The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association are progressing toward an agreement for an All-Star Game on March 7 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, an overnight event that encompasses a game between the East and West Conferences and competitions of skills, said ESPN sources.
Although a formal agreement has not yet been finalized, the NBA and NBPA have been working on the details of a small-scale event that focuses on transporting players in and out of Atlanta in a significantly shorter time window than what it would be necessary on a typical All-Star weekend, the sources said. Security protocols are among the details that are still being resolved.
The NBA and the union are increasingly confident that many of the league’s best players are willing to participate during a tight mid-season break in this condensed pandemic calendar, the sources said. Outside of the NBA conference and finals, the All-Star Game has traditionally been at the top of the league’s fan engagement – another motivating factor in saving the event this season.
The gross financial impact of playing the game is immediately obscure. As the league reduced the regular season by 10 games and does not have a separate deal for the All-Star Game television, the league could also have generated more revenue by filling the weekend with more games from the regular season. The NBA and NBPA share roughly a 50-50 split in basketball-related revenue.
The NBA has made the All-Star event mandatory for players in the past, but exclusion clauses have been included in much of the pandemic, including Orlando’s restart and the 2020-2021 regular season. This is believed to be part of discussions around the All-Star Game as well, the sources said.
The NBA has a mid-season break scheduled for March 5-10. The league follows a truncated schedule of 72 games in the regular season, which includes a schedule for the second half that has not yet been announced. NBPA President Chris Paul has defended the idea of the Atlanta All-Star Game, including a plan to use the game to benefit historically black colleges and universities and help from COVID-19, the sources said. However, this is an idea that has met with resistance and skepticism among players and team executives. Even with protocol protections surrounding the game, many see this as an unnecessary risk to the league, players and support staff. The travel and safety protocols should be similar to a regular season NBA game – flying the night before on a private plane and flying after the game.
Atlanta is the home of Turner Sports, which can broadcast the game without having to send its team out of the city. Even a game without fans – or with a sparse and socially distant audience – would still require significant travel for players, support staff and league officials in the midst of the pandemic. The typical hosting of corporate sponsors, a significant financial component of normal All-Star weekends, would not be possible in the midst of the pandemic.
The NBA had originally postponed a February All-Star weekend scheduled for Indianapolis. Indiana has already been rewarded with the 2024 All-Star Game.