NBA All-Star Game format changes up again for L.A. in 2026
The quest for the NBA to “create an experience of stars that we can be proud and our players can be proud” continues seriously and with a new partner.
NBC joins the effort to inject life into what has become a moribund company. As part of the new NBA broadcasting agreement, the network will broadcast the game of February 15 which will be organized by the Clippers at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Commissioner Adam Silver and other people in knowledge launched a test ball on Wednesday evening, revealing that the 2026 star match is probably a round tournament made up of three eight -playing teams – two players born in the United States and one of the players from other countries.
The NBA and the player union presented the format to the League competition committee on Wednesday and the answer was positive, according to several media.
Silver recognized that the convoluted format used this year “was a miss”. Three teams of eight stars and a fourth team of recruits and second -year students played a tournament of unmanaged matches at a target score of 40 points.
Opposing the stars to those of other countries has long been an attractive concept for money. However, the League is around 70% American and 30% international, complicating a traditional format of a match of a match. The creation of two teams of eight US all-stars and a team of eight in other countries would solve the problem of figures. The three teams would be played in the 12 -minute round matches.
The impulse to design a new All-Star game format increased when the final score in 2024 was a ridiculous 211-186. There was no defense for a match in which no one played defense.
Asked about the lack of effort to prevent the other team from scoring Anthony Davis, the center of the Lakers, raised the shoulders and said: “It is a game of the stars.”
The simple east-west format of this game was an effort to move away from musical performance, introductions and extended lists written by team captains that have tormented the event for years.
Silver was looking for a way to generate players’ efforts and the excitement of the crowd, saying before the game: “We don’t necessarily seek players to go there as if it was the final, but we need players to play in defense, we need them to worry about this game. And the feeling was that perhaps-and I prevented the responsibility; As you knew, I used to direct something nba.
A combined of 397 points did not cut it, in particular the part on the defense. The format tried in March was a flop, with Silver admitting: “We are a bit back to the drawing board.”
If the Competition Committee focused on the new format, fans of the will be able to decide in February if the NBA has finally created a stars event that calls on players enough to make an effort.
TV notes could increase simply because the star match will be broadcast on NBC during the Milan Winter Olympic Games. The game will be played in the afternoon rather than the evening and should be followed by the show of the NBC daily Olympics in Milan.
“”[The Olympics] Present a huge opportunity for us to do something with an international competition instead of the traditional All-Star formats that we used, “said Silver last spring.
