Adam Silver’s latest scheme to fix the NBA All-Star Game quadruples the problem

Change is what we asked for, right?

The NBA All-Star Game has been broken for years now because players give about 12 percent effort during the game. Sometimes, that lack of effort comes under the guise of "not wanting to get injured" or sometimes there's no guise at all; players don't try and don't try to hide that they didn't try. In recent years, it's gotten bad enough that fans have completely tuned out of the All-Star Game, which at one point was a fun (but competitive) game featuring the NBA's biggest stars.

Well, NBA commissioner Adam Silver apparently heard fans complaining about the product, and is ready to make a change, according to Shams Charania of ESPN. The change, to everyone's horror, is another tournament.

Okay, horror might be an overstatement. Fans seem mostly happy that a change is coming, but is this the best change possible? In the new format, there would be four teams of eight players. Three of the teams would be made up of the 24 NBA All-Stars, and the fourth team would be the winners of the Rising Stars Tournament, meaning one team would be made up entirely of either rookies, second-year players or the players from G League Ignite — who make up one of the teams featured in the Rising Stars Challenge, which also has this four-team tournament format.

It's.. definitely different. I can't be too mad at the commissioner for a drastic change because the All-Star Game probably wasn't salvageable in its current format, but it's hard to believe this format would bring tons of excitement, either — although I've been wrong before, and information about scoring, timing and other specifics haven't been revealed yet. I'm reserving my judgement until we know everything, but it's not a great plan on first glance.

This isn't the change the All-Star Game needed

The problem of the NBA All-Star Game isn't the format; there's nothing wrong with a normal basketball game. The problem is that players don't try, and it's as simple as that. Adam Silver said the players were disappointed with the level of competition in last year's All-Star Game just like the fans were, but that's obviously not true because the players are responsible for the level of competition! There must be some way to increase the incentive of the All-Star Game that doesn't involve non-NBA All-Stars, right?

Look, NBA All-Stars aren't going to want to lose to rookies or some guys from the G League, so there's a chance the competition ratchets up. But also, NBA All-Stars could give about 20 percent effort and beat a team of rookies, second-year players or G League players in a game.

All it would have taken for the All-Star Game to be saved is three or four guys deciding to give real effort; if that happened, everyone else would have followed suit. But here we are instead! If NBA stars think they're too cool for a regular All-Star Game, a four-team format probably isn't going to elicit buy- in either.