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🏀 ‘Every possible remedy.’ NBA commissioner Adam Silver said at All-Star weekend that the league is exploring all pathways to limit tanking. In the lead-up to Silver’s comments, the league levied six-figure fines upon the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers after both teams sat healthy players to improve their draft position. Silver confirmed the situation is worse than in previous years, and the league’s efforts have not worked.

🎥 WBD eyeing Paramount. Despite a binding deal with Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly close to entertaining Paramount’s offer to buy it. The news comes after the Ellison-family backed Paramount offer was upgraded to include a lucrative “ticking fee” and billions more to cover WBD’s Netflix breakup fee and debt refinancing. If Paramount buys WBD, it would take over the company’s cable networks — and all its sports rights.

⚾ No more balls & strikes. With MLB adopting the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System this season, allowing hitters and pitchers to challenge pitches, broadcasts will no longer delineate balls vs. strikes in real time. Pitch location will still be animated atop a strike zone, but without a distinction for balls and strikes.

🇺🇸 More fuel for SAS’s fire. ESPN star Stephen A. Smith appeared on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend for a sit-down with national reporter Robert Costa. Perhaps Costa was merely promoting the big interview, but he compared Smith’s hunger for politics to a 2012-era Donald Trump, strongly indicating Smith could run.

The NBA All-Star game was good!

Next comes figuring out why.

The 75th edition of the league’s midseason showcase was replete with many updates, all of which added up to a product that was competitive and entertaining. Both fans at home and commissioner Adam Silver seemed satisfied with the results of an event that has been waning in viewership and legitimacy for a while.

Was it the Team USA vs. World format? The earlier start time? Shorter games with a set time? Or did Kawhi Leonard just get a jolt from playing in front of his home fans at Intuit Dome, and that energized the rest of the players?

Viewership is bound to track upward, with the 5 p.m. ET start and the NBC broadcast network carrying the game. More importantly, public perception seems to be tracking just as well.

“The NBA had three excellent games out of four today in its new U.S.-World format,” wrote The Athletic’s David Aldridge, a longtime NBA reporter. “The players made great shots, like they do every year – but they also gave real effort at both ends. All anyone wants.”

Effort was noticeably better. Rather than a highlight reel of breakaway dunks and pull-up 3s, All-Stars actually played transition defense. The game was played more in the half-court, where the 1-on-1 moments and individual plays fans want to see are bound to happen far more.

For the first time, the NBA and NBC created a format in which teams played single, 12-minute games in a round-robin fashion. In previous years, teams played to a target score and games could drag. Perhaps players buckled in because they had a clearer sense of the game's scope.

There is also a well-known motivation on the part of NBA All-Stars to vacate the host city early, in order to get out of town for a quick vacation before games resume midweek. While it sounds ridiculous, starting the game a few hours earlier may have put a pep in certain stars’ steps, knowing they could catch a flight to some tropical destination before night’s end.

As for the roster setup, the changes ran deeper than simply pitting international players against American ones. The two U.S. teams were also (unofficially) split up by age. The “Stripes” team featured young players like MVP Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxey, and Cade Cunningham, who stepped up to win the mini tournament.

Add in the fact that Victor Wembanyama followed through on his promise to represent France and the World team, and it was enough to improve the product. Wembanyama scored 33 points across the two 12-minute games he played, producing a highlight reel on both ends of the floor.

Perhaps there is a new generation of NBA players who took the criticism toward the All-Star personally. The World format added new spice to the proceedings, though the NBA has said it might hold this setup for Olympic years going forward. And NBC’s earlier, more expeditious scheduling likely helped.

NBC will get All-Star weekend for the duration of its 11-year deal with the NBA. But neither side can afford patience. The league has a PR crisis on its hands with All-Star, and its very public desperation for a solution isn’t helping. You want to take wins when they come.

When NBA executives meet this week to chart a path for 2027, the scheduling might be all they can control. You can never guess who will be an All-Star (and in the NBA, who will be healthy in mid-February). The national team format may go. The league will still need to maintain this momentum.

Good luck.

Ilia Malinin’s eighth-place finish on Friday night in northern Italy was one of the big shocks of the Winter Olympics so far. The NBC broadcast went from a celebration of the prodigal American skater — whom thousands turned out to watch — to the documentation of a tragedy in mere moments.

Awful Announcing’s Sam Neumann spoke with two NBC producers about what it was like on the ground and how they pivoted on the fly to capture the disappointment of Malinin’s free skate.

Click to read more on how NBC delivered Malinin’s excruciating night to American viewers back home.

“He’s just misguided; he just doesn’t have the information. He’s just screaming about whatever that he’s annoyed about, and he’s putting Boomer in a category that he’s not in.” - Gregg Giannotti, defending WFAN cohost Boomer Esiason amid a continuing feud with Dan Le Batard Show producer Mike Ryan.

“Beijing, I would not have skated like that.” - American Ilia Malinin, on a hot mic. Malinin was left at home from the 2022 Olympics in favor of the more experienced Jason Brown.

“We have a very young audience, and people were predicting that ratings would go down because our audience wouldn’t find the games since they were no longer on cable. It’s been the exact opposite.” - NBA commissioner Adam Silver on the NBA’s uptick in viewership since moving games to Peacock and Prime Video.

"I always enjoyed watching us beat Indiana." - Former president Barack Obama, answering a question from NBC’s Reggie Miller at the NBA All-Star game about his favorite memories of growing up watching Michael Jordan in Chicago.

I’m handing over The Closer this week to a colleague…

Just when everyone thought Stephen A. Smith had learned his lesson and receded back into his successes and enormously lucrative platform in the commentary lane, he is back, teasing a presidential run, this time with the help of CBS’s top TV reporter.

The situation in the country has gotten far more violent and chaotic since Smith first opened the door for a run, but the ESPN host’s tune largely has not changed.

Smith continues to be most interested in debating other Democratic hopefuls in the lead-up to the 2028 election. When he does weigh in on important issues weighing on the hearts and minds of Americans, he is far more likely to infuriate people than bring them into a movement.

Awful Announcing’s Sean Keeley breaks down the latest in SAS 2028 and explores the accuracy of Robert Costa’s comparison of Smith to 2012 Donald Trump.