Serious question to the NBA: Do we want to grow the league or not?
All the talk in my feed has been about the decline of NBA viewership for the past few months. According to Sports Media Watch, games on ABC, ESPN, and TNT were down 25%, with pundits blaming everything from the modern obsession with the three-ball to load management. So it should come as little surprise when starters for the 2025 All-Star Game were released, highlighting familiar mainstays while showcasing a seeming reluctance to fully embrace some of the league’s talented young players.
I understand the sentiment as someone who grew up in the peak era of 2010s NBA basketball. I was raised on Steph, KD, and Bron. (Ask anybody who knows me - they’ll tell you Lebron is my king!) So, I can appreciate the league’s willingness to hold on to these legends for as long as it can.
Here’s the East starting five: Giannis Antetokuonmpo and Jayson Tatum are coupled with New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns to make up the East’s frontcourt. Their guards are the Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell and the Knicks’ talisman Jalen Brunson. In the West, the Nuggets’ ever-present Nikola Jokic earns a spot next to Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, making his second consecutive NBA All-Star starting appearance, with legends Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, both 36 years old and LeBron James, fresh off his 40th birthday, rounding out the group.
Solid group – on both sides, combining pedigree and performance. But for the next generation of NBA fans, it raises questions about a reluctance to showcase the fresh-faced young players experiencing break-out seasons, like LaMelo Ball and Victor Wembenyama.
And while criteria for voting doesn’t exclusively fall on the league – results are calculated through a formula that considers 50% fan voting, 25% player voting, and 25% media voting – the slight discrepancy between who fans are voting for and who appears in these starting fives continues to fuel the ongoing debates about the NBA’s declining ratings and whether it is prioritizing reenergizing the All-Star break while engaging fans. (Last year’s All-Star game in Indianapolis averaged just 5.5 million viewers across TNT, TBS, and TTR TV, the second lowest in history, trailing only the previous year’s numbers – and 2024 featured the Stephen Curry-Sabrina Ionescu NBA vs. WNBA 3-Point Challenge, which was a welcomed good look.) The league seems enamored with “the passing of the torch,” and today’s fans are getting antsy – especially with the vast array of talent increasingly growing each season.
The league must strike a delicate balance between managing the legacy and stardom of these mainstays and accounting for young stars like LaMelo Ball, who finished first in fan voting for East Conference guards.
The Hornets’ guard is averaging almost 30 points a game, and he’s doing it with a playstyle that includes one-legged three-pointers, circus layups, and nonchalant highlight-reel moments that explain why fans say he hoops “like he has one AirPod in” at all times. As a result, fans quickly called Ball’s exclusion from the starting five a snub, contrary to the media's opinion, which placed him seventh.
For the media members, the combination of Charlotte’s small market and record as one of the worst teams in the league is too large of an obstacle to overlook. Instead, they opted for players like the Bucks’ Damian Lillard (34), Atlanta’s Trae Young, and starting point guard Jalen Brunson – there’s no bigger market than New York City.
Only slightly better off are the San Antonio Spurs and Wembenyama, who will seemingly have to wait his turn, too. The reigning Rookie of the Year is changing the game in real-time. When has a center been able to lead the league in blocks while taking nearly 10 threes a night? It’s different. Despite Wemby’s must-watch basketball, the effect of legacy and tenure remain the biggest factors for player and media voters, and the message conveyed is imploring new stars to wait their turn.
The wait-your-turn mentality held by media members and influential NBA leadership remains the key source of frustration for fans who want to see real attempts to grow the league in new ways. It’s an old-school mentality that saw LeBron James snubbed from his first All-Star starting appearance during his rookie year (when he finished fourth in voting among Eastern Conference guards — behind Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, and Jason Kidd). And while cities and teams like Charlotte and San Antonio cannot compete with New York or Los Angeles, backing one or two burgeoning stars from growing markets would showcase a level of investment that would encourage fans. Talent is more widely spread across the league than ever, and smaller fanbases want to see their stars recognized – today. More than likely, players like Ball, Wemby, and others like Cleveland’s Darius Garland and Detroit’s Cade Cunningham will be recognized as All-Star reserves next week, but as fans, we will still have to sit and wait for the baton pass to the NBA’s next generation. We shouldn’t have to.