The NBA reportedly is tinkering with the All-Star Game format again, this time adding an international twist.
The 2026 competition will feature two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players squaring off in a round-robin event, ESPN reported Wednesday night.
Per the report, the sides would each square off in games using 12-minute quarters.
League officials and representatives of the National Basketball Players Association put the plan in front of the NBA’s competition committee on Wednesday, and the reaction was favorable, according to ESPN.
Another change for 2026 would be a move of the event from a Sunday night timeslot to a Sunday afternoon. The All-Star Game is slated for Feb. 15 at the Los Angeles Clippers’ home arena in Inglewood, Calif., and it will be aired by the league’s new television partner, NBC.
The 2025 All-Star format, a mini tournament, was largely panned. Three teams of All-Star were drafted by captains, and a fourth team was the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge. Those sides met in semifinals and a final, with each game played to a target score of 40 points instead of having a game clock.
Television ratings for the Feb. 16 event in San Francisco dropped 13 percent.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in late April, “I thought we made almost an immeasurable amount of progress (with the All-Star Game). I thought this was a little better, but it was a miss. We’re not there in terms of creating an All-Star experience that we can be proud of, that our players can be proud of.”
Asked then if the NBA planned to follow the lead of the NHL, which scrapped its standard All-Star Game for the well-received Four Nations Face-Off, Silver said, “I’m not sure that makes sense, with the level of development, if that’s fair to lump all the other countries together these days.”
–Field Level Media
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