Why Do We Have All-Star Games?

Diagnosing and Fixing the NBA's All-Star Weekend

Why are All-Star events interesting? (CLICK for the PODCAST)

It's simple. Fans want to see greatness and novelty. The first MLB All-Star game was played in 1933. In 1933, the media consisted of newspapers and radio. There was also no interleague play.

The game was played in Chicago during the city’s centennial and the World’s Fair. It was hailed as the game of the century, and All-Star ballots were printed in 55 newspapers. The game featured Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and 18 other future Hall of Fame players. It was viewed as a spectacular success. They are still playing it, and every major league now has an all-star showcase.

The most culturally impactful of the all-star events in the modern era is the NBA’s. In the 1980s, the NBA All-Star game was a chance to see Michael Jordan and Larry Bird team up against Magic Johnson and Hakeem Olajuwon. Events like the slam dunk and 3-point were also hotly contested. It was a spectacle of greatness and novelty. Let’s repeat that – the NBA All-Star game provided content that was extraordinary and innovative.

However, the prognosis for the All-Star Games is uncertain and negative. The Figure shows the trends for MLB and the NBA for the last two decades. MLB is shedding about 400,000 viewers yearly, while the NBA is dropping about 125,000. I’m not going to bother with a full statistical analysis (I’m having trouble downloading the data and don’t want to type it all into Excel)—the general trend is clear: These games are losing their luster and appeal.

It’s a worrisome trend because All-Star games have been a vital marketing tool. This means that these games need to be improved. Along this line, the NBA All-Star Weekend has been reformulated again. This year, the TNT guys are drafting teams, and there is some sort of tournament. From the Bleacher Report:

The 2025 NBA All-Star Game rosters are complete after Inside The NBA analysts Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith made their draft picks on Thursday evening.

This year, the NBA All-Star Game will feature a four-team tournament with eight players apiece. Three of the teams will feature a total 24 NBA All-Stars. The fourth team will be the winner of Castrol Rising Stars, a four-team tournament featuring three squads of top NBA rookies and second-year players and a fourth squad of G-League stars.

Rising Stars takes place on Friday, Feb. 14, with the All-Star tournament occurring two days later.

Shaq’s first two picks were LeBron James and Steph Curry. Kenny Smith grabbed Edwards and Brunson. Barkley grabbed Jokic and Giannis. It’s the established stars now being coached by the studio guys. Sounds pretty casual. And the fourth team is sponsored by Castrol? As soon as you have a brand involved, you have gone in the wrong direction.

I don’t quite get it, and, critically, I don’t care enough to figure it out.

All-Star games are a tradition in American sports, but they have universally hit hard times. The problem with all All-Star games is the same. Players have gotten too rich and too focused on their personal brands. The game doesn’t provide enough benefits to motivate greatness.

The NBA All-Star weekend is particularly interesting because the All-Star Weekend has been a key element of the NBA’s transition from a struggling league in the 1970s to perhaps America’s number two league in fan interest and the league most connected to pop culture. In 2025, there is limited upside to competing in the slam dunk contest, but real downside – how can an NBA star lose to a G League guy? Perception is that the players are doing light work during the game itself.

If the players don’t seem to care, why would the fans?

A second issue is media saturation. Seeing LeBron James isn’t special. He is on social media and cable television daily. It’s not 1933 or 1978 with limited media; fans have as much NBA content as they desire. And to reiterate the previous point, the All-Star game does not present greatness. Players are going through the motions rather than competing fiercely.

The solution?

I could offer a solution, but that is a longer piece. Instead, I’ll ask a question and then discuss a general theme for fixing All-Star weekend.

Is the All-Star Game worth preserving? It is hard to let a tradition go, especially when the tradition potentially provides immense marketing benefits. The NFL Pro Bowl could probably disappear without anyone noticing. The NBA All-Star Weekend has more positive memories but would be forgotten in a few years. MLB’s All-Star game has so much tradition that fan pushback would be significant, even though viewership has declined from more than 20 million in the early 1990s to 6 to 7 million in the last few years.

The core issue is that if the players don’t care, neither will the fans. To fix the various All-Star games, you must ensure the players care. The NBA has focused on novelty, bringing in G League dunkers and WNBA shooters. This year, it is holding a tournament tied to a beloved studio team and Castrol. It’s not going to work.

All-Star events work when they provide greatness and novelty. The leagues need to find the greatness and remember greatness in sports isn’t just about showing up, it is showing up and competing.