4 Nations Credited for NBA All-Star Games Future Days After Hockey Analyst Reveals Brutal Reality: ‘Ice Is Cooler’

Big changes are afoot in the NBA. After signing a mammoth TV broadcast rights deal with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video, the leadership is working on something else. This time, their target is the NBA All-Star game. While the league already made the drastic change to the 2025 All-Star game, the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off success may be inspiring another big change.

With fans’ discourse deeming the commitment from athletes to be less passionate, the NBA scrambled to make changes to the star-studded game. And it was a big change in the format. The Rising Stars tournament winners from All-Star Saturday took on the All-Stars in a tournament-style clash. Unfortunately, the change prompted players like Draymond Green to voice their criticism of the format. “Now we get the treat of watching the Olympic team play against a U-19 team. Come on, what are we doing?” said Green. Yet, the NBA is not doing away with the tournament format.

In fact, in a bid to excite fans, while bringing more eyeballs to the game, the NBA may add an international element to the NBA All-Star game. And as Dylan Alibrandi put it, it could all be because, “The ice is always cooler,” while reporting the news. That’s because NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman gave the NHL ratings a massive boost with the 4 Nations Face-Off.

While the NBA commission didn’t name the NHL tournament’s success, fans put two and two together because the premier hockey and basketball leagues often do similar things. Commissioner Adam Silver and President of League Operations Byron Spruell spilled the details on Monday. They explained that new broadcast partners NBC and the NBAPA are also part of the discussion. So what’s the plan?

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Byron Spruell, the NBA's president of league operations, acknowledged that the league is having discussions with the NBAPA and broadcast partner NBC over replacing the All-Star Game's current format with an international competition next season.… pic.twitter.com/j2lYfQU0UG

— ESPN (@espn) April 29, 2025

“Given the strong interest we’ve seen in international basketball competitions, most recently in last summer’s Olympics in Paris, we’re discussing concepts with the players’ association that focus on NBA players representing their countries or regions instead of the more traditional formats that we’ve used in the past,” Silver told The Athletic. And while Silver didn’t mention the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, the fans did in the comments.

The undeniable impact of the 4 Nations tournament

The NHL replaced its All-Star game with the 4 Nations Face-Off this year. While some fans and even the team pushed back on the idea, things changed when the tournament actually began. Ratings skyrocketed, and now fans think the NBA is following suit. “Tell me you watched Four Nations without telling me you watched Four Nations,” one fan said in the comments section.

Yet, everyone wasn’t amused with the idea of the NBA’s version of 4 Nations Face-Off. “So was the logic here… Hey we don’t know what to do with the sinking ship, let’s plug it with what the @NHL did?” asked another fan. Now you may be wondering why the fan called the NBA a ‘sinking ship’ when it just signed a $77 billion deal with ESPN and new partners NBC and Amazon?

Well, although the NBA saw a 0.6% growth in stadium attendance (18,147 fans/game), their second-highest average number, the TV ratings have been in decline. A slow start to the 2024-25 season saw TV ratings plummet by double digits. And although things picked up in the second half of the season, Nielsen uncovered a 5% YOY decline in viewership, mostly across TNT Networks.

In fact, the fans and experts have talked about the declining rating for nearly the whole season. So the netizens in the comments believe that the NBA wants to remedy the decline by replicating the NHL’s formula. “NBA leadership hacks couldn’t create a decent All-Star game idea for a decade, then the NHL developed the 4 Nations Face-Off which was a hit and the NBA instantly had to copy it,” complained another basketball fan.

Funnily, the 4 Nations tournament may have been a byproduct of the NHL trying to revitalize its own ratings. Well, that’s because the NBA didn’t suffer from rating woes alone. The National Hockey League saw an 11% decline in ratings. And that’s after the wildly successful international tournament. Here’s a run-down of the numbers if you’re wondering how successful the tournament was.

16.1 million viewers in North America (9.3 million in USA and 6.3 million in Canada) tuned in for the 4 Nations final between the USA and Canada. Yes, that’s just the finals. Yet, many fans thought the other problem every spoke about during the NBA season would hold them back. “The NHL’s success stemmed from genuine on-ice competition,” commented one fan.

Teams showed up with intensity and purpose. No format or matchup will matter if the players don’t bring that same level of commitment and compete at the highest standard,” the netizen added. And the fan wasn’t wrong. “I’m just so thrilled to be part of the team. I don’t care if I fill water bottles the whole tournament. I’m just happy to be there,” said then-Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand about playing in the NHL’s first international tournament since 2016.

Now, that’s quite a different reaction to the one Draymond Green had when the NBA changed the All-Star format. Even P.K. Subban raised the issue in February. “4 Nations works because the players are all in. They’re all!” the analyst said during his NBA on ESPN segment. Yet, things won’t be the same in the coming season with NBC on board.

Many, including The Athletics’ John Hollinger, argue that NBC’s massive network may reverse the 5% drop in the coming season. After all, ESPN’s NBA broadcast numbers remained nearly the same, while TNT saw the biggest drop. Silver and Spruell also highlighted NBC’s interest in making the change happen next year.

“NBC is very much leaning into it, given their role – we are, as well,” Spruell told The Athletic. So while remaining reluctant to the announcement, who knows? The NBA’s twist to a 4 Nations Face-Off-like tournament may surprise everyone, just like the NHL did this year. And with that, let us know about your theories regarding the proposed change.

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