The NBA All-Star Game has become all but unwatchable in recent years, but Draymond Green has an interesting take on how to fix it.
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As soon as the "game" begins, players are walking up and down the court, putting in zero defensive effort and treating what's meant to be a competition as little more than a social hour for two dozen world-class athletes.
However, Draymond Green has a plan to make the NBA All-Star Game great again.
While the outspoken (and often aggressive) Golden State Warriors forward wasn't selected to the All-Star Game this season, he had played in four such games in the past. And he believes that preparation — or lack thereof — is the biggest problem about the exhibition.
During his most recent episode of 'The Draymond Green Show," he said, "It's called game day for a reason, because everything you do that day is to prepare for the game. The All-Star Game, you do a million other things before the game. And then, you're asking the highest level of athletes to then go exert an extreme amount of energy. So, if you want the game to be a game, you need to make sure that guys can prepare for what? A game."
“If we want this to be a real game, let’s make this a real game day.” 🗣️@Money23Green tells us how to fix the All-Star Game pic.twitter.com/ocpt4ITOgS
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) February 25, 2024
So there's the problem. But what about a solution?
"The NBA should be covering physios being [at the All-Star Game]," Green then said. "That physio's travel, that physio's hotel room, that physio being at the arena. Everybody keeps saying, 'Ah, man, raise it up to a million dollars.' That's when you're going to get guys hurt. ... Why? Because they are exerting energy to get a million dollars and not properly preparing to exert that energy.
"So, if we want to make this a real game," Green continued, "let's make this a real game day."
On the surface, it seems absurd that increased/free access to physiotherapists will make the world's best basketball players want to play harder. Don't most of these guys already have private physios? Or if not, they surely have enough money to hire one for one game without it breaking the bank.
The part about guys not wanting to get hurt is easy enough to understand — although it's rich to hear Green advocating for player safety, after the season he has had thus far.
Then again, Green would know way more than we could about what motivates an all-world athlete. So who are we to critique his idea?
Any idea is worth a try at this point — if it might save us from another All-Star Game like what we saw last weekend.
