“My biggest achievement is to give it my all on this court.” Zebra left this classic interview in his first All-Star Game in his NBA career.
Stay focused, go all out, play the best game, and present the most perfect and moving purity and competition of basketball games to the fans. This is the most important asset left by Zebra in this year’s All-Star Game. He should be the real MVP.
The NBA All-Star Game has made several important changes and reforms this year. The purpose is nothing more than to hope that these top players will compete hard and strive for victory, and every star played very hard.
In order to enhance the All-Star Game’s appeal and competitiveness, the NBA has changed the All-Star Game’s main show from the traditional East-West star showdown to a mixed draft team of East-West stars in the past few years to create topics and freshness for the game. The show also tried changing the game to a sudden-death game in the fourth quarter, where the team that scores the required points first wins, but it failed to reverse the situation and save the ratings and viewing experience.
This year’s All-Star Weekend has been changed to a “Bullfighting Battlefield”. The Rookie Game will be divided into four teams, fighting against each other. The Rookie Game champion will be brought to the All-Star Game and will be mixed with the other 24 selected star players through the draft to form three teams. A total of four teams will fight against each other again. In each game, the team that scores 40 points first wins and advances to the championship game. Each player on the championship team will receive $125,000 and each runner-up will receive $50,000.
It was originally thought that the game would return to the most primitive “street bullfighting” style of competition, with face, substance, sense of honor and monetary rewards all in place. These top players should have worked hard to defend, compete and pursue victory, but the process and results of the game disappointed more fans.
Unguarded three-pointers are being shot farther and farther, unguarded breakthroughs are becoming more and more frequent, undisturbed slam dunks are not at all fascinating, and too many unnecessary dribbles and turnovers are common.
It’s no surprise that many American media and emotional fans rated this year’s All-Star Game as the “worst in history.” Because fans have high expectations, the league has been making proactive changes to try to increase the influence and viewing experience of the All-Star Game, but unfortunately the results have not been satisfactory.
This year’s All-Star Weekend all-star game content, operations, matches, and creativity are very detailed in their intentions, but the players’ hard work, desire to win, and focus on the spirit of the game are not enough.
Apart from the Zebras who are most serious about the game and competition and work hard on defense to pursue victory, most of the top NBA players come to the All-Star Weekend to vacation and put on a show.
It is said that the 2026 All-Star Game may be changed to an “International Team vs. American Team” competition, which is highly anticipated.
In fact, the key to the All-Star Game is not creativity and changes in team competition. As long as the top players selected for the All-Star Game are willing to compete and strive for victory, the tension and confrontation of the game will be completely different, and the fans’ emotions and TV ratings will be immediately boosted.
The main reason why the NBA All-Star Game has been boring and lackluster in the past 10 years is not the competition system or changes. The All-Star Game has become bland, holiday-like, and even ugly. The key is that the stars have no sense of competition and the belief in pursuing victory.
Do not insert award ceremonies and non-basketball competition elements into the game. Let the NBA All-Star Game return to the purest basketball game and competition. This is what fans want to see as the top players compete with each other.
