The 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend culminated with the 73rd All-Star Game on Sunday. Despite NBA Commissioner Adam Silver bringing back the East vs. West format, the game failed to rekindle the competitive spirit of the superstars participating in the event. Sunday’s game set multiple new scoring records because the All-Stars refused to play any defense. The All-Star Game received a lot of criticism for becoming one of the most disappointing events of the entire weekend.

ESPN’s veteran analyst Scott Van Pelt was among many who were disappointed with the game and tweeted, “It’s really simple: if you don’t care, neither do we.” While the NBA World misinterpreted Pelt’s tweet for him being angry, he dismissed the accusations.

“I’m not mad. The NBA Commissioner clearly was,” the analyst claimed Adam Silver was “pissed” with the All-Star game failing to generate excitement despite his multiple efforts ahead of the weekend.

Scott Van Pelt called Sunday’s game an “open gym” as teams scored a record 397 total points. The Eastern Conference All-Stars became the first team in All-Star game history to cross the 200-point mark and finished with a record 211 points in the win.

The game also set several other new scoring records, including most three-pointers attempted, most three-pointers made, most field goals attempted, and most field goals made. Even the All-Star Game MVP, Damian Lillard, was not satisfied with the lack of competition in the game.

“I think it could be more competitive.” He said in the post-game interview. LeBron James also believed the NBA needs to figure out how to fix the All-Star Game.

How can Adam Silver fix the All-Star Game?

The All-Star Game’s lack of competitiveness has been a lingering issue for the NBA for many years. Adam Silver said this about the 2023 All-Star Game during JJ Redick’s podcast three months ago, “Nobody was happy about the experience last year. No one at all.”

The NBA Commissioner revealed that the league discussed with several players to get to the root cause of the issue. The players put up an argument that they need to follow a specific pre-game routine to lock in during a game. And the All-Star Weekend festivities do not allow that to happen.

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The idea of giving the winning team a home-court advantage in the NBA Finals has also been floated around on the internet. Players do not play hard during the All-Star Game because there are no stakes involved, and they are on a break. Maybe Adam Silver needs to add some major stakes that could affect a player’s season to bring back the competitive spirit of the game.