The United States against the world? The NBA is back and is already thinking about the matchup everyone wants to see | satisfaction

Last February, for the first time in the history of the All-Star Game, one of the two teams exceeded 200 points in one game. Led by Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton, the Eastern Conference won the duel and broke the scoring record in a spectacle that was far from what the league was looking for. After changing the format back to East vs. West in this past edition, the NBA is open to a new idea. One that has floated around social networks, media and fans for years. The United States against the rest of the world, as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver asserted.

He did so in an interview with NBA legend Charles Barkley CNN. “We put a lot of thought into it,” Silver said when asked about the format. None of the recent editions have been competitive enough to sustain the project for more than two or three years, and the league is looking for a solution. A game that saves, once and for all, the All-Star Game, the final climax of the All-Star weekend. “It was a great weekend, but it wasn't a basketball game,” Silver said of the lack of competitiveness. A problem they seek to solve by touching on something key about the United States: its pride.

After losing three of the eight matches he played in the last World Cup finals, against Lithuania, Germany and Canada. USA Basketball has decided to send a team similar to the Dream Team to the upcoming Olympics, even signing Joel Embiid as an inside player. The prevailing feeling is that just imagining a hypothetical defeat against an international team might make the American team take the match more seriously. For talent and players The scales have never been more balanced with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid taking home the last five MVP awards.And the certainty that this year's winner, whether it's Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Luka Doncic, won't be born in the United States either. There have never been so many international players at this high level before.

But the problem also lies with the European players. Neither Jokic nor Doncic have taken the game seriously yet, knowing that it is a friendly game. for this reason, Silver can be open to other types of ideas“I think instead of trying to play a hyper-competitive basketball game, which I'm not sure the teams or players really want, we should do things differently and make it a celebration of basketball,” he added. The option on the table could be a format where the outcome is irrelevant. “I think we're past that point where we're going to play a really competitive game,” Silver admitted. He gave as an example the competition between Sabrina Ionescu and Steph Curry.

All-Star Weekend is, at once, an NBA spectacle and an oasis of respite for players, those selected and those not, during the hectic regular season. Demanding high competitiveness from the 24 selected teams is complicated, and the league itself lacks arguments: neither money, nor pride, nor defending its own conference is the reason. So that LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and company will play another game with the risk of injury. The NBA will find a temporary solution, a patch, before it needs to change again, but if the option is available Playing the United States against the rest of the world is on the table, and we at least deserve to see it for a year. Even if it was a failure.