The NBA All-Star weekend is rapidly approaching, and there’s so much to look forward to. Some might not think that the game is worth paying attention to nowadays, with the players usually not giving it their all. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth now that the whole weekend has been turned on its head!
All-Star weekend is set to tip off on February 17th and last throughout the weekend. Throughout those three days, we will see the Celebrity Game, the Rising Stars Challenge, the All-Star game, the skills challenge, the 3-point contest, and the dunk contest. There’s even expected to be an NBA HBCU Classic game on Saturday that features Grambling State and Southern. It’s the first time that this has happened. However, the game is the night’s most significant and crucial part. In recent years, the league has completely overhauled the competition to make the players try their hardest when they’re on the floor. It starts with a draft vote, with a captain at each conference selecting the players they want to play alongside. For the first time, the league has set the live drafting process for the two captains right before the start of the game. So, these captains will draft their players for the game just a few hours before it starts, and it’ll be live for everyone who wants to watch. This year, the captains are Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James.
The rest of the 2023 All-Star game rosters have officially been set. Over in the Eastern Conference, we will have Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Kevin Durant, and Jayson Tatum locked in as the starters. The Western Conference has LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, Steph Curry, Luka Doncic, and Zion Williamson as the starters. The reserves aren’t expected to be revealed until early February, so we’ll have to wait to see the other stars that can get into the game. Some fans are already upset about some of the snubs, and that’s not surprising. We’ll see some of those players added as reserves to the game. Either way, though, there are always going to be players left out. Many believe that the league should eliminate the need for fan voting because of this issue, but it’s not likely that it’ll ever happen. The fan vote for the All-Star game accounts for 50 per cent of the votes for these players. Another 25 per cent of the votes are counted towards NBA players and their opinions on who should make it. Then the final 25 per cent is the opinions of media personnel who offer their thoughts on who should make it. The starters we named earlier are the guys who received the largest vote from these sections.
When it comes to the way that the game is played, it’s exciting. There are four quarters as usual, with the first three staying the same. At the end of the third quarter, the score of the team that’s currently winning will get 24 points added to the needed goal. For example, if one team ends the third quarter with 100 points, both teams would have to score 124 points to win the game. The fourth quarter doesn’t have a clock, so whatever team can hit that target scores first to win. That’s why the fourth quarter is usually when both teams attempt to play their absolute hardest because there’s a target score like a street ball with the game on the line. Part of these changes were made because the league knew that the game didn’t receive much attention. However, the biggest reason for the change was to honour the late Kobe Bryant in a meaningful way. That’s why the leading team at the end of the third quarter will have their scorer plus 24 points to create the target score. It’s to honour a great player that lost his life too soon. In the past few years, with this rule change, players and fans have loved it.
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Every player will receive $100,000 each as a bonus for the winning team, with the losers receiving $25,000 as their own. That’s not always the story, though, with both teams earning money for a charity they can decide upon. Everybody wants to work and play their hardest to provide a significant amount of money to a charity that desperately needs it. It’s been a strategy to increase the game's sales and make it much more entertaining. There are also some other incentives that different companies advertise. For example, State Farm partnered with the league to donate $1,900 for every single assist that was made. Just another little thing to keep an eye on throughout the night!
