Draymond Green slammed the new NBA All-Star format as ‘ridiculous’ on Sunday night as the league debuted the new system with abbreviated games.
Unlike previous years, when two All-Star teams have faced off in one full-length game, this year saw the All-Stars divided into three teams.
A team drafted by Kenny Smith faced one drafted by his TNT colleague Charles Barkley, while one picked by Shaquille O’Neal played ‘Candace [Parker]’s Rising Stars’ – the winning team from Friday’s Rising Stars game (O’Neals team then beat Barkley’s in the final after both one their first game).
And in addition to eight non-All-Stars competing in the All-Star Game for the Rising Stars, the games only ran until one team reached 40 points.
Green, a four-time All-Star himself, bashed the format while speaking on TNT.
‘You work all year to be an All Star and you get to play up to 40 and then you’re done,’ he began. ‘This is so unfair to Victor Wembanyama, who just took this game really seriously, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who just took this game really seriously.
Draymond Green blasted the new All-Star Game format as ‘ridiculous’ on Sunday night
Green, 34, has made the All-Star Game four times himself, most recently in the 2021-22 season
Non-All-Stars like Dalton Knecht, left, represented the Rising Stars on Sunday night
‘When you talk about chasing after the points records – ‘Melo, Kobe and all these guys who had great scoring nights. They don’t get the opportunity to do that with this game, all so we can watch some rising stars,’ he continued.
‘Now we get the treat of watching an Olympic team play against a U19 team. Come on… what are we doing? This is ridiculous.’
Green added that the format ‘sucks’ – a sentiment that he was not alone in expressing, as his harsh verdict left his TNT colleagues stunned.
Former NBA star Ron Harper wrote on X, ‘They’re making a joke out of the all star weekend for sure it’s not about the players it’s all the entertainment TRASH!!! Go back to EAST WEST GAME.’
Cavs All-Star Darius Garland said he wanted the format to go back to two teams.
And longtime Dallas Morning News sports columnist Tim Cowlishaw branded the game an ‘old bad variety show.’
To make matters worse, several of the league’s biggest stars didn’t even participate in Sunday night’s festivities.
Anthony Davis, Luka Doncic and Anthony Edwards all sat out, while LeBron James stunned fans by announcing he wasn’t playing roughly an hour before tip-off.
The Lakers star was slammed for his belated announcement, as a replacement could’ve been chosen for him had he indicated he was sitting earlier.
