There is perhaps no more respected voice among NBA players outside of their own circle than former president Barack Obama. A well-known basketball fan that roots for the Chicago Bulls, Obama frequently hosted players at the White House for pickup games during his presidency. And when the players in the Orlando bubble in 2020 needed to decide whether or not they should keep playing after the shooting of Jacob Blake, they turned to Obama for counsel. His voice carries weight in the basketball world.
So, hopefully, his criticism of the NBA All-Star Game on Wednesday gets noticed before next February's event. The former president appeared on "The Young Man and the Three" podcast as a guest of Tyrese Haliburton, one of the show's new, rotating hosts, and took aim at the young All-Star for the way he and his contemporaries have handled the mid-season exhibition.
To sum up his complaint in a single quote, Obama asked the players to "take it more seriously," because in the game's current state, he doesn't plan to watch it anymore.
"Y'all gotta have a little more pride in that All-Star Game," Obama said. "It's not as if you all don't play pickup during the summers. You know how to play in a way that, 'alright, I'm not going to hurt anybody, I'm not going to take anybody out.' But that All-Star Game, it's broke, man."
"It insults the game," Obama added. "This is your business. This is your product. You don't want people thinking you're all out there just half-assed."
Last year's All-Star Game saw a ridiculous 397 total points, but they didn't come from high-flying action with fun highlights. Players simply didn't try on defense. Over 58% of the shots taken in the game were 3-pointers as ball-handlers lazed the ball up the court and walked into jumpers. All of this happened despite a major push from the league to convince the players to play harder. As Haliburton noted, Larry Bird spoke to them before the game to try to urge them to play harder.
Obama suggested that the reason players take such a lackadaisical approach to the All-Star Game today are their enormous salaries. Players don't want to risk injuries in an exhibition game when they have hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, but they also may not see as much of a need to sell the game to fans in a showcase event like the All-Star Game because they're already making so much.
But Obama's attitude is probably going to permeate throughout the basketball world. Nobody wants to watch such an uncompetitive game. If the players won't take the game seriously, the fans won't either.