While San Francisco did pretty well hosting the NBA All-Star Game this weekend, the game itself was an absolute snooze, though Steph Curry made a wild half-court shot and took the MVP honors.

San Francisco certainly did its job well in hosting the NBA All-Star Game this weekend, by which we mean no one torched a Waymo, there were no smash-and-grabs in Union Square, and our city avoided any major embarrassments during a smooth weekend of high-profile tourist events.  And there was genuine excitement downtown in the lead-up to the game. But that excitement quickly came to an end when the All-Star Game itself tipped off, though as the Chronicle notes, it wasn’t really even a game, but instead a three-game mini-tournament in a new format that failed to liven up the proceedings.

The anti-climatic climax of the evening featured Steph Curry's team (called “Shaq’s OGs”) winning the third and final game in a incredibly uncompetitive 41-25 contest. Yes, a team scored just 25 points in an NBA All-Star Game, a far cry from last year’s All-Star game when the two teams scored a combined 397 points. But under this strange new format, the games are over once one team hits 40 points.

Curry was at least cooking, and his halfcourt shot at the beginning of the above highlight reel was really one of the only memorable moments of the whole night. And frankly, there wasn’t even that much basketball in this affair. As CBS Sports points out. “Sunday's All-Star Game ‘presentation’ ran for almost three hours and had about 30 minutes of actual basketball.”

A tribute to the network TNT, who were broadcasting their final NBA All-Star Game, went 18 minutes long. That was longer than any of these mini-"games."

The three-game mini-tournament format failed to provide more competitive juices. Draymond Green flat-out said on the air "it sucks," as ESPN notes, adding that he ranked the new format as a "zero" on a scale of one to ten. The first game was a matchup of actual All-Stars and what they call the “Rising Stars,” that is, players in their first or second year. Draymond said dismissively, “Now we get the treat of watching the Olympic team vs a U19 team,” meaning, it was like the Olympics 'Dream Team' against an ‘Under 19’ team.

And while notorious San Francisco hater Charles Barkley did not hurl any insults at our city,  he had harsh words for Draymond Green's take. “I'm going to disagree with Draymond a lot,” Barkley said in response, then effectively blamed Green’s generation of players for making the All-Star Game so uncompetitive. “They messed the game up, that’s why we’re trying this kamikaze stuff. His generation messed the game up.”

Steph Curry winning the game’s MVP Award in front of the hometown fans was at least a nice storybook finish (though in these abbreviated games, Curry’s 12 points were all it took to win MVP, and he scored eight points in the first mini-game). And it was fun having San Francisco in the national spotlight for the weekend. But otherwise, there was not much else memorable about the 2025 NBA All-Star Game.

Related: Sotheby’s Is Auctioning Off the NBA All-Star Game Players’ Game-Worn Jerseys, Including Steph Curry’s [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 16: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors and Shaq's OGs poses with the 2025 KIA Kobe Bryant MVP trophy during the 74th NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center on February 16, 2025 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)