This year’s NBA All-Star Game in Chicago is going to have a different format and apparently you can give Chris Paul a lot of the credit for that.
The new format features the scores being reset after the first and second quarters. The winning team of each quarter will be allocated $100,000 to donate to Chicago-area community organizations. For the fourth quarter, the teams’ total scores will be utilized and then it will be a race to reach a target score.
The target score will be 24 points on top of the leading team’s point total through three quarters. Meaning if Team LeBron leads Team Giannis 123-114 after three quarters, the teams would race to 147 — 123 + 24.
Paul pitched some form of the idea to NBA commissioner Adam Silver and both went to work on making it happen. That’s how Silver told the story in a one-on-one interview with NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson.
“The genesis of this latest tweak comes directly from Chris Paul, who called me last summer and said, ‘I’m a big fan of The Basketball Tournament. And are you familiar with the so-called Elam endings?’ And I said I was. I’ve watched it a few times. I said, ‘It’s fascinating to me.’ I think in some cases it’s confusing to some fans. But Chris said, ‘I think it’s terrific. I think we should look at changing the format.’ I said, ‘If that’s something you’re serious about, why don’t you talk to other members of your executive committee — he’s the president of the players association — and other players whose views you respect and I’ll talk to my colleagues at the league office and members of our competition committee. And what we heard back from everyone was it sounds really intriguing. Let’s try something new.”
The Basketball Tournament is an open invitation tournament with $2 million in prize money. Starting in 2017, TBT adopted the Elam endings Paul was referring to for some of its games and a year later used it for every game.
Named after Ball State professor Nick Elam, the twist is that the game clock is turned off at the first whistle in the final four minutes of the game. The teams then play to a target score, like the All-Star Game will have this year. The shot clock remains in play, but the idea is to eliminate the need for late-game fouling.
NBA
“We combined a few different concepts here,” Silver said. “Our so-called Elam ending is different than the traditional Elam ending where you get to a certain point at the end of the game and you have eight points. We had still been exploring different concepts. But as we were looking at ways to commemorate Kobe, this notion of adding 24 points in the fourth quarter was suggested by a few people. That seemed fitting. Sort of independent of the Elam concept was making each quarter in its own right a competition and creating a charitable association with the outcome for each quarter. For us, it felt like something new to try.”
The new format sounds relatively complicated, but probably will be easier to understand once everyone sees it in action. The All-Star Game has been dogged for its lack of competition in recent years. Silver is hoping the fresh coat of paint will help revitalize the event.
“I’ve learned the hard way in my many years here is people generally don’t like change,” Silver said. “I mean, everyone talks a good game about innovation. But then when you try it, there are plenty of critics out there. But at the end of the day, I feel you have to be extraordinarily cautious about affecting our regular season or playoffs. But when it comes to an All-Star game, it is a celebratory occasion. I hear from those who say, ‘I remember back in the day, players competed in a different fashion in All-Star.’ But like a lot of things in life, they change. We have a partnership with our players and this is something they think they’ll have fun in. I recognize you want to have a competitive game. But this is not the place necessarily you want players to go all out and risk potential injury. I think this is something new and intriguing for fans.”
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