Ever since the NBA announced the new look for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game, several NBA players have openly criticized the mini-tournament format.
“I hate it,” said Kevin Durant in December. “Absolutely hate it. Terrible.”
“I have no idea what’s going on,” Jaylen Brown said on Saturday.
Never one to bite his tongue, Draymond Green was quite vociferous in his distaste for one aspect of the format in particular. Along with three teams made up of NBA players drafted ahead of All-Star Weekend, they’re joined by a fourth squad of “Rising Stars” made up of first- and second-year NBA players and NBA G League standouts. Including those young talents has Green, who was not selected for the All-Star Game this season, fired up.
Draymond to Marc Spears:
“These young guys, if they’re on the rising stars team, they don’t deserve the privilege of playing on Sunday” pic.twitter.com/OqswkiBo0C
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) February 16, 2025
“One All-Star from last year told me he didn’t like this because ‘What does the All-Star team that plays against the Rising Stars have to gain?’ He’s like, ‘We’re supposed to beat him. If we lose, we look bad,'” said ESPN NBA reporter Marc Spear. “Draymond [Green], who’s a four-time All-Star, who never, I don’t think, was picked to be a star, said, ‘These young guys, if they’re on the Rising Stars team, they don’t deserve the privilege of playing on Sunday.’ I truly understand that. He felt like it cheapens what Sunday will be. He liked the format. He just didn’t like it this way.”
Instead of playing in the All-Star Game, Green was on TNT’s pre-game studio show alongside Vince Carter and Jalen Rose. He was asked to elaborate on those sentiments.
Draymond addressed this on TNT just now:
“Absurd” https://t.co/STs52YE4K2 pic.twitter.com/Moj8a8R5OL
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) February 16, 2025
“I had to work so hard to play on Sunday night of All-Star Weekend, “said Green, “Because ratings are down, because the game’s bad, we’re bringing in Rising Stars? That’s not a fix. I never played in the Rising Stars game. My first two years, I didn’t touch that game. These guys get to touch the All-Star floor? On Sunday night? When the floor is The Floor?
“In America, the President has Air Force One, right? Yeah. They have several of those planes. It’s only Air Force One if the President is on it. That’s the All-Star floor. You have the court. You have the events. It’s a nice-looking court. When All-Stars are on the court, now it’s the All-Star court. Those guys did not make the All-Star team. To be playing in the All-Star Game and you did not make the All-Star team, is absurd.”
Perhaps Green has a point, considering the All-Star Game should feature only the best of the best. However, the best-of-the-best have put together some boring, lackadaisical performances in recent years. Adding the element of some young bucks who want to prove themselves might indeed be the missing ingredient to make the “best” players try.
Regardless, the real comedy here is that between this and the pre-game crew bashing LeBron James over his decision to sit out the All-Star Game, TNT’s broadcasters aren’t exactly doing much to get people excited for the main event.