The decision not to just hold an NBA All-Star Weekend in Atlanta, highlighted by the game itself on March 7, is as baffling as Commissioner Adam Silver’s efforts to triple it. Last night, Silver spoke to Inside the NBA about the All-Star Game, and Ernie Johnson opened the floor, discussing his surprise before giving the floor to Silver to explain his decision as to the reason for the NBA it needs an All-Star game.
Silver’s response was: “The fans”.
“All-Star is the number one fan engagement event of the entire season,” said Silver to EJ “For the league, it has been a tradition for 70 years, something like 100 million people will vote for All-Stars. The highlights of the All-Star Weekend have historically generated around one billion views. Something like 130 million people will watch the All-Star-Game on a global basis. “
Silver continued to highlight the initially mixed reactions to the NBA’s closure in March amid the COVID-19 outbreak and added that the NBA: a pandemic. Anyone can be closed. And for us, if we set out on a course, be it The Bubble in Orlando or this season, to present the league as close as possible to a normal state. So, for us, the All-Star is part of our league, it is not different from the games we play, and I will just end by saying that it starts and ends with the fans ”.
You can hear Silver say “fans” and simply replace that word with “money”.
This message also comes days after Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms asked that no fans come to the city for parties during the normally festive weekend.
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Included in his statement he said: “I shared my public health and safety concerns with the NBA and the Atlanta Hawks. We agree that this is a TV-only event and people should not travel to Atlanta for the party. There will be no NBA sanctioned events open to the public, and we encourage promoters, clubs, bars, etc. not to host events in this city related to this game.
Well … you can see for yourself that, at least as a joke and / or not officially, this is alreadyyou started.
Had the All-Star Game simply stayed in Indiana, where it was originally planned, it may not be a problem. But Atlanta? ÇWe can’t expect Atlanta to go silent about the All-Star Weekend … It’s Atlanta.
Still, as seen in the research above, as well over here, Twitter is allowing Silver to make the NBA decision to move forward with the All-Star Weekend. This will certainly not be easy and, although fans are highly regarded for this event, it mainly indicates that the financial gain (from viewers, sponsors, monetized activity on the Internet, etc.) is very attractive to pass up.. After all, the NBA is a business. You can label this as wrong, insecure or just deaf, but the All-Star Weekend’s insistence doesn’t make it the right or wrong thing to do; it just makes you American. You need not be surprised.