Draymond Green slams lackluster effort in NBA All-Star Game

The 2024 NBA All-Star Game received immense criticism for the players’ lack of effort, resulting in the most points scored and three-pointers attempted in the game’s history.

Draymond Green, whose Golden State Warriors teammate Stephen Curry participated in the game, said the reason the players don’t try more in the All-Star Game is because the pre-game activities expected of All-Stars take away time they could put toward preparing their bodies for the game.

“It’s called game day for a reason. Everything you do that day is to prepare for the game. The All-Star Game, you do a million other things before the game, and then you’re asking the highest level of athletes to then go exert an extreme amount of energy. So if you want the game to be a game, you need to make sure that guys can prepare for what? A game,” Green said.

Green, who believes a larger financial incentive for the winner of the All-Star Game is not a good solution, also suggested the NBA put more focus on the physical therapists and athletic training staffs that typically help the players get ready for games.

“The NBA should be covering physios being there. That physio’s travel, that physio’s hotel room, that physio being at the reans. Everybody keeps saying, ‘Ah man, raise it up to a million dollars,’ that’s when you’re going to get guys hurt. Because if it’s the same obligations to where you can’t focus on getting your body ready for a game, and then you’re going to say, ‘Hey, here’s a bright, shiny object that is a million dollars,’ that’s when you’re going to get guys getting hurt. Why? Because they are exerting energy to get a million dollars and not properly prepared to exert that energy. So if we want to make this a real game, then let’s make it a real game day.”

Whether the NBA’s biggest stars would try in any scenario is questionable. There have been fewer and fewer notable All-Star Games over the year, and this year’s may have been the worst in terms of effort.