Steph Curry claimed the Kobe Bryant MVP trophy and led Shaq’s OGs to the All-Star title at Chase Center in San Francisco.
The NBA rolled out a new format with four teams, each coached by a legend, competing in a single-elimination tournament as two semi-finals and a championship game.
Curry, 36, scored 12 points in the final to seal a 41-25 victory against Chuck’s Global Stars. “I had a lot of fun,” Curry said.
“The intensity was definitely different than last year, a step in the right direction. It’s something new, everybody is still trying to figure it out.”
Four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal coached the winning team, with two-time NBA winner Kenny Smith, 11-time All-Star Charles Barkley and three-time WNBA champion Candace Parker in -charge of the other three sides.
Curry ended the competition with 20 points in total, having scored eight points in the 42-35 semi-final win against Candace’s Rising Stars, and was named MVP.
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The Golden State Warriors point guard is the 15th player in NBA history to win the All-Star MVP on more than one occasion.
The 2024 All-Star game drew criticism with both teams combining to score 397 points in Indianapolis, and organisers were hoping a new format might help to bring back a competitive edge.
Aside from making it a mini-tournament with semi-finals and final, one of the key changes was games being played on a first-to-40-points basis rather than across four quarters.
MVP Curry was among those to praise the NBA for trying something new.
“I think it was a good step in the right direction to reinvigorate the game in some way,” Curry said.
Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard was also on the winning side and echoed the thoughts of Curry.
“I think they’re just looking for a more competitive game and trying to find ways to create that and it was a little bit more competitive than they have been the last few years,” Lillard said.
“That’s the number one thing, to provide the entertainment and competitiveness on the floor, and I thought it was a little bit more of that.”
However, Curry’s Golden State Warriors team-mate Draymond Green, who was working as a television analyst for the event, was critical of the change.
Asked to rate it on a scale, Green said, “Ten being the best? A zero. It sucks. Awful. You work all year to be an All-Star and you get to play up to 40 (points) and then you’re done,'” Green added on TNT.
