Leaning into the quality and fame of the league’s international talent, the NBA unveiled a new All-Star Game format on Tuesday that will incorporate U.S. and World teams.
For the midseason exhibition at Inglewood, Calif., on Feb. 15, one squad of international players and two teams of U.S. players will compete in a round-robin format. Each game will last 12 minutes. The top two teams after the round robin will meet in the finale.
For the selection of five designated starting All-Stars from each NBA conference, a formula will be used that consists of 50% fan vote, 25% player vote and 25% media vote. NBA coaches will then select seven reserves from each conference, with all 24 players being chosen regardless of position.
The NBA will determine which players get assigned to which U.S. squad.
If fewer than eight World players or fewer than 16 U.S. players are among the 24 selected, commissioner Adam Silver will add additional players to a team as needed.
The 2025 NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco was widely panned for a format that included three drafted teams plus the team that had won the Rising Stars Challenge.
All-Star Games prior to that also received criticism for the lack of defense played. The Eastern Conference won the 2024 game in Indianapolis 211-186, and a team drafted by Giannis Antetokounmpo defeated a team drafted by LeBron James 184-175 in Salt Lake City the previous year.
Highlighting the NBA’s international nature, the past seven regular-season MVP honors went to international players: Greece’s Antetokounmpo (2018-19 and 2019-20), Serbia’s Nikola Jokic (2020-21, 2021-22 and 2023-24), Cameroon-born Joel Embiid (2022-23) and Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2024-25).
The 2026 All-Star Game will be broadcast on NBC, after a 23-year run by TNT, and will happen during NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.
–Field Level Media
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