NBA All Star draft needs to be televised

John Ostermann, Online Editor-in-Chief

As the National Basketball Association All-Star weekend rolls around, the best players in the league are getting voted into the All-Star Game. This year the league decided to change the format of the teams.

In past years the teams would be split up into East and West and announced after voting closed. The top five vote getters would be named the starters for each side.

This year, however, the NBA announced that in the new format, players would still be chosen the same way, but afterward, the two players with the most votes would be captains and pick their teams, playground-style.

The decisions struck up conversation throughout the entire NBA world. Fans and media started speculating who would pick who.

In the weeks leading up to the draft, the NBA announced that it would not televise the draft and instead announce the teams after captains LeBron James and Stephen Curry picked their teams. This sent the NBA world into a frenzy, as media and fans and even some players complained about not being able to watch the draft.

TNT reporter and NBA analyst David Aldridge wrote a column about how the All-Star Draft would make for perfect TV. In it he discussed how the draft may work, being an hourlong broadcast on TNT with each player have some time to make his pick than the pick being discussed by a former players crew.

Doing it in this format would make fans around the world happy and generate lots of money that could be used for various different things. Aldridge suggests donating some money from fans to the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund and the Sager Strong Foundation.

This would also make for such interesting conversations with Curry and James, asking them to explain themselves after a pick.

A draft marks the first time the league has done anything for the All-Star Game in attempts to revitalize the competitive spirit of the game.

Last year was the culmination of the no defense game, with players not trying to stop the other team when they were on defense and it became a circus game with high flying dunks and three point shots being the primary scoring method for the game.

Adam Silver, the commissioner of the league, wants to make the game much more competitive and entertaining for the fans, and the draft is an attempt to do that. Pitting teammates against each other in what should be some entertaining basketball.

The league has taken a step in making the All-Star Game competitive again. However they need to take the opportunity next year to televise the draft and give the fans what they want.