February 16, 2025; San Francisco, CA, USA; Shaq’s OGs guard Stephen Curry (30) of the Golden State Warriors celebrates with the MVP trophy after defeating Chuck’s World Stars through the 2025 NBA All Star Sport at Chase Heart. Necessary Credit score: Kyle Terada-Imagn Pictures The NBA is contemplating altering the format of the 2026 All-Star Sport in Los Angeles to a global competitors.
Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned final month that the league was going “again to the drafting board” following its unpopular three-game mini-tournament on the 2025 All-Star Sport.
On Monday, Silver mentioned a global format — pitting U.S.-born gamers in opposition to a roster of foreign-born gamers — is interesting as a result of the sport will air on NBC through the center of that community’s Winter Olympics protection.
“Given the sturdy curiosity we have seen in worldwide basketball competitions, most just lately in final summer season’s Olympics in Paris, we’re discussing ideas with the gamers affiliation that concentrate on NBA gamers representing their international locations or areas as an alternative of the extra conventional codecs that we have used previously,” he informed The Athletic.
Byron Spruell, the NBA’s president of league operations, added that NBC is “very a lot leaning into” the thought of a “U.S. versus remainder of the world” format for the Feb. 15 recreation on the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
The Intuit Dome, house of the Los Angeles Clippers, additionally will host the basketball competitors on the 2028 Summer time Olympics.
“So I believe all of these components, after they come collectively, it presents an unlimited alternative for us to do one thing with a global competitors as an alternative of the normal All-Star codecs that we have used,” Silver mentioned.
In response to the league, about 70 p.c of the NBA’s gamers are American. Nevertheless, the worldwide pool of expertise contains superstars Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama and others.
–Discipline Stage Media
