As the NBA looks to inject new energy into its long-struggling All-Star Game, the league and National Basketball Players Association are closing in on a new competition format for the midseason showcase.
The 2026 NBA All-Star Game at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles will likely feature a three-team tournament that will include two squads from the U.S. of eight players each and another of the same size made up of international players, according to industry sources and multiple reports. The format roughly coincides with the current nationality split among NBA players.
The three-team, round-robin format was presented to the league’s competition committee Wednesday, with a strong initial response. Changes from last season have been all but assured after the 2025 event, featuring four teams drafted by the Inside the NBA talent, produced a 13% audience drop to its second-worst level. Several players openly lambasted the format, with the Warriors’ Draymond Green giving it a “zero” out of 10.
“It was a miss,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in April of the 2025 game. “We’re not there in terms of creating an All-Star experience that we can be proud of and that our players can be proud of.”
Amid several prior formats, though, the NBA All-Star Game has long suffered from a relative lack of competitive intensity. In particular, the 2024 game featured a final score of 211–186, setting several offensive records in the process and accelerating the NBA’s urgency to make bigger changes.
The Feb. 15 game will be aired on NBC, part of a blockbuster February 2026 for the network, which produced an advertising sellout for Super Bowl LX a week earlier. The presence of the 2026 Winter Olympics during that month, also shown on NBC, is likely influencing the league’s interest in including a global element to the upcoming All-Star Game.
“It presents an enormous opportunity for us to do something with an international competition instead of the traditional All-Star formats that we’ve used,” Silver said in the spring.
Also an influence is the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off from February, which similarly featured an international competition at its core and was a massive hit for that league.
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