Commissioner Adam Silver opens the door to NBA vs. The World matchup: ‘I think we are ready’

While addressing issues concerning the All-Star Game, which is a matchup that has lost all of its’ competitive nature throughout the years, NBA commissioner Adam Silver explained how that boat has begun to sink. According to the executive, the league’s showcased weekend should continue to grow towards the skills competition, the three-pointer shootout and the dunk contest, instead of improving the East vs. West game.

Although he didn’t seem happy about it, the commissioner is accepting this reality. This is why he believes that the NBA should find another possibility to develop a game based completely on fierce competition, which he believes might be the famous NBA vs. The World idea.

“We’re going to look at the U.S. versus international. I think we might be past that point where we’re going to be playing a really competitive game,” he told CNN this weekend.

Adam Silver confirmed that the league is considering an All-Star Game between US and international players in order to make the event more interesting 😲 pic.twitter.com/gr03ojnzKu

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About the Alll-Star festivities, Silver says he enjoyed it but also recognised the faults. “It was a great weekend, but it wasn’t a basketball game,” he said. “And had I not seen what happened this year, I think we were ready to do US vs. international. I’m just wondering now, and it’s a good conversation to have, whether this generation of players — and the teams are [complicit] too because nobody wants them to play hard at the All-Star Game, nobody wants them to get hurt — they see it as a midseason break.”

“I think of something that was a huge attraction, for example: Sabrina against Steph. I mean, it says so much about the game. I think of, again, our generation: Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs, what was it, the Battle of the Sexes? This was the opposite. This was, as Sabrina said, just two great shooters out on the floor. So I think, maybe, as opposed to trying to create a super-competitive basketball game, which I’m not sure the teams or the players really want at that moment, we should do more fun [events],” he kept at it.

When talking about ways to improve this contest, he shared his resistance to changing the weekend’s format, and better just leave it as it is. Nevertheless, as leader of the NBA, he accepts the responsibility of not being able to give the All-Star Game the identity it has needed.

“I accept responsibility, as the commissioner of the league,” Silver insisted. “I think we should’ve known at this point for an All-Star Game — as I started to say before, the NFL Pro Bowl, [they] moved it to flag football — there’s just a recognition it’s a different time.”

NBA stars admitted this year that they don’t want to compete in the All-Star Game, despite wanting to be a part of it

While interviewing the selected All-Star participants for this year’s showcased weekend, we realised a lot of untold truths about their motivations. According to Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, for example, nobody headed towards Indiana willing to compete.

“It’s always fun. But I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive,” the Timberwolves forward confessed after the highly-awaited matchup. “It’s a break. I don’t think anyone wants to come here and compete.”

The NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James, shared a similar sentiment. “But I think the good thing about tonight was that none of the players were injured and everyone came out unscathed, or as they were before the game started,” the Lakers star said about his teammates’ mentality.

Silver, on the other hand, hopes the All-Star weekend will become a celebration of the sport. “I think instead of trying to create a super-competitive basketball game, which I’m not sure the teams or the players really want, we should do other things and make it a celebration of basketball,” he concluded.