The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association are moving toward an agreement for an all-star game on March 7 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, a single night event that includes a game between the Eastern and Western conferences and skill competitions. , sources said. ESPN.
While a formal agreement has yet to be finalized, the NBA and NBPA have worked through the details of a scaled-down event aimed at transporting players in and out of Atlanta in a significantly shorter amount of time than on a typical All-Star weekend, sources said. Security protocols are among the details yet to be ironed out.
The NBA and the union are increasingly confident that enough of the league’s top players are willing to take part in a short intermission to this shortened pandemic schedule. In addition to the conference and the NBA Finals, the All-Star Game has traditionally been the pinnacle of fans for the league – another motivating factor to save the event this season.
The raw financial impact of the game is immediately unclear. Because the league reduced the regular season by ten games and did not have a separate All-Star television deal, the league could also generate more revenue by filling the weekend with more regular season games. The NBA and NBPA share about 50-50 in basketball-related revenue.
The NBA has made the All-Star event mandatory for players in the past, but opt-out provisions have been included in many of the pandemics, including the restart of Orlando and the regular season 2020-2021. It is apparently also part of the discussions around the All-Star Game, sources said.
The NBA has an inter-season break on March 5-10. The league is aiming for a cut-off schedule of 72 games for the regular season, which includes a second-half schedule yet to be announced. NBPA president Chris Paul was a proponent of the Atlanta All-Star Game idea, including a plan to use the game to benefit historic black colleges and universities and COVID-19 enlightenment, sources said. It is nonetheless an idea that has received resistance and skepticism from both players and team managers. Even with protocol protections around the game, many see it as an unnecessary risk to the league, players and support staff. The travel and safety protocols are expected to be similar to an NBA game in the regular season – to fly a private jet the night before and fly out after the game.
Atlanta is home to Turner Sports, which can broadcast the game without having to send its crew out of town. Even a match without fans – or with a sparse, socially distributed attendance – would still have to regard players, support staff and league officials in the teeth of the pandemic. The typical presentation of corporate sponsors, which is a major financial component of normal All-Star weekends, would not be possible in the midst of the pandemic.
The NBA originally postponed an All-Star Weekend series for Indianapolis in February. Indiana has since been rewarded with the 2024 All-Star Game.