How to add more fuel to All-Star Weekend, Emirates Cup, and regular season

With All-Star weekend kicking off, I propose some ideas to add more fuel for the NBA's key stakeholder events and ultimately for the regular season.

The Memphis Grizzlies will have representation for this weekend’s All-Star weekend — as Jaren Jackson Jr. will be a two-time All-Star, and Zach Edey and Jaylen Wells are in the Rising Stars game. Expanding deeper around the organization, Yuki Kawamura, Armando Bacot, Maozinha Pereira, and DJ Steward will be in the G League All-Star game.

This weekend’s All-Star weekend feels different with, yet, another format tweak.

All-Star weekend is an event they’re looking to add more competitive fire to. Truth be told, there’s never been a ton of competitiveness in the All-Star game — just their way of showing their lack of enthusiasm has come through the way of hoisting a boatload of 3’s. They’ve tried captains, Elam endings, and more. Now, they're looking to add more gimmicks to it to freshen it up:

Is this really going to add more juice to the All-Star game? Debatable. Ultimately, it feels like too much going on for the casual viewer to understand, and toting the line of a new flavor to pique curiosity and completely losing their interest. This doesn’t mention how the Saturday night skills events just have zero pizzazz at all anymore.

Let’s also expand this conversation to another event the league wants to add more intrigue behind: the In-Season Tournament. With the In-Season tournament, the only thing that really changed from last year’s inaugural event is the name, as Emirates became a key sponsor. They still have about a month span with Tuesday’s and Friday’s being Cup nights, followed by a knockout round and then semifinals/finals in Vegas. And there wasn’t much buzz around the semifinals/finals, as the game had no fire. It has potential, but honestly it likely falls in the middle on the excitement meter for most fans and analysts.

Over the coming years, especially with the new TV deals on the way, the NBA will likely continue to evaluate and enhance these key stakeholder events. How can they boost the entertainment level of these events?

Here’s how I’d alter the In-Season Tournament and All-Star weekend — and ultimately the regular season.

Areas for improvement

The All-Star Weekend and In-Season Tournament have potential and enjoyable parts, but several flaws exist in capturing widespread excitement for these events.

• The first and biggest problem is the buy-in from the All-Stars. Their play gives off the vibe that they do not care about the All-Star game. Aside from cash, there’s no extra incentive. They’re having to work and get a short vacation time, while their teammates are relaxing in Turks, Cabo, or the Bahamas — or even having the opportunity to go home for several days. I totally understand it. It’s easy to say, “hey, play harder in this,” but it doesn’t necessarily change the buy-in. A solution needs to exist to get buy-in from the players, because if you get that, you’re more likely to acquire the attention and excitement from fans and stakeholders.

• The In-Season tournament is too spread out. It can be tough for the common NBA fan to follow the NBA Cup — what night it’s on, where do teams fall in the standings, who’s in the same group, what scenarios exist for advancement, and when the schedule is for the knockout/semifinals/finals games.

• The atmosphere in Vegas is bland. It just didn’t feel like a big game. I get it. It’s harder for real fans to travel to Vegas on a week’s notice — or even shorter. It’s tough for Vegas residents and tourists to create a playoff atmosphere for teams they may not really care about. Don’t let that be an indictment on Vegas as an NBA market. I’m sure they’d be excited about a Vegas team playing a big game.

People can likely find other flaws within these concepts, but these three criticisms are the biggest ones.

Opportunities to explore

How would I fix them? Let’s start with the Emirates Cup.

• Find a 2-3 week block in the calendar for the Cup. For travel efficiency, maybe split it up where teams would play either the first 2 or last 2 games at home. It’s easier to follow. Maybe find a block before the College Football Playoffs begin.

• Don’t do a neutral site. The semifinals and finals need a big-game feel. How can they ensure that big-game feel without giving short notice on traveling to a neutral site? Reward the teams with the best point differentials with home-court advantage for these games.

How about the All-Star game?

Well… maybe … just maybe … Don’t even have an All-Star game.

• Once (if) the NBA expands to 32 teams, they can have a 32-team single-elimination tournament to crown a cup winner. Just structure it 1-32, no conferences. Maybe for the idea of bringing back competitiveness to All-Star weekend, let’s call it the “Kobe Bryant Mamba Cup.” Maybe here you can have an “All-Star Weekend” destination — Los Angeles, New York, Orlando… any city that can afford games running simultaneously in a central location. It’s like a mid-season Summer League vibe!

• To preserve player legacy and accolades, the All-Stars could be honored at halftime of the Finals of the Mamba Cup. Still have them voted per usual — weighted average of fans, media, and players for starters, then coaches for reserves. From there, you also avoid the injury replacement decisions.

• After the Finals of the Mamba Cup, there could be a week-long break to keep the All-Star break holy. The league would need to find a way to balance the games by flexing some in during the week for losing teams. Not sure how quickly they can flex these games in because of travel. And you don’t want teams to have almost 2 weeks of no basketball in the middle of the season. Maybe the “break” starts for teams based on when teams are eliminated. So if a team is eliminated on a Monday, have them start hoops 10 days later. Again, not perfect, just spit-balling.

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These ideas ultimately coincide with an objective of adding more meaning to the regular season.

The reward for winning these Cups should be points-based.

A points-based system isn’t abnormal in the sports world — the Premier League and NHL all have points within its standings. The NBA could build upon it with their Cups, as well as division and conference games. I’m envisioning this layout:

• Non-conference win = 1 point

• Conference win = 2 points

• Division win = 4 points

• Cup win = 4 points

• Knockout win = 5 points

• Semifinal win = 8 points

• Cup champion = 10 points

You’re not only making the Emirates Cup and All-Star weekend more exciting, but also the regular season. Adding a points-based system to about 52 regular-season games would make things even more interesting.

Imagine the atmosphere of a Grizzlies and Rockets game, one already testy with former Grizzly and elite antagonizer Dillon Brooks. The Celtics and Knicks are two premier teams in the Eastern Conference, and would have more buzz around the weight of the win holding 4 points.

That’s how you get the regular season to matter.

And that should be the main objective of the NBA.

Don’t get me wrong, I love NBA basketball — largely everything about it … the game, style of play, the stars, and the upside going forward. However, casual fans are mostly turned off with the regular season for many reasons — it’s long, the majority of its season falls within the peaks of football, “everybody plays the same” (they don’t), and the narratives about how the postseason is all that matters.

This sort of system overhaul could be an option for a NBA product looking to add more buzz and improve upon its ratings. From there, if these events add the revenue stream desired, they could shorten the season a wee bit (like 82 to 72) — which also adds optionality to flex in games to even the games played differential from the Cups.

These potential enhancements to the All-Star Weekend and Emirates Cup could be a catalyst for this change, and for the league to get the overall results it’s aspiring for during the regular season and its key stakeholder events.

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