This year’s NBA All-Star draft was going to be one of the most exciting media spectacles in league history — until the National Basketball Players Association stepped in.
Back in October, the NBA announced the main event of its annual star-studded weekend would experience a major shakeup. Rather than a traditional East vs. West matchup, the two leading vote-getters in each conference would serve as captains of their own teams and draft their rosters from the pool of remaining All-Stars.
It looked like Adam Silver had done it again. He made a seemingly simple fix to a problem that would improve the product tenfold. It would be basketball in its purest, most playground-like form. The possibilities and storylines were endless.
ALL-STAR 2018: Sporting News' full fantasy draft
In recent weeks, however, it became clear that the league had no interest in televising the draft. Mark Stein of the New York Times reported that the NBA chose what could possibly be the most boring alternative:
Instead, the East’s and West’s leading vote-getters are scheduled to hop on a conference call Thursday afternoon, joined by a limited number of league personnel who are all sworn to silence, so James and Curry can make their picks in secret. The results will be revealed Thursday night on TNT, but league officials are determined to take every step they can conjure to ensure that the pick-by-pick decisions made by both superstars are never uncovered.
After hearing that solution, one might wonder if the next All-Star shakeup will be to replace the Slam Dunk Contest with a two-hour layup special.
A deeper dive shows that the real culprit behind the change might have been the NBPA. The three big reasons why the draft won't be televised, according to Stein:
1) The league does not want to risk embarrassing the last player chosen — or anyone else.
2) The league does not want to put the captains in a position where they might upset teammates by passing over them.
3) The players’ union objected. The union, presumably with considerable input from player agents, is the faction that actually put up the most resistance to letting all this play out in public. Some All-Stars want the draft televised, but some don’t. So the league acquiesced.
At first glance, it's good to hear a league listen to the concerns of its players to modify situations. But who was realistically complaining? Certainly there are plenty of players who understand that they won’t make the All-Star ballot, and those competing should know their worth.
The original change was made when Chris Paul, president of the NBPA, expressed concern about the lack of competitiveness in the All-Star Game. If players are afraid of getting picked last with this new format, then a competitive game is not their true goal.
Last picks (and petty feuds) ignite competition. It drives the best athletes in the world to prove doubters wrong in a game that does not even matter in the grand scheme of things. That’s what the viewers want, that’s what a lot of players want and that’s what the league should want.