NBA To Introduce New All-Star Game Format

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by Jake IovineSeptember 17, 2025, 10:03 pm >

A new format will be implemented in the NBA All-Star Game this upcoming season.

The format is expected to be a round-robin style tournament with two teams compiled with American players and one team with internationals, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. Each team will have eight players and will play 12-minute quarters.

The upcoming All-Star Game, hosted on Feb. 15 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, will be changing formats again after mixed reviews from the 2025 edition. Instead of a traditional East vs West game, the 2025 edition featured a single-elimination tournament of four teams.

Some players, like Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, weren’t fans of the four-team tournament.

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“To be honest, I didn’t like it at all,” Young said. “I didn’t like the breaks. The games were so short.”

Next year’s newest edition is the latest attempt by the NBA to increase viewership of the competition. The 2025 edition drew 4.7 million viewers: a 13% decrease from the previous year, making it the second-lowest viewed All-Star Game since 2000.

The new format will also be played in the middle of the 2026 Winter Olympics, something NBA commissioner Adam Silver said it was “not lost on us” that the games would be held at the same time as the event in Los Angeles.