In the face of considerable skepticism, even by the standards of a year defined by doubt, the NBA has officially announced that it plans to hold an All-Star Game.
The NBA announced Thursday that it has scheduled its annual All-Star Game for Sunday, March 7, from Atlanta. The game and ancillary events would air as usual on TNT. Prior to the schedule-altering events of the past year, the game was originally supposed to take place from Indianapolis this past Sunday.
As has previously been reported, the NBA plans to stage all of its usual All-Star weekend events on the same day. The game itself, scheduled to begin at 8 PM ET, would be preceded by the three-point shooting contest and skills challenge at 6:30 PM. The dunk contest would take place at halftime.
TNT plans to begin its coverage with a 90-minute pregame show at 5 PM.
The NBA would be the only league to stage an All-Star Game since the wave of cancellations and postponements that decimated the sports industry last March. Last year’s All-Star Game — one of the last marquee sporting events before sports went on hiatus — averaged a 4.1 rating. That ended up as the third-highest NBA rating in the calendar year of 2020, a year in which the months-delayed NBA Finals set all-time lows in September and October.
Given the sports ratings trend of late, it is extremely unlikely that this year’s All-Star Game would fare as well in the ratings. Nonetheless, the game would have to do extremely poorly not to deliver TNT’s top NBA audience of the season so far.
The decision to hold an All-Star Game has been controversial, with the league’s best players stating their opposition. In a year where every return plan has been viewed with doubt — even the NBA “bubble” in Orlando was initially criticized as an irresponsibly dangerous risk — the All-Star Game has stood out for scrutiny, largely because it is an exhibition that has no bearing on the league’s ability to conduct its season.
It should be noted that the NBA has gone without an All-Star Game before. In 1999, league owners canceled the game as part of their lockout of players.
Should the NBA All-Star Game be played as scheduled, it would be the first of two potential All-Star games in Atlanta this year. The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is set for the same city in July.
[News from NBA]
