The format for this year’s NBA All-Star Game is actually pretty cool. Rather than dividing the two All-Star teams up by conference like they’ve done for decades, the NBA decided to allow two of its best players—LeBron James and Steph Curry—to hold an NBA All-Star draft to determine which players would play on which teams. It’s added some much-needed intrigue to the All-Star Game and should hopefully result in a better product on Sunday night.
The one issue many people had with the All-Star draft, though, was that it wasn’t televised. LeBron and Steph got together and made their picks, but they did so in private, which means we won’t ever know which players went first and last. The NBA likely did this to protect players’ egos, but it was a sore spot for many fans who wanted to get a peek behind the curtain and see what the draft order actually was.
In the aftermath of the All-Star draft, LeBron and Steph both came out and said they wished it would have been televised. LeBron was slightly more outspoken about it, while Steph seemed to nod along with the sentiment and say that he would have liked to see the draft televised.
But now, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has reminded everyone that that wasn't necessarily Curry's original position. Prior to the draft, Curry said he wasn't in favor of televising it, and while speaking with Rachel Nichols on ESPN's The Jump on Thursday, Silver said he agreed with Curry's pre-draft assessment.
"I agree with Steph," Silver said. "He was the one who said, 'Give us a break. We changed the format for the first time. Let’s see how it goes, and we can talk about televising it.'"
The funny thing is that if the draft is televised in the future, LeBron and Steph won’t have to be the ones to worry about it. Since they're serving as captains this year, it’s unlikely they’ll return as captains next year or in any of the future seasons.
But it's interesting to hear that Steph was against televising the draft from the jump, and it suggests other players might be against it, too. As much as fans might want it, it won’t be a surprise if All-Star captains opt against televising their picks moving forward, assuming the NBA decides to stick with this format in the first place.
Silver speaks on Curry’s thoughts on televising the All-Star draft at around the 1:45 mark of the clip above.
