The NBA All-Star Game's Popularity Crisis: A Discourse Analysis

and Strategic Interventions

Bixuan Wu

Shanghai Minhang Crosspoint Academy, Shanghai, 201100, China

Keywords: Popularity Crisis, NBA All-Star Game, Competitiveness, Voting System.

Abstract: National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game is also a celebrity event of the NBA where NBA stars

involve themselves in an event once again in the month of February for three days selecting two baskets of

the best players originating from the East and West sides. However, the impact of this game now is getting

smaller and smaller and smaller. The paper is going to discover the ways of making NBA All-Star Games

popular again. At that, there are several methods of its solution. But more super stars need to be created for

the NBA, this will assist NBA in attracting more fans. They should also enhance the voting system, and they

vote for valuable players instead of the fans voting all the players in the league.

1 INTRODUCTION

The NBA All-Stars began in 1951. This was the

suggestion of Haske Cohen, then head of public

relations at NBA headquarters. Originally, Cohen

was just trying to parody the All-Star Game of the

National Major League Baseball. The All-Star Game

of baseball is scheduled to be held in the middle of

each season, so the NBA All-Star Game follows this

custom. In the fall of 1950, just four years after the

NBA was founded, it began to decline. Podolov, the

first president of the NBA, and Walter Brown, the

president of the Boston Celtics, agreed to select the

best players from the East and West Divisions (the

only 11 teams in the NBA at the time) to play a game

halfway through the season. March 2, 1951, Brown,

president of the Boston Celtics gave the Boston

Garden Coliseum for the purpose of holding the first

All-Star Game (Humphreys and Johnson, 2019 & Li,

2022). The overall form of the modern All-Star Game

has turned into the All-Star Weekend, which appears

to be a three-day event and consists of All-Star Party,

Rookie All-Star Challenge, Slam Dunk Contest,

Three-Point Shot, Basketball Skill Challenge,

Shooting Relay Race, as well as All-Star Game. Of

all the most entertaining are the “Slam Dunk Contest”

and the “All-Star Game”. The first slam dunk in the

competition happened in 1984 when the performer

was Larry Nance of the Phoenix Suns; he adopted The

name “Thunderbolt Windmill” while holding a ball in

his two hands flew and smashed both the balls into

the basket. In 1991, Dee Brown of the Celtics

blindfolded his right arm and dunked a basketball

with the ball in his left hand, and no one did it better

than Ceballos, who made it the trademark “Deadly

Bat” for the championship in 1992. Some of them

include The nickname Jordan of the Bulls earned in

198y when he flew to the basket from the free throw

line. Furthermore, during All-Star Weekend fans and

journalists can watch other competitions and

performances including the Million Dollar Pitch

Contest (Liu, 2022 & Bian et al., 2022 & Ji and Li,

2013).

The paper is going to discuss why The NBA All-

Star Game is less popular than the NBA All-Star

Games a few years ago and how this problem can be

solved.

2 NBA ALL-STAR GAME –

HISTORY OF BASKETBALL

EVENT

The NBA All-Star event is unique in the realm of

basketball and one which has a rather interesting and

dynamic stage, which spans back several years.

This whole thing started in the same year 1951

under the idea of NBA’s public relations director

Haskell Cohen who wanted to replicate the formula

of the All-Star Game of Major League Baseball. The

first of these was staged at the Boston Garden thanks

to the support of the owner of the Portland Trail

Wu, B.

The NBA All-Star Game’s Popularity Crisis: A Discourse Analysis and Strategic Interventions.

DOI: 10.5220/0014111900004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 251-254

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

251

Blazers, Walt Brown, and the attendance of 10,094

fans became the basis for this traditional event.

Originally it was just a friendly match that involved

the best players of the Eastern and the Western

Conference.

The All-Star Game was nonetheless established

and went through constant changes over the years.

The first significant advancement was in 1984 when

Slam Dunk Contest started in Denver All-Star Game

thus making the event more attractive. The second

part was the incorporation of the Three-Point Contest

two years later in Dallas. All these events form a very

big part of the All-Star Weekend and have compelled

fans from all over the world.

Traditionally, the NBA All-Star Game has always

been full of interesting events and incredible

demonstrations. Greatest of all time like Michael

Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James have

produced imprints. Some time on global basketball

will never forget Michael Jordan, who in early 1988

shocked everyone with his acrobatic skills and

scoring prowess. There are two appearances of Kobe

Bryant in the show and both of them played MVP

performances. LeBron James has always remained a

force to reckon with as he breaks records on the

number of appearances and storms to his team's

victories several occasions.

There is another very important issue connected

with the voting on All-Star Game. At first, it used

only fan votes later on it was done through the fans,

players and media to have a better all-inclusive

selection of the starters. Finally, the coaches get to

pick the reserves.

Subsequently, in the past few years, the NBA

continued to modify the All-Star game format. The

league reform in 2017 saw the elimination of the East-

West conference split format and, instead, each

governing body representative chose the teams from

any of the all-stars from the two conferences directly

using ballots by fans and media. This change has

created some variability in the game which makes the

game much more interesting.

The selection of players to participate in the All-

Star Game also underwent certain transformations,

and the voting system has turned from a purely fans’

one to one that involve players and media, which adds

a much fairer selection of players for the game.

They just finally fell off and are generally bad

now, However, recently the popularity of NBA All-

Star Game has drastically decreased. This has been

made possible by the following; As mentioned earlier

the nature of the NBA has continually evolved.

Earlier, the league had a few big wigs and

personalities that were to give a guarantee of quality

and entertaining matches. But now, the number of

indications that the zachetki project still exists has

sharply decreased, and many talented players are

present. Illness and other reasons have also forced out

some of the top players to miss the All – Star Games

and thereby downing the event even further.

Not only does the line-up of players change and

evolve but the very play concept of the All-Star Game

has also done so too. In previous years it was a serious

match between the champions of two conferences, for

today it is a fun competition. The complexity is that

most players are paying more attention to individually

organized spectaculars than striving for a win. This

has been a blow to many fans who are likely to find a

match as interesting and deserving of a close look and

a tough match. The media environment and audience

viewing habits have also brought this change. As we

can see, in the context of digital media consumption,

everyday people has easy access to a tremendous

amount of entertainment materials through the social

networks and various streaming services. They can

get highlights and update of their favorite players

daily basis, which makes the All–Star Game less

unique. Further, more competitions and

entertainment-related events for example – sports

have discouraged potential viewers.

Schonbrun, Zach. "N.B.A. All-Star party is

closed-door affair; Public left out in cold for game

and festivities for 5th consecutive year" (International

New York Times, 2024 & Su and Chen, 2013).

3 WHY FANS ARE NO LONGER

EXCITED ABOUT THE NBA

The NBA All-Star Game, which was once one of the

most looked forward to events in basketball that drew

interest from fans all over the world has gradually

reduced in popularity in recent years and seen a

significant decline in popularity in recent years. That

is why there are several reasons that contribute to this

phenomenon.

One of the initial reasons is the shifting dynamics

of the NBA itself. The league featured only a handful

of wonderful and self-promoting superstars who

enjoyed a cult following. These young men like

Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal

who performed extraordinarily on the floor and at the

same time had that panache that made the event

exciting was the All-Star game. They were insisting

on the quality and intensity of the competition and

spectacular shows on the field. However, in recent

years, the abundance of such talents in the league

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diminished, however, one can still find an abundance

of awesome players. The absence of such strategic

commanders has reduced some glamour of the All-

Star Game. For instance, all recent All-Star Games

have had certain leading lights missing through injury

or another legitimate excuse, which makes the

spectacle still less appealing.

Another factor has also been the change of the

style of play in the All-Star Game that has impacted

on the fan base wake. The game was previously

characterized by this kind of nervous and highly

competitive affair between the best performers from

the two conferences; the Eastern and the Western.

However, in the recent past, specifically within the

last decade or so, the event has morphed into

something of a practice event, where players appear

to be more interested in demonstrating their skills and

having the time of their lives without necessarily

wanting to win. This has come as a result of a lack of

competitiveness and reduced challenge needed by the

people watching the game. Some players may engage

in a mechanical performance thus the game becomes

more of a casual free shoot than an intense combat.

This is a big letdown for fans expecting a high-octane

encounter between the best that the league can offer.

Another factor that has led to the disastrous stage

is the change in media and the new cultural patterns

of the show’s audience. In today’s society, it seems

like the choices of possible entertainment are limitless

even if one is going to use one hand of his hand. There

is also more content available online from

performance highlights and status updates from the

players on the respective teams daily. All of this has

cut down on how novel and unique the All-Star Game

once was. Fans today do not have to wait for the

tennis championship tournament of the year to see

their stars in action. Further, other activities such as

other sports and entertainment events have also risen

and featured the attention of the target audience. For

instance, e-sports and other huge leagues in sports

have gained a lot of attention in the past years, not to

mention the key audiences switching away from the

NBA All-Star Game (Reilly et al., 2023).

The election process in regard to the All-Star

Game has also elicited a lot of criticism and might

have affected the popularity of the event. It has been

a common practice where the voting system has the

main aim of voting for the favorite players, but

sometimes it goes wrong. They are fan voting, player

voting, and media voting, and it is feasible that some

deserving players were never selected for the All-Star

Game, conversely some less deserving players may

get selected by reason of popularity or other

considerations. This has raised dissatisfaction from

fans who argue that the appropriateness of selecting

players are not fully fair for the powerhouse teams or

best talents in the game (Levine, 2019).

That is why the format of the All-Star Game and,

in particular, its schedule has also become quite

protracted and monotonous. The tradition of East and

West teams’ confrontation has been existing for many

years and even some alterations like the captain’s

pick may not prove to be successful enough to bring

a new breath to the competition. The timing can also

be blamed on the location of the All-Star Game,

which is in the middle of the season when the regular

season is still on. It also allows fans who feel the

break in the regular season hurts the momentum of

their teams to become annoyed with the All-Star

game instead of looking forward to it.

Additionally, the following are the causes of the

reduced popularity of the NBA All-Star Game; the

alteration of the league’s dynamics, change of media,

voting system, format and scheduling of the game. So

to move back to the previous stage the NBA needs to

solve them and look for ways to make the All-Star

Game a competitive, interesting and important event

for fans (Li, 2022).

4 PROPOSALS TO REGAIN

INTEREST IN THE NBA

ALL–STAR GAME

In view of the fact that the NBA All-Star Game’s

popularity has recently started to dwindle, the

following can be done.

Firstly, that is why the NBA should pay special

attention to developing and marketing new superstars.

The league can come up with other advertising

appeals that portray talented young players and their

personalities. For instance, in manufacturing well-

researched documentaries or short clips about these

players as was done during past legends. This would

assist in creating a new generation of fan favorites

would in turn build the star power of the All-Star

game.

Secondly, the league has to improve the

competitiveness of the game format in order to

produce meaningful changes. One possibility might

be the establishment of rewards regarding All-Star

Game triumphs. For example, the winners could

receive the organisation’s charitable contribution in

their name, or have some input into the draft pool of

the teams of the participating players. It would urge

individuals to take the game to the next level and

would make the game much more competitive.

The NBA All-Star Game’s Popularity Crisis: A Discourse Analysis and Strategic Interventions

253

In the elections, the message to send in the voting

system is that it needs to be simple. A less ‘meta’

system that involves the fans but removes some of the

complications and pitfalls seen above should be

created. The NBA could use a system where fan votes

count but are given a proper but not complete

percentage while using the panel of experts’

evaluations to make the right selections.

In response to competition for media and

entertainment options, there is more the NBA should

do to better leverage its digital assets. A continuous

stream of exclusive behind - the - scenes content

during the All - Star weekend, fan engagement tools

such as virtual face - to – face interactions with the

players, or the capability to watch coaches and

analysts explain their decisions during a match in

real–time boosts fan engagement.

Lastly, for specific events such as dunk contests

and three point contests, the NBA should come up

with a new one. Ensuring past legends become guests

and invitees of some of the segments, altering the

rules of the game to create more complex forms of

skating and dance, and raising the amounts awarded

to the participants of those events would all improve

the entertainment factor of those and the All-Star

Game weekend as a whole.

5 CONCLUSION

For now, the NBA All-Star Game of the year 2024 is

still as popular drawing the league's brightest stars for

a weekend of spectacular basketball and fun. It

remains relevant, which was influenced by the

changes taking place within the NBA and the interest

of international basketball enthusiasts. It is also

necessary to revise the format of the competition to

increase competitiveness. Offering donations to

charity in the name of the deserving team and

affecting the draft choices of the teams of

participating players will act as a motivation to make

the players play the game seriously. The next

recommendation aims at making the voting system

easier to understand; Instead of such a system, a more

primitive mechanism with roots in fans but less in

controversy and complications should be introduced;

a weighted system along with the estimations of the

professionals might be used.

The NBA can also be better at using its digital

channels. During the All-Star weekend, mobile

applications that engage fans with behind–the–scenes

material, making it possible to facilitate virtual face–

to–face meetings with the players or enjoy live

streams of analysis sessions can help. Last of all,

where there are separate events like the dunk contest

and the three-pointer contest more innovation is

required. Letting the past legends join as part of

specific features, the alteration of rules in order to

extend creative performances, more challenge as well

as the upturn of the bonuses awarded to performers

will make such events more appealing and also will

improve the interest to All-Star Game weekend.

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