By Donovan Gibbs, Assistant Editor
It was a make-or-break moment for the National Basketball Association (NBA) last weekend during the 74th edition of NBA All-Star Weekend, as they had high expectations and something to prove. For the last 4 to 5 years, the NBA All-Star Weekend started to strip away the luster that made the event a basketball celebration for fans alike. From league stars beginning to disappear from events on Saturday night such as the dunk contest, to lacking amounts of competitiveness in the All-Star game on Sunday night, the NBA had dug itself into a hole where the image of All-Star Weekend was shifting from an exhibition between basketball’s elites to paid time off for professional athletes.
With the first half of the NBA season being under immense pressure due to historical declines in viewership numbers, including a jarring rating war loss against the NFL on a previously NBA-dominated Christmas Day, the NBA came up with a game plan for 2025 All-Star Weekend that would revive their reputation, and that plan would severely misfire.
NBA All-Star Weekend was hosted in the Chase Center in San Francisco, California. This was the first time the Bay Area would be the home of the prestigious event in 25 years and the golden opportunity for the NBA to go back to its roots. This would also be ceremonious since this would be the last All-Star Weekend broadcasted by TNT network, as their licensing deal with the NBA expires after this season.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced a format change to the All-Star Game at the beginning of the season. This change would transform the original two-team format where they would play a full game of basketball until the target score is reached to a four-team tournament-style layout where individual games are shorter but enhance competition.
This idea would face severe scrutiny from an array of NBA stars and big-time media figures in basketball. The NBA changing their All-Star layout to retain engagement is no rarity in professional sports as other leagues like the NFL went from an actual football Pro Bowl game to a 7-on-7 flag football game and the NHL substituted their traditional All-Star game to the Four Nations international tournament.
The four teams were drafted and named by each TNT counterpart; Shaquille O’Neal “OG’s” team was filled with older and established stars, Kenny “The Jet” Smith’s “Young Stars” team with a median age of All-Stars was 24 years old, and Charles Barkley “Global Stars” team filled with international superstars such as Serbia’s Nikola Jokic and Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The team that would join them was Candace Parker’s controversial “Rising Stars” team, which won the new Castrol’s Rising Stars tournament, and was filled with plenty of rookies and second-year players.
The festivities would begin on Friday night with the Celebrity All-Star game which involved media stars like streamer Kai Cenat, comedian Druski and WNBA player Rickea Jackson while Bay Area legends Barry Bonds and Jerry Rice were the head coaches of their respective teams. Team Bonds would prevail with a 66-55 victory over Team Rice as actor Rome Flynn would win the Celebrity Game MVP for his game-high 22 points for Team Bonds.
The tipoff for Castrol’s Rising Stars Challenge began shortly after this game and carried the moment from the 7 p.m. celebrity game. All three games had rookie and second-year players show their abilities on a big stage while giving fans a glimpse of how the tournament format would look like for Sunday. With the winner of the tournament qualifying for the All-Star Game tournament, the stakes were high.
Emerging as the victor would be Team Mullin, named after the coach of the team and Golden State Warriors legend Chris Mullin. They would defeat team G-League 25-14 in the championship round and San Antonio Spurs rookie guard Stephon Castle would be awarded the MVP of the Rising Stars Challenge. As mentioned previously, the team would go on to compete against the NBA’s best on Sunday.
All-Star Saturday night would begin with the Kia Skills Challenge, this event was won by the dynamic Cleveland Cavaliers duo Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell. The event would start to uncover the ugly woes of All-Star Weekend as the Spurs combo of Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul were disqualified after Paul was caught cheating during their official run.
Things continued to unravel as the Sprite 3pt-Contest was up next with 2-time champion, Milwaukee Bucks All-Star Damian Lillard, who was looking to complete a 3-peat that hadn’t been seen since Larry Bird in the late 1980’s. Surprisingly, it would be Warriors marksman Buddy Hield stealing the show in the first round with a score of 31 to lead all contestants. Contest favorites such as Jalen Brunson and Damian Lillard wouldn’t make it to the second round as they would be eliminated after each posting a score of 18. It would be Miami Heat sharpshooter Tyler Herro to take home the trophy, beating out Hield with a score of 24 in the final round. Herro’s win would be the lowest by a winner score since 2016 when Eric Gordon tallied 21 points.
The last event of Saturday night, the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest, began with retelling the history of the “Vinsanity” dunk contest that put then-rising star Vince Carter into a new stratosphere after he performed multiple perfect score dunks in the 2000 NBA Dunk Contest at the former Oracle arena 25 years ago.
Setting the bar high, the hype began to loudly fade as two of the four contestants, Matas Buzelis of the Chicago Bulls and Andre Jackson Jr. of the Milwaukee Bucks, both failed their dunks on the first attempt. Buzelis failed both tries and received a shocking score of 40 while Jackson Jr. was able to make his second attempt and get a score of 43. Two unsuspectingly generous scores compared to the judges of old.
2-time champion, Mac McClung, was out on a mission to be the first three-peater in the contest’s prestigious history. The G-league player gave the Chase Center a show as he dunked over a car while catching the ball from someone inside of it. This dunk paid homage to 2011 slam dunk champion Blake Griffin, who did a similar dunk over a car while adding a modern twist of difficulty. That hard work paid off as McClung received a perfect score of 50 for his efforts.
His primary challenge this year was Spurs rookie guard Stephon Castle, who dazzled the crowd with an alley-oop dunk through the legs, earning him a nearly flawless 49.6 score. It would be Mac McClung prevailing once more as he would deliver another perfect round as he went up over Evan Mobley and tapped the ball on the rim as he was completing the dunk. This would prove to be a record-breaking for McClung, who set the record with 4 straight 50-scored dunks and sealed the deal for his 3rd straight Slam Dunk Contest trophy, a new record as well. He now ties Nate Robinson with the most contest wins in history.
Not everyone was pleased with how the dunk contest transpired.
“The dunk contest honestly disappointed me, from the lack of big names to the lack of dunks. It felt more like the NBA put more into promoting the contest than executing the contest,” said sophomore criminal justice major Daved Richardson.
Sunday capped off NBA All-Star Weekend with the All-Star Game. For the first time in NBA history, the four-team tournament-style format made its debut and the NBA went all in. Unfortunately, the NBA forgot the most important part of the All-Star Game, the actual basketball game. Between superstars such as Lebron James or Anthony Edwards calling out of the game the day of or Warriors star Draymond Green bashing the format during the pre-game show, it was a disaster. Celebrities like Kevin Hart and Mr. Beast acquire more on-camera time than some All-Star players.
More than anything else, the 2025 NBA All-Star Game will be remembered for one alarming stat, 80 minutes of advertisements compared to just 42 minutes of on-court play. Shaq’s OG’s won the first-ever All-Star tournament with Warrior franchise guard Stephen Curry taking home his 2nd All-Star Game MVP.
The NBA as a whole took a loss, a loss as a company and as a culture, showing how 25 years can change a lot.
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