After yet another disappointing NBA All-Star Weekend, there has been another round of talk about how to “fix” the league’s annual showcase. The ultimate conclusion may be that there’s no way for the league to force the players into participating in events or going all out in an exhibition game during their one extended break of the season, but that won’t stop everyone from pitching their ideas
The latest one that’s gaining some traction is a 1-on-1 tournament. In fact, the league has reportedly discussed implementing one with a $1 million prize, according to Front Office Sports.
Over All-Star Weekend in San Francisco, Rachel Nichols asked a number of players if they would be interested in such an event. The answers seemed to be overwhelmingly positive.
“Yeah for sure,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “If I had the chance to play one-on-one with anybody, I’d love to do it. Anything that can make the weekend more exciting, more fun, for the viewers and for the fans and for the players, I would love to participate.”
Anthony Edwards said “hell yeah,” when asked if he would sign up, while James Harden called the idea “fire.” Damian Lillard added that “all the true competitors would be open to it,” which Kyrie Irving echoed.
Perhaps the most notable answer, however, came from Donovan Mitchell. “I think it would be dope,” Mitchell said. “Do I think we’d do it? I don’t know.”
Unrivaled, the new 3-on-3 offseason league for WNBA players, co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, recently completed its inaugural 1-on-1 tournament to wide acclaim. There were two main reasons for its success: star buy-in and a highly desirable reward.
Including those who ended up being injured and lost their first-round matchup by default, Unrivaled’s tournament featured five All-WNBA players (out of 10) and 12 All-Stars from the 2024 season. And the only reason those numbers weren’t higher is because many stars, including A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark, aren’t playing in Unrivaled this season.
While Collier ended up winning the tournament, there were inevitably some surprise results, including Stewart getting shut out in the first round by rookie forward Aaliyah Edwards. No one actually thinks that Stewart is suddenly a bad player, but there were plenty of jokes made at her expense in the initial aftermath. Would NBA players be willing to deal with a similarly embarrassing moment?
Furthermore, Unrivaled put a $350,000 prize pool on the table, which included $200,000 to the winning player. A regular max contract for the upcoming 2025 WNBA season is $214,466, and — with the caveat that some players remain unsigned — there are only 25 players set to make $200,000 or more this summer.
Unrivaled 1-on-1 tournament winner: Napheesa Collier defeats Aaliyah Edwards in final to win $200,000 prize
Jack Maloney
Of course, it’s much easier for Unrivaled to deliver a legitimate financial incentive when WNBA salaries remain in the low six figures. The NBA equivalent of the 25th-highest salary for the 2025-26 season will be about $45 million, and no one is putting up that sort of stake for a 1-on-1 tournament. Is the reported $1 million prize enough to entice players who make more than that in two regular season games? Probably not. If they could get up to the $5-10 million range, however, it could be a different story.
As for the actual games, there would be room for plenty of debate about the rules. Unrivaled played by 2s and 3s to 11, save for the best-of-three championship series, which had a winning score of nine, and there were complaints that the games went too quickly. Likewise, only one guard made it to the semifinals, as bigs, particularly versatile forwards, dominated. Some consideration would have to be taken to prevent players like Antetokounmpo from simply overpowering everyone, for example.
All of those concerns, however, are secondary to getting at least 10-15 big names to commit. As Unrivaled showed, you don’t need every single great player, but you need a few legitimate superstars and a number of All-Stars to fill out the bracket and create real intrigue.
If the NBA can make that happen, everyone will tune in, regardless of the format or rules. If not, you could have the best designed 1-on-1 tournament ever and no one will care.
Unfortunately, NBA stars’ recent track record suggests we shouldn’t expect them to show up for a 1-on-1 tournament in the future — at least not on a wide scale. In the last decade, only two players who had previously been All-Stars, Dwight Howard (2020) and Jaylen Brown (2024), have participated in the Slam Dunk Contest. Steph Curry didn’t even participate in the 3-Point Contest this year when the Warriors were hosting the festivities.
It would be awesome if the NBA’s best players suddenly reversed course and delivered an exciting 1-on-1 competition, but no one should be holding their breath.
