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The NBA All-Star Game has come and gone, with another milestone marking the end of Turner Sports’ 40-year domestic partnership with the league.
Its new format, with a four-team tournament, had some positives in the sense that player effort was clearly elevated over the last several years—a low bar to clear, to be sure—but it was marred by endless play stoppages for commercials, Kevin Hart, and Mr. Beast. At one point, Hart eulogized an Inside the NBA that is very much not dead, but rather migrating to ESPN next season while still being produced by TNT.
Sources who were in the Bay Area this weekend—in hotel lobbies and at cocktail parties and sponsorship events—say several changes for the weekend are being discussed for next year even before Sunday’s game tipped off.
An earlier start
NBC has a gauntlet of premium live sports rights in early 2026, including the Super Bowl in the Bay Area, the Winter Olympics in Milan, and NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles.
NBC and the NBA have discussed starting the NBA All-Star Game at 5 p.m. Eastern next year, sources told Front Office Sports. This makes sense on several levels, both for the network and sports fans at large. Sunday’s All-Star Game started after 8 p.m. and didn’t finish until around 11 on the East Coast.
Next year’s All-Star game is scheduled in the middle of the Winter Olympics, but Milan is six hours ahead of the U.S. Eastern Time Zone, meaning even a 5 p.m. start would be after that day’s Olympic sports had mostly finished. The 2026 All-Star Game is set for Feb. 15, while the Olympics will be Feb. 6–22.
For the Paris Olympics last year, NBC showed all the marquee events live on NBC and/or the Peacock streaming service, with a news-and-highlights show recapping the day’s events airing in primetime. This program would air after the All-Star Game next year.
A one-on-one tournament
The upstart Unrivaled league recently held a one-on-one tournament, won by cofounder Napheesa Collier for a $200,000 grand prize. One spy told FOS that a $1 million prize has been discussed for a one-on-one event at NBA All-Star Weekend.
During pregame media availability, Rachel Nichols asked Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo if he would be interested in competing in a one-on-one event, noting that Kyrie Irving and James Harden had already indicated they’d be up for it.
“Yeah for sure,” Antetokounmpo said. “If I had the chance to play one-on-one with anybody, I’d love to do it. Anything that can make the weekend more exciting, more fun, for the viewers and for the fans and for the players, I would love to participate.”
Antetokounmpo emphasized that this tournament would put an emphasis on defense and could highlight fascinating stylistic mismatches like Irving vs. Victor Wembanyama—who could get stops? Antetokounmpo stopped short of “promising” that he’d play, but reiterated his interest.
During his press conference, Antetokounmpo also proposed a USA vs. World format for the All-Star Game—a variation of the idea that the NHL had great success with this past weekend—where the weekend rotates between domestic and international locations. Responding to a FOS tweet summarizing his idea, Antetokounmpo wrote, “2027 All star game should be in Rio de Janeiro or in a city in China!” (2027 is set for Phoenix, but 2028 is still up for grabs.)
Stars in Dunk Contest
For years, everyone involved with the NBA has been trying to figure out a way to get the league’s stars to be willing to participate in the Slam Dunk Contest. With all due respect to Mac McClung, whose performance the last few years has been genuinely captivating, the spectacle used to be a showcase for superstars. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are past winners.
For whatever reason, LeBron James has never wanted to be a part of it, which has in turn led other stars to largely avoid the competition.
One tweet on Saturday night gave NBA fans and insiders alike a glimmer of hope that the event could regain some of its lost cachet.
“[M]ac might make me decide to dunk,” Grizzlies star Ja Morant wrote during the contest on Saturday night. Morant also asked Aaron Gordon and past winner Zach LaVine to join him in the competition.
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