LEILA FADEL, HOST:
This year, the NBA adopted a new format for its All-Star Game. Instead of one game full of superstars from across the league, a four-team mini tournament took place last night at the Chase Center in San Francisco. In the end Team OG, coached by Shaquille O'Neal, came out on top with a 41-25 victory over the Global Stars, coached by Charles Barkley. Did it succeed in drawing new viewers and new excitement? Martenzie Johnson of ESPN's Andscape is on the line now. Good morning.
MARTENZIE JOHNSON: Good morning. How are you?
FADEL: I'm doing all right. How are you?
JOHNSON: I'm doing well.
FADEL: So let's talk about the changes, Martenzie. Can you break down exactly what changed?
JOHNSON: Yeah. Like you said, originally, it would be East versus West - right? - 12 Eastern Conference All-Stars versus 12 Western Conference All-Stars. They fiddled with that over the years, switching it to captains who got the draft their own teams. But then we got to this year where they changed once again, where you said - again, it was the four mini tournament games to have a champion in the end. So the teams were broken up into eight players apiece of the 24 All-Stars, and then the fourth team was comprised of what they call Rising Stars. So that's the top first or second-year players. So the format, it was neat. It was new. It was interesting, but I don't think it...
FADEL: Did you think it worked?
JOHNSON: I don't think so.
FADEL: OK. So what did not - what didn't work about it? I mean, was it not this big television spectacle? I mean, you would think maybe it displayed the players' talents a little bit more.
JOHNSON: Yeah. So the problem has always been defense, right? Like, we know that these players can score, but it's just a matter of, do they care enough to play defense? Like, a couple of years ago, the total score got up to over -almost 400 points. So they had to do something. So if their defensive effort was zero leading up to this year, I give it about 50% this year.
They still weren't playing all that much defense. There was still a lot of layups. There was still a lot of walking up the court. But it was some intrigue because one of the teams had to go against the first and second-year players, and if you're an All-Star, you can't lose to the rookies, essentially, right? So they gave some effort there, but in that final game, again, it was a double-point win in the score that only went up to 40 points.
FADEL: Did any moment or player stand out to you?
JOHNSON: No.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: What stood out was Kevin Hart, Mr. Beast, all the side stuff that didn't really have to do with the game that made it, you know, something that started at 8 o'clock that didn't end till almost midnight because it had all the extra stuff.
FADEL: What are you hearing from fans and from players about the new approach?
JOHNSON: Well, specifically, players - Trae Young said he didn't like it. He didn't like all the stoppages in play. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said, you know, right when we're - I believe he said, right when we're getting into the groove of things, then we have to stop, right? At one point, there was a 20-minute gap in the middle of one of the games because they wanted to honor the "Inside The NBA" crew, who - this is their last season doing NBA broadcasts for TNT. So yeah, it was just a lot of stoppage, a lot of Kevin Hart, a lot of commercials. So right when you're getting into the flow of things, you know, there's a stoppage again.
FADEL: So are you saying the NBA should go back to the way it was?
JOHNSON: Not necessarily. Like I said, it did actually build a little bit of intrigue this year, but they have to get all the extra stuff out. Like, I get you have to fill up, you know, two, three-hour time blocks, but this wasn't it.
FADEL: Martenzie Johnson of ESPN's Anscape. Thanks for being with us.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
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