Better or bitter, Charles Barkley has never hesitated to share his opinion on anything. With the All-Star game being the main point of conversation around the NBA world, it is only natural that Chuck has a say in it. Despite Mac McClung’s epic slam dunk, as well as the all-new NBA All-Star format, the midseason showcase as well as viewership didn’t show impressive results. The 2025 NBA All-Star Game averaged a viewership of 4.7 million viewers on TNT as per Ryan Glasspiegel. “Y’all are the reason the format’s bad,” Chuck said. While the Phoenix Suns legend had tough criticism for the older players’ generation, one of the veterans agreed with him.

Chuck initially made the comment while speaking about the players of Draymond Green’s generation. The 9x NBA All-Star, Paul George had emphasized his opinion on why the new format didn’t work out, he also accepted the Philadelphia 76ers’ criticism. “At the end of the day I think what Chuck said too was an honest and I think a great opinion about ultimately our generation messing what the All Star Weekend meant and I was putting the best players together and watch them compete hard,” George said on Podcast with P.

He further added, “I also think what they did with mixing East and West kind of changed things up as well because now you take out that rivalry of Eastern Conference and Western Conference so I think it’s a lot that goes into the elements of why Allstar Weekend isn’t what it is.”

Barkley’s comment on the veteran players’ generation came after Green demanded that the NBA All-Star format should return to the simple East vs. West format. “They messed the game up! His generation messed the game up! We’re doing every type of trick to make this weekend exciting,” the Philadelphia 76ers legend said.

The league had done its best to elevate the game. One of the efforts was to recreate the magic of Sabrina Ionescu and Stephen Curry’s three-point game from last year’s event which gained 4.6 million views. Klay Thompson was set to compete against WNBA star Caitlin Clark, but that fell apart when Clark didn’t participate. LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Anthony Edwards were also absent from Sunday’s display. And while Chuck criticized it, he also had a solution for it.

Charles Barkley’s suggestion gets approval!

Apart from the lack of defense, it is also true that the NBA All-Star event had some tough competition from SNL 50. NBC successfully drove the viewership to an impressive 14.8 million viewers. While with the new broadcasting deal, NBC will handle the NBA All Star coverage, there will be a need for a solid trick. And Chuck seems to have one. “I’ve said it for five to seven to ten years. International against the United States, let’s try it,” Charles Barkley suggested on The Steam Room Podcast. 

 San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama had a bright and positive response to Barkley’s suggestion. “I would love to. My opinion is that it’s more purposeful,” he said. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo believes that this could be a great idea to elevate the competition in the event.

“There’s more pride in it. More stakes. I would love that. I think that would be the most interesting and most exciting format… For sure, I’d take pride in that. I always compete, but I think that will give me a little bit more extra juice to compete,” Antetokounmpo said. Whether it’s a new format or high stakes, the players certainly need new motivation and a stronger incentive for the next event.