“My concern about U.S. vs. International is that we may be just past the point where guys and teams are incentivized to play a competitive All-Star game in the middle of the season.” Adam Silver confirmed the difficulties that the NBA may have been facing in making the iconic All-Star Weekend memorable once again with his remarks in June 2024. While reports indicate that viewership increased by 20% compared to last year, fans still did not receive it warmly. CBS Sports’ Brad Botkin went as far as to state, “If it wasn’t my job to watch that game, I would’ve changed the channel within 5 minutes. I can’t imagine I’m alone in that sentiment.”

Such feelings, however, may have hit the NBA Commissioner and his board hard. As a result, the league’s major stakeholder is now looking to make some bold changes. Earlier today, NBA reporter Rachel Nichols revealed Adam Silver’s statement made before the Heat-Wizards matchup at the CDMX Arena in Mexico City. Touching base upon the upcoming All-Star Weekend that’s set to take place in the Bay Area, she revealed that the commissioner “is actively looking at “other formats” for this year’s All-Star Game, adding that the players were as disappointed with last year’s game as the fans.”

According to The Athletic’s reporter Joe Vardon, Silver has not revealed such changes yet. However, he’s claimed that the league’s chief executives “actively churned through ideas” to reach a solution. The discussion about potential changes arises from the observation that the last All-Star game featured a record number of points. Rather than proving high competitiveness, the stats indicated the opposite, since Joe Vardon believes, “the star players didn’t give any effort.”

Removing the competitive factor surely dissuades fans from the annual event. After all, upon witnessing months and months of competitive regular season games, the last thing that hoops enthusiasts would want is for things to take a more mellow pace. “I think, even if we could turn the clock back and get a bit more of a competitive game, even if it was more of a standard NBA game, I think fans would want more,” Silver added.

The commissioner himself reveals via ESPN that he’s already in “direct conversations” with Golden State Warriors legend Stephen Curry on how to take things forward. Sources cited the 3-point shooting contest between the Splash Bro and Sabrina Ionescu as the highlight of the previous event, along with Curry being the de facto host of the upcoming All-Star Weekend since the event is taking place on his home turf. “I know he’s very prideful and wants to make sure the players put their best foot forward,” Silver asserted.

Therefore, the 4x champion would certainly have a say in how things can improve. The All-Star game is a priority, and Adam Silver is looking to treat it as is. Unfortunately, it may be coming at the expense of another one of his major plans.

Adam Silver shuns Las Vegas expansion team talk in favor of 22.5 million populated City: “Something we will look at…”

Improving the All-Star game is not the only thing on the NBA Commissioner’s radar. For the past couple of months, talks have pointed the NBA towards further expanding their reach. Knowing the importance of the city where the Heat-Wizards game was going on, Nichols reported Adam Silver, saying, “Personally I would love to have a team in Mexico City. It’s the largest city in North America. I’m not ready to make news today about bringing an expansion team to Mexico City, but it’s something we will look at over time.”

This contradicts the statement made by the 62-year-old on The Pat McAfee Show in February, in which he had confirmed that Las Vegas now stands as a potential home for the NBA. Both LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal had indicated an interest in having an ownership stake in the Vegas franchise, 2 years before Silver’s remarks. However, they could still choose to go down a bit south.

Allotting a franchise solely for Mexico City would go a long way in increasing the NBA’s reach. After all, it has the potential to bring in people from all around the country, 130 million+ of them. However, going international is a tougher challenge than simply improving things domestically. Therefore, despite the remark, a Las Vegas or Seattle Expansion franchise may not easily lose its potential.