FS1
Fox Sports 1 personality Nick Wright believes he has a solution for the NBA’s All-Star game problem, particularly as it relates to the lack of competitiveness. According to Wright, if the teams were divided by race, “guys would play f-ing hard.”
This has been an idea that’s been jokingly kicked around in the NFL, with former Steelers running back sparking a massive debate in late 2023 when he called for a segregated Pro Bowl, leading sports media personalities such as the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast to construct an all-White Pro Bowl team.
Wright’s suggestion to apply that logic to the NBA, however, is the first time that sort of remedy has been suggested given that Black players have long dominated the NBA’s demographics.
Fox Sports 1’s Nick Wright believes that the NBA could fix the lack of competitiveness in the All-Star game by changing it to White players versus Black players
“It’s fixable in four years if your guy Kon Knueppel continues on this trajectory. And we just have to say, you know what? PC headlines be damned. White guys vs. Black guys. Luka, Joker, Flagg, Reaves, Knueppel against Wemby, whomever. There would be a real edge to the game. It would get a lot of attention,” Wright said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
Wright believes his argument is bolstered by the fact that the NBA is now at a point where there are enough talented White guys in the league that it’d actually be a competitive game, compared to 25-30 years ago.
“We are getting close to a place where it would be like, ‘Oh, that would be a good game!’ There hasn’t been a moment in the NBA in the last 50 years where if that ended up just by chance being the game, you could see either team winning.”
“I’m telling you right now — guys would play f—— hard,” he continued. “There would be a real edge to the game.”
The only NBA All-Star Game fix that @getnickwright thinks would actually work at this point 😂 pic.twitter.com/Z0snvhdMvi
— The Ringer (@ringer) February 11, 2026
In the NBA, 82 percent of the players were people of color, remaining constant from last year’s totals, which tied the highest percentage of players of color since the ‘94-95 season. Today, while that number remain more-or-less the same, the difference comes at the top tier of talent in the NBA, where there are far more White players now than there were in past decades.
25% of the 2026 NBA All-Star roster, for example, were White players (when European and similar international white athletes are included). In the year 2000, that number was 12%, which means the amount of elite NBA players has effectively doubled in the last quarter century.