Having the U.S. versus the world is getting closer to an NBA All-Star reality.<\/p>\n
The NBA is closing in on finalizing another new format for this season\u2019s All-Star Game, one in which three eight-man teams \u2014 two from the U.S. and one composed of international players \u2014 would square off in a round-robin tournament, a person with knowledge of the plan said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s competition committee has reviewed details of the plan and reacted positively to the concept, said the person, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the format has not been finalized by the league.<\/p>\n
Having 16 All-Stars from the U.S. and eight from other countries would be in line with the current breakdown of NBA players.<\/p>\n
An idea of having a simple U.S. vs. World game has also been talked about, but Commissioner Adam Silver said that would be difficult simply because the league has more American players than it has international players. The league is about 70% American, 30% international, and that would roughly be the same breakdown of All-Stars this coming season under the proposed plan.<\/p>\n
The league has been heading in this direction for several months, especially after last season\u2019s All-Star mini-tournament \u2014 untimed games to 40 points, with four teams of eight players each \u2014 was a flop.<\/p>\n
Silver has wanted a more competitive All-Star format for years. Nobody has been willing to play much in the way of defense at the game in recent seasons \u2014 a 211-186 game in 2024 was the last straw there \u2014 so the league tried the tournament plan this past season.<\/p>\n
But after seeing how hockey\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off \u2014 a tournament that was capped by a U.S. vs. Canada final and essentially took the place of the NHL All-Star Game earlier this year \u2014 was a huge hit, NBA executives and players alike wondered aloud if it was time for their midseason showcase game to adopt the U.S. vs. the World plan.<\/p>\n
And All-Star weekend this season just happens to fall at a time when cheering for one\u2019s home country will be going on all over the world.<\/p>\n
The 2026 All-Star Game \u2014 to be played Feb. 15 at the LA Clippers\u2019 Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. \u2014 is happening just past the midpoint of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
It will be moved from its traditional prime time Sunday night slot to one that starts Sunday afternoon. That\u2019s happening because the game will be aired on NBC under the terms of the new 11-year media rights deals that kick in this season. NBC is also the Olympic broadcaster in the U.S.<\/p>\n
NBC\u2019s plan is to show Olympic events in the morning and early afternoon, then the All-Star Game, then have prime-time Olympic programming.<\/p>\n
Top international players such as the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 Victor Wembanyama (France) and Milwaukee Bucks\u2019 Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) have said multiple times that they would welcome a U.S.-vs.-world matchup. U.S. Olympic gold medalist Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors also said last season that, based on how 4 Nations went, he thought such an idea would work for the NBA.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 3, 2025 at 7:59 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having the U.S. versus the world is getting closer to an NBA All-Star reality. The NBA is closing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2558,355,99],"class_list":["post-131196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}