NBA Reconfigures All-Star Game Again, Taking Cues From NHL, Olympics, Golf
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 01:56PM By Barry Janoff
November 12, 2025: In what has been an on-going quest to find what it feels is the right format for its All-Star Game, the NBA is looking at the Olympics, NHL and even golf for a successful formula.
The NBA and National Basketball Players Assn. said a new U.S. vs. World format would be in place for the Feb. 15, 2026 NBA All-Star Game in the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., home of the LA Clippers.
There will be three teams each with a minimum of eight players — two USA squads and a third with a roster of international players (known as the World team) — competing in a round-robin tournament to decide the ultimate winner.
It will air on NBC and Peacock under the league’s new media deal. NBC said the game would air at 5 PM (ET) rather than its traditional 8 PM (ET) immediately following the network’s coverage of a Team USA Hockey game at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, which it is also exclusively broadcasting.
“There is no question you try to learn from everybody else,” commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN. “What the NHL did with Four Nations (Face-Off this past February) was incredibly successful. In addition, it is moving to NBC this year (from) TNT and it falls smack in the middle of the Winter Olympics. so we want to take advantage that we have this global international competition where (our) country is focused on ‘USA! USA!’ taking on other countries.
“So we are going to move to a Ryder Cup format (a three-day match play competition with three types of matches: Foursomes, Four-balls and Singles) taking it from golf as well as hocke., But because we have an imbalance in the league of international players to U.S. players — roughly 30% of our players were born outside the United States — you have to play with the format a little bit.”
The league has been adjusting its All-Star Game format for several years, mainly due to pushback from fans and others that it lacked excitement, competitiveness and interest from the players themselves.
Last season, the NBA used a mini-tournament of four teams: Three were teams with NBA All-Stars, the fourth was the winner of a Rising Stars tournament comprised of first- and second-year players.
“Last year we were hoping for more,” said Silver. “The format didn’t quite work.
“But the players care, I think the guys will be motivated because of the Olympic atmosphere we’ll be in the middle of, wanting to play for their country.”
The All-Star Friday Night Rising Stars game (featuring NBA rookies and second-year players) as well as the All-Star Saturday Night events, including the Dunk Contest and 3-Point Contest, will also take place in the Intuit Dome (all on NBC Sports and Peacock).
As with previous events, 24 NBA All-Stars (12 from each conference) will be selected as follows:
The five players named as starters from each conference will be selected by fans (50% of the vote), current NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%), and the seven players honored as reserves from each conference will be selected by NBA head coaches.
This year, the All-Stars will be selected without regard to position. The process for assigning players to the two U.S. teams will be determined at a later date.
If NBA All-Star voting does not result in the selection of 16 U.S. players and eight international players — which can include American players with ties to other countries if necessary — Silver would select additional All-Stars to join either group to reach that minimum. In that case, at least one team would have more than eight players.
Silver said all of the time and energy being put into the All-Star Game format Is worth the effort.
“There is something about the NBA All-Star Game,” he told ESPN. “I was in Europe this summer doing some other stuff for the NBA and I was amazed how many fans came up to me and said ‘You know, great, Oklahoma City won, the Finals were incredible, (But) you’ve got to fix the All-Star (Game).’
“It seems to take on disproportionate interest. And I think when we’ve had bad All-Stars, maybe a little different from other leagues, it seems to linger longer in this league. It becomes a proxy for how much the players care or their investment in the game. And it seems very unfair to them in a way because sometimes there’s just a larger conspiracy that includes all the teams who don’t want their guys to go out and get injured in what seems to be an exhibition game to a lot of people”
According to Silver, “The younger generation of NBA players are understanding that All-Star is very meaningful. And it’s not necessarily needs to be played at the level of the Finals, but we also don’t want to see, guys going out there and not playing defense and sort of just bombing away three-point shots the whole game.
“There’s a happy medium there. I’m encouraged this year. Andre Iguodala (executive director) at the Players’ Assn. has been terrific, individual conversations with players were like, ‘We get it.’ We’re going to be in L.A. this year, it’s going to be a big stage. So, again, I’m hoping we can bring back that tradition.”
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