In a candid conversation, Draymond Green, former NBA star John Wall, and former guard Baron Davis dissect the current state of the NBA All-Star Weekend, arguing that the event has lost its competitive edge and fan appeal. They describe the new three‑team, eight‑player format—including a rookie/sophomore bracket—as overly gimmicky and note that players treat the game as a friendly showcase rather than a true contest. The panel suggests several remedies: reverting to a traditional East‑vs‑West full‑court 5‑on‑5 matchup, re‑introducing genuine rivalry and "beef" between players, and restructuring the weekend schedule to reduce distractions and obligations. They also propose financial incentives for players’ preparation staff (e.g., extra pay for trainers and physiotherapists) to ensure athletes arrive in peak condition. Throughout, they reference past All‑Star games that generated excitement and argue that without decisive changes, the event risks becoming irrelevant to fans.
Chapters
Speaking of All-Star Weekend in general, I feel like your All-Star appearances, the game was still better. Like it wasn't the best, but it was still—
Competitive.
Competitive, like—
Entertaining, I would say.
What would you say has to happen today to get the game back good? Like the game last year, the game was pathetic. Like what do you think has to happen to get the game back good?
I don't know. I think like they, and what they try to do, like a total score every quarter, like every half or something. Like I think they just gotta go back East versus West. You know what I mean? To me, I feel like you should go East versus West, but it's hard to see, man. Like, I don't know, how can you raise the stakes to get everybody to want to compete? You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Because if your star stars, like the guys that we want to go see ain't competing at a high level, It's kind of—
Everybody too friendly.
I guess like everybody just cool.
Everybody too cool.
It's like, all right, well, I'm gonna let you shoot 23s or I'm gonna let you get 90 dunks and go get 50 points. Like, it's like, it's no pride into it. You know what I mean? Like, you know what I mean? Early on, you might get a little bit of showcase here and there, but like, you still want to keep the game close. And then, you know, we knew it going into the fourth quarter, it's go time. Lace them up, we trying to win. But like, now it's just like, you might be down 50 by the third quarter. I don't know, it's kind of hard to say 'cause I like, you probably wonder too, like how can you get the game back? And I'm like, I think it's just slipping away. Like I think they got like a new format this year, right?
Yeah, it's a new format. It's like—
Like if the rookie sophomore game, whoever win that one play, ain't nobody trying to see that shit.
At all. It's a lot of gimmicks. Instead of watching dudes—
But you giving the rookies and sophomores the opportunity to feel like, oh well, I'm an all-star. Like for them, if they get the opportunity to play against the real all-star, they gonna feel like, they All-Stars at the time, you know what I mean? So they gotta find a way to—
Wait, what is happening?
You gonna keep losing the fans. I think like the rookie, sophomore play each other, right?
So the way it is, so, you know, it's 24 All-Stars, 12 from the East, 12 from the West. There will be 3 teams of 8 and they'll make up 3 teams. And then the rookie All-Star game is doing the same thing. It's like 3 teams of 8 or something like that. And the winner of their little bracket is going to be the 4th team versus the 3 teams of 8 All-Star.
Oh wow.
And they'll play like some game.
But don't they like one team play a game, they go to the locker, come back.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's gonna be hard to get All-Stars to one play 8 minutes, then go in the locker, chill.— and wait for another guy.
Yeah, they gonna check out.
I mean—
They gonna be checked out.
But what's missing, I think, is the old school way, and nobody had no beef with each other. Nobody really like, "Oh, I get double-teamed, so you can't double-team me now." Kinda like that mano a mano, right? It's none of that. There's no beef, there's no, you know, nobody like, there's nobody antagonizing. The opportunity to get people riled up to go at each other. Nobody goes at each other. And so at the end of the day, if everybody to John point, if you cool, then everything cool. And what we're watching is a lot of threes, dunks, and you know, kids are like, "Man, I can go do that outside with 3 people." Mm-hmm. Right, it always look like 3 people on the court. And never like a full court game. So they gotta make it a full court, 5 on 5, the best players playing against the best players, just for reasons, for names alone. And I wanna make sure that people know I'm the best shooting guard, I'm the best point guard. I think that was your, that was the last era of like your time, John, you feel what I'm saying?
Yeah, you went at each other like, oh, I don't like you throughout the season. And then I think like with these teams, like I might have beef with you, I might, don't wanna play against you, I'm gonna just put you on my team. You know what I mean? But I feel like the one person that can't, not one person could change the whole All-Star format, how they do it. But I feel like the one kid I know that got it is Ant-Man.
Yes.
Like, I feel like he gonna find somebody, if he starting, or I'm gonna find somebody I don't like and I'm going at him. You know what I mean? Like, you need that type of competitiveness. Like, I mean, just what you need. I mean, I feel like if he go against KD or if he go against D-Book or he go against Donovan Mitchell or whoever the next 2 guard is, he's trying to let them know like, I'm the best 2 guard in the league. And I feel like, He can bring that to the All-Star Game, but I don't feel like he's at the level now where everybody will follow along. You know what I mean? But I feel like he can get there at some point, but you hope he is soon so that the All-Star Game don't kind of go away with people just like me, you know what, I don't even care about it on the weekends. 'Cause we used to wait, we used to couldn't wait till Sunday and be like, man, I'm ready for this game. Now it's like Sunday, people wanna leave. They don't even care about going to the game.
I think one of the things, you know, that the NBA has to realize is also like, when the games were good and the games were competitive. You also have to remember, like BD, back in y'all time, the prep that y'all have for to get ready for a game and the prep that guys have today are totally different. Yeah, way different. You know, there's osteos, you know, you got PTs, like you have a whole different type of prep now for games than when than back in the day. And so I think that's a huge part of it. Like I think the NBA need to prioritize, yo, for every one of these guys who gets them ready for games during the season. Okay, I know that person's supposed to be on All-Star. I'm gonna pay them $5,000 extra, $10,000 extra to be at All-Star weekend to prep Steph Curry, to be at All-Star weekend to prep You know, and to make sure every single guy has their prep. Now, with that being said, no other requirements from All-Stars. There's no other requirements. If you do some personal require— you know, some personal things that you wanna do, then do that. But there's zero other requirements from All-Star. The only thing you are here at All-Star Weekend to do is to be ready to compete in this game. Mm-hmm. Get your body ready to play at a high level. And I think that's what the NBA needs to do. They need to make, because to, to Jon's point, by the time you get to the game Sunday night, you've done so much, you've had so many obligations that it's like, oh, now we got the game. Like, man, get me outta here. But as opposed to if, if you don't have anything on the weekend, like nothing, no requirements, you got this game. In the NBA, but you can't make it so corporate though. So you gotta pick what you want, right? Do you want a great game? Or do you want this corporate thing where, oh, the All-Stars are here? And I think they need to make that decision because right now the game is suffering and guys live like, it's just different now.
Those used to look forward.
I don't pick and choose one.
Those used to look forward to the game.
Just on that vibe.
Yep. It used to be a thing you look forward to the game. Right, you gonna get some dudes gonna get, the big dogs gonna get they rest. The new guys gonna be out trying to get they name up, but you knew you had to show up to practice, media day, and probably one or two appearances, that's it. But now you look at, you know, the game is so global, the responsibility on these dudes, the attention on these dudes, that they kind of just wanna, not be seen and chill. Like, All-Star Weekend was like, it used to be rest, but you treated it like it was another game. Like, this is the game I'm playing with all the juggernauts. Like, let me show who I am. And I don't think people get, we not setting our guys up for that or setting them up to fight. That should be the best fight, the most entertaining fight.
