Stephen Curry says All-Star Game changes “great for the game”

The NBA All-Star Game has felt especially flat the past couple of seasons. With nothing on the line and nobody wanting to get hurt, it’s been a dunk fest that resembles the NBA game only in the players’ names and the size of the court.

This year the NBA is going to change it up, no more East vs. West, instead they go playground style — the top vote-getters will be the captains and they will select the rest of the team from the All-Star pool (starters voted in by fans/players/media, the reserves picked by the coaches). The teams will now play for charity, so there is at least something on the line.

Stephen Curry likes it, as he told reporters in China, via Nick Friedell of ESPN.

“I think it’s great for the game to kind of spice it up a little bit,” Curry told ESPN before Wednesday’s practice. “Give the fans a little bit more interest in how the teams are going to unfold. It’s great to follow how the 24-man rosters are voted on by the fans and the coaches but now there’s another element of mixing the East and the West and giving different combinations of guys out there on the floor. So it should be a pretty cool vibe to test it out and see how it goes.”

Curry very likely could be one the two captains, either he or teammate Kevin Durant almost certainly will be the highest vote-getter in the West. Curry said if a captain he would take a teammate first, because it would be weird not to.

I agree that this adds some spice to the game, it’s a good start. I’d rather have seen the league go best 24 players regardless of conference, but this is a start. Also, they need to make the captains selecting the team a public event or show somehow — LeBron picks first and takes Durant, Curry is next and takes Draymond Green, and on down the line. Yes, that means somebody gets picked last, but still, that picking process would be more entertaining than the game itself.

We’ll see if all of this makes a better show.