INGLEWOOD, California, USA (AP) — The NBA will put its fourth format for the All-Star Game to the test in four years this weekend as it once again tackles one of basketball’s oldest existential questions: how to make this midseason showcase compelling for both players and fans.
How do you get both the players and the crowd fired up for a spectacle that has sometimes felt more like a casual scrimmage than a showcase?
The plan unveiled most recently carries the strongest promise yet, at least in the eyes of people like Victor Wembanyama, who still believes the game should carry real meaning.
A trio of rosters—veteran American stars, a cohort of younger Americans, and a third squad representing the rest of the world—will compete this Sunday in a tournament built on 12-minute games, all against all. The two top teams will clash again in the final.
It’s bold and different, but will it compel stars to put forth more effort in these exhibition-style games that have felt partly recreational over the last two decades? And will this format capture the attention of American television audiences already in a patriotic mood after the Winter Games?
“I think this genuinely has a chance, and the reason is straightforward in my view. We’ve seen plenty of the best players coming from abroad with increasing frequency, so there’s a certain pride on that side,” noted the French teenager. “I suppose there’s also a certain pride on the American side, which makes sense. So I think anything that brings more of a country’s representation to the fore stirs up pride.”
Others aren’t as certain, to put it plainly.
“With the teams split, you don’t really know who you’re playing or what the score is,” complained Kawhi Leonard. “I’d rather it be East versus West, go out there, compete, and see what happens. I don’t think any format can make you compete.”
With a wry smile, Dominican-born Anthony Edwards simply said: “Yeah, at this point that’s what it is.”
This fresh concept will debut at the NBA’s newest arena: the Intuit Dome, the $2 billion futuristic venue unveiled in 2024 by Steve Ballmer, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Saturday’s All-Star weekend included Damian Lillard securing his third career victory in the Three-Point Contest, followed by Miami’s Keshad Johnson winning the Slam Dunk Contest.
While players enjoyed a welcome weekend under the Southern California sun, the league remains optimistic they’ll deliver a more entertaining product on Sunday.
“I’ve talked with our guys… and they’re coming to play. They’re going to set the tone. I’m certain of it, and I know the group we’ve got is a group of competitors,” said Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, who will coach the youngest U.S. team. “So I think the new format will help. It will raise the level of competition and inject some pride into the game, and then you’ll see the stars here being the best version of themselves.”
The younger American squad is nicknamed the “Stars,” while the veteran group goes by “Bars,” both nods to the national flag. But injuries have thinned the rosters.
The Rest of the World squad features a potent lineup anchored by Wembanyama, Slovenia’s Luka Dončić, and Serbia’s Nikola Jokić, yet it also includes Norman Powell, a California-born player who competes internationally for Jamaica, and Towns, a New Jersey native who represents the Dominican Republic, the country of his mother who died in the pandemic.
Over the past decade, the NBA has repeatedly shifted the All-Star format in response to waning interest from both television audiences and the players themselves. In 2018 the league moved away from the historic East-versus-West battle to allow two captains to draft their teams for six seasons, only to revert to East vs. West for one year.
In 2025, the league staged a four-team tournament in San Francisco.
