Do not let people gaslight you into thinking “this is how the all star game has always been”
There has been this (very, very obviously false) narrative, mostly propagated by modern NBA fans who will literally take whatever slop this league and its players feed them, and rub their tummy’s and ask for more.
KD claims to have gone back and watched the old all star games (although he said “the intros and the first quarter) which is obviously far and away the worst part of any all star game to watch, but he says that the claims of “Game 7 intensity” (that not a single living human has ever made) are false and he “doesn’t see it.”
Well, I have gone back and watched condensed games, full games, or highlights of probably the last 50 all star games over the last 5 or 6 years. And quite frankly, he’s wrong. And so is everyone that believes the game has always been a sham. Now, are they “Game 7 intense”? Absolutely not. Does nearly every pre 2014 All Star game have stretches and quarters of intense basketball? Absolutely. Not all. There have been blowouts where the 2nd half of the game was a joke. But even in those cases, what we’ve seen in the last decade is FAR WORSE.
Now, since I know 99% of are you are very comfortable making bold claims and not taking any time to go back and watch the games, I think there’s 1 stat that does a pretty good job of telling you how hard players are playing. The stat that pretty much personifies “effort” on both sides of the ball.
Fouls and Free Throws.
How often are you trying to stop your opponent by any means? How often are you trying to score when guarded?
Well, I have the numbers for the last 30 years. We’ll check it out from 1986-2025. Remember, there was no All Star game in 1999.
1989 - 59
1988 - 77
1987 - 91
1986 - 62
327 total free throws
1995 - 47
1994 - 60
1993 - 94
1992 - 34
1991 - 66
300 total free throws
1996 - 52
1997 - 50
1998 - 35
2000 - 33
2001 - 33
203 total free throws
2002 - 27
2003 - 51
2004 - 32
2005 - 31
2006 - 52
191 total free throws
2007 - 22
2008 - 28
2009 - 40
2010 - 35
2011 - 54
179 total free throws
2012 - 38
2013 - 31
69 total free throws
Now this is an important moment. 2 big things happened at this point. Firstly, Kobe was no longer Kobe. He, along with Chris Paul, were very important in keeping things competitive. And secondly, the 3 point revolution started to ramp up. But as you’ll see, when you’re actually giving effort, you can shoot a ton of 3’s and still get to the line (I mean, as we see in every current NBA game)
2014 - 21
2015 - 15
2016 - 5
2017 - 8
2018 - 28 (with Kobe present.)
2019 - 15
2020 - 39 (for Kobe, when everyone can agree, they gave effort for stretches and quarters, with an incredibly competitive finish.
2021 - 10
2022 - 9
2023 - 4
2024 - 5 (they scored 400 points. 400 points with 5 total free throws.)
2025 - all 3 games combined 5
12 year total - 154.
They shot more free throws in 93 and 94 than the last 12 years COMBINED.
How can you possibly see this and believe the garbage that is spewed? To be frank, because they actually gave effort in most all star games, a lot of the pre 2000 ones are quite ugly at times. You have guys aware that they need to put on a show while the defense is still trying the majority of the time. Resulting in lots of ugly turnovers and misses.
I am NOT trying to insinuate that these games looked like regular season games (though, some of them do look like regular season games in 2025), but to act like All Star games have always been as bad as they’ve been the last 10 years is incredibly disingenuous and pretty much alternative history. Why do you think the game was played for 65 years before any tweaks were made if the game was always this bad? Do you think people were just stupid?
(all math was done in my head, so may be off by a teeny bit here and there)
Edit: I honestly thought I was gonna get downvoted into oblivion. I’m proud of you, NBA Reddit. There’s more of you who care about the integrity of this sport than I thought.