Adam Silver Wants To Bring Back East vs West In The All Star Game But He Needs To Go One Step Further By Making A Big Change With The Jerseys
I'll give Adam Silver this, he's not afraid of change. During his reign we've seen the NBA go through a series of changes as it continues to evolve with the times, ranging from the creation of the Play In tournament, the newly implemented in season tournament, and of course switching up how the All Star rosters were selected.
When we first moved to the draft idea, I think most people were excited for the potential drama. It was a good idea in theory to have a pickup game feel where you knew someone was going to get snubbed and whatnot, but in my opinion, the execution never really lived up to my expectations. It would have been so much better if everyone was on the court and the players were picked in real time, but what we got on TV just didn't hit the same. Sure there were moments where Giannis took shots at James Harden, but it certainly wasn't what I think most of us wanted to see.
So I found it pretty interesting that today Adam Silver went on TV and dropped the news that he is once again down for some change when it comes to the All Star game
My guess is part of this is due to how balanced the talent is in both conferences. It's not like one conference has all the talent and the other is filled with scrubs, so I get going back to their roots and having things be an East vs West thing.
But I'm going to have to ask Adam Silver to take this one step further. If the plan is to go back to a more traditional feel when it comes to the All Star game, then there's one obvious change we need to see in addition to going back to East vs West.
Bring back players wearing their own jerseys. Remember that shit? It was SO MUCH better this way.
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Maybe it's because I'm a 90s kid and this is what we saw in '98, but I feel like this is something we can all universally agree on. Let's face it, the current All Star jerseys stink. They have for a while. As always, when in doubt, just go with the classics. Do what they did in the 90s and everyone's happy. Compare those two photos to the one at the top of this blog and tell me it's not better. You can't.
It's so much cooler in game action too
I know there's probably money involved and Nike I'm sure wants to create their own 2023 version, but I'm also someone who doesn't give a shit about that. Figure it out. Make a custom Nike All Star jersey with a patch or something that you put on the original jersey like in 1998. People will still buy it! In fact, I would argue more people would buy that than the current East vs West jerseys we get. Seems like a no brainer to me.
If we're going to go back to the traditional ways, why not also bring back the Shooting Stars Competition? Get rid of the Skills one and bring that back (ended in 2015). Maybe give us a King Of The Court for something fresh. I dunno, I'm just spitballing here.
But a return to East vs West and bringing back everyone wearing their team's jerseys seems like a good place to start. Let's see Adam make it happen.