NBA All-Star will change again next year with Team USA vs. Team World

Always looking to attract more viewers to a format that has as many haters as it has fans, NBA All-Star will change again next year, and will feature a Team USA vs. Team World match. NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed it in an interview on a televised show, Breakfast Ball.

This will be the fourth change of format of the NBA All-Star in three years: the traditional East vs. West, that remained unchanged since 1951, was changed in 2018 to a system where captains chose the best players via draft. It returned to the usual in 2023, but players did not take the match seriously (with no defence, the match ended 211-186), which made viewers at home look away. A "final four" with shorter matches was tested in 2025, but the long publicity cuts made viewers hate it.

In 2026, according to Silver, they will try a "Team USA" vs. "Team World", with teams made of the best players from the league coming from the US or from other countries. "I'm not exactly sure what the format will be yet. I paid a lot of attention to what the NHL did, which was a huge success", Silver said.

The change is also motivated because NBA will be broadcast on NBA next year, and the All-Star will happen at the same time at the Winter Olympics, so they need something more interesting to attract viewers, "and what better time to feature some form of USA against the World?"

Remember that we are only hours away for the NBA Finals 2025 between Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers.