The All-Star Game has long been a mainstay of the professional sports league, showcasing its top talent by pitting the best of one side against the best of the other.
In recent years, however, interest in these exhibition contests has waned not only among audiences but also among those who take part. The NFL’s Pro Bowl has been reduced to a series of challenges and is on life support. The NHL and NBA are constantly tinkering with their formats as they attempt to reverse declining ratings and declining interest.
ESPN New York’s Dona La Greca, who is also the TV voice of the New Jersey Devils, has a solution: Just put these games out of their misery already.
“Basketball, hockey, and football, they got to get rid of it. They got to say goodbye,” said La Greca on a recent episode of Don, Hahn & Rosenberg. “Because these are supposed to be… a celebration of their sport.
“When the All-Stars get together, it was always, growing up, a celebration of the game. You had the skills competition the day before. In the NBA, you had Saturday night, the dunk contest, and all that. Then on Sunday afternoon, you’d have the All-Star game. It was crazy because we’d go, ‘Wow, did you see the All-Star game? The final score was 140 to 135.’ That’s an average Tuesday in the NBA now. But back then, it was like something.
“Now, it’s not a celebration anymore. It’s a chance to mock the sport. When I did NHL Live back in the day, and it was All-Star Weekend, we’re mocking, like, nobody wants to go. They’re suspending Alexander Ovechkin because he refuses to go, and they’ve got to come up with North America versus the world. They got to play three-on-three tournaments because it doesn’t matter to anybody anymore.
“NBA is the same thing. Do you really want to have something where most people are mocking it? Mocking your sport, talking about load management, talking about other players, modern players aren’t as good as the old-time players. Why would you have a showcase of b*tching and moaning about your sport? Pull the plug already.
“Man up, [Adam] Silver. Man up, [Gary] Bettman. It’s time. It’s time to just say, be like Roger Goodell. We’re out. Pull the plug on it. Be done. You could still have your teams, so you could still say, ‘I went to the All-Star Game. I was an All-Star.’ But let’s stop playing this because whatever is going to happen in the NBA this weekend is a joke.”
Right now, the NBA has created a convoluted, tournament-style All-Star Game, while the NHL is skipping it altogether because of the Olympics. There’s a decent chance the NHL comes away looking better for it.