Adam Silver: NBA Considering Return to East vs. West for All-Star Game

In recent seasons, the NBA has had some fun having  “captains” choose their teams for the All-Star Game. It hasn’t mattered what conference the other stars play in — as teams have been named after the captains.

Traditionalists seem to hate it. They remember the days when the Eastern Conference stars squared off vs. the West — and those days weren’t that long ago.

Now, they could return, and potentially in time for this year’s All-Star Game in Indianapolis, NBA commissioner Adam Silver suggested.

“We’re looking at some potential changes in format in Indianapolis this year,” Silver said on First Take, via Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “Maybe a return to something more traditional in terms of how the teams are presented. We went to sort of this captain and draft notion, but clearly historically it was East versus West. So that’s maybe something we are looking at.”

Last week, former All-Star and current NBA head of basketball operations Joe Dumars said the league is looking at ways the league can make the All-Star Game more competitive.

“The All-Star Weekend is quite a spectacle,” Silver said. “I’m always sort of laughing because before the game even starts on Sunday afternoon, people are saying, ‘This is the best ever!’ And I’m like, ‘We’ll, we’ve got this game.’ I’ll take some fault for that because when you’re there this year in Indianapolis, beginning essentially Thursday night and then through Sunday, I think it’s an opportunity for this whole global basketball community to come together. Great legends of the game. Not just the All-Stars, but lots of players.

“I don’t know how it works in other sports, but we have dozens and dozens of players in the league who choose to come to All Star Weekend for the activities for various events who aren’t even All-Stars. So I think we’ve lost sight a bit that it’s about the game at the end of the day.”