4x NBA Champ Aligns With Charles Barkley Despite Being Slammed for ‘Messing Up’ All-Star Game

The NBA All-Star Game was once a battle of the best for bragging rights, but now? The game has lost its edge, drowned in gimmicks and half-hearted effort, and even those responsible aren’t denying it. With ratings plummeting and fans tuning out, the league faces a brutal reality—fix it fast or watch the All-Star Game fade into irrelevance.

So, how would you rate the new NBA All-Star format? If you ask the same question to a certain 4x All-Star, he’d rate it a solid zero. Why? In his words, “Now we get the treat of watching the Olympic team vs a U19 team.” It’s hard to argue with that. The All-Star Game was once a battle of the league’s best, but somewhere along the way, it lost its spark.

So who is this All-Star? That would be Draymond Green who wants it to go back to basics. But Charles Barkley isn’t letting him off the hook that easily. “I’m going to disagree with Draymond A LOT,” Chuck said. “They messed the game up! His generation messed the game up! We’re doing every type of trick to make this weekend exciting.”

Surprisingly, Green isn’t too bothered by the criticism. In fact, he agrees. “I think doing every type of trick is the problem, which is my point, that we’re doing every trick,” he explained. To him, basketball should be simple. “This is about a basketball game and a basketball game is simply what? A basketball game.”

So, what’s his fix? Green believes the problem lies in the lack of real gameplay. “Because we played 32 minutes of basketball on a three-hour telecast. But it was supposed to be a basketball game.” His solution? “Let’s make this East versus West and maybe make that mean something.”

However, another idea is floating around—turn it into a USA vs. World matchup. That would raise the stakes, right? Chuck himself wants it. “I’ve said it for five to seven to ten years. International against the United States, let’s try it,” he said on The Steam Room.

But with ratings tanking, the NBA is running out of options. And Barkley? He couldn’t resist a sarcastic jab at the entire mess.

Charles Barkley slams All-Star rating with sarcastic tone

It’s no secret the NBA’s revamped All-Star format was supposed to bring back the excitement. But instead, it flopped—again. Fans were left disappointed, and ratings took another hit. Unsurprisingly, Charles Barkley didn’t hold back, taking a sarcastic jab at the whole mess.

“Complaining about the All-Star format does nothing good for our product. You know the good thing about, I’m not going to lie, we don’t have to televise that thing anymore,” Barkley said. And the numbers back him up.

According to media analyst Ryan Glasspiegel, this year’s All-Star Game drew just 4.7 million viewers across TNT platforms. That’s a 13% drop from last year, making it the second-least-watched All-Star Game ever, barely beating 2023’s embarrassing 4.6 million viewership.

If that’s not alarming enough, here’s the real kicker—the last three All-Star Games couldn’t even crack six million viewers. That had never happened in NBA history before 2023. So, what’s the problem? Barkley’s got an answer.

“I’m not even upset because if y’all [the league superstars] don’t take it serious, why should the network and the fans take it serious?” he said. “Y’all complaining about the format, y’all are the reason the format’s bad.”

Now, the ball’s in the NBA’s court. Will they fix it, or will the slide continue? Only time will tell.