Fansided

Televising NBA All-Star draft next year would be a lot of fun

By Dave Daniels

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - DECEMBER 7: Gilberto Hernandez, President of the Mexican Basketball Federation, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver along with Alfredo Castillo, Director of the National Finance and Sports and Culture during a press conference prior to of the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Brooklyn Nets as part of the NBA Mexico Games 2017 on December 7, 2017 at the Arena Ciudad de México in Mexico City, Mexico. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - DECEMBER 7: Gilberto Hernandez, President of the Mexican Basketball Federation, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver along with Alfredo Castillo, Director of the National Finance and Sports and Culture during a press conference prior to of the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Brooklyn Nets as part of the NBA Mexico Games 2017 on December 7, 2017 at the Arena Ciudad de México in Mexico City, Mexico. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Should the NBA televise its All-Star Game draft next season? It would be a lot of fun without much collateral damage.

There was a stark adjustment in the 2018 NBA All-Star Game this year. The effort level during the match probably hit an all-time low last season, and the league wanted that to change. This year team captains LeBron James and Stephen Curry chose teams like a pickup game after the fans voted them in with the most ballots.

This is the first season the NBA has tried out a format like that, and they decided to keep cameras out of the room. That brought about a lot of criticism from both media and fans, but the league appears to be open to making it a TV show next year.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed the topic of televising the draft after the game on Sunday.

The main argument against putting the draft on TV was that the All-Stars selected last would be ridiculed by fans or feel badly about themselves. That is totally fair. Those two guys should really be celebrating the accomplishment of being recognized as one of the best players in the world as opposed to feeling slighted. That didn’t end up happening though, because the players selected last (LaMarcus Aldridge and Al Horford) both were fine with it once the information inevitably leaked.

“Televise it,” Toronto Raptors SG DeMar DeRozan said to ESPN. “Give the people what they want to see. I think everybody wants to see it. At the end of the day, every single person that gets picked, you are an All-Star, so it doesn’t matter where you really go, so I think televise it.”

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If televising it doesn’t hurt anyone, then why not have some fun with it and give the draft some real production value. If the fans love it and tune in, then that is just more money in the league’s pocket. They could even donate the proceeds to charity as part of the NBA Cares initiative to build additional goodwill with the public. There don’t seem to be many reasons to keep this draft private, especially if the information will leak anyway, so the league should make it as entertaining as possible.

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