Adam Silver: NBA All-Star game will feature 'some form of USA against the world' format
The new format will debut after the 2025 NBA All-Star format was widely ridculed.
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NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed on Wednesday a new All-Star format that's been floated since the disaster that was February's All-Star tournament.
Next season's game will feature a USA vs. the world format. Silver announced the decision while speaking on FS1's "Breakfast Ball."
The format will debut on NBC in the first season of the network's return to covering the NBA under the league's new media rights deal. It will take place during the Winter Olympics that will also air on NBC.
"What better time to feature some form of USA against the world?" Silver said.
Adam Silver says next year’s All-Star Game will feature Team USA vs. Team World
(???? @BrkfstBallOnFS1 )
pic.twitter.com/dZyXZHPKhZ— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 4, 2025
Silver said that he's "not exactly sure what the format will be yet." He noted that he "paid a lot of attention to what the NHL did" during its All-Star break this season.
The NHL scrapped its traditional All-Star format in February for an international tournament called the Four Nations Face-Off that was a big success among fans and players. It was held up in contrast to the debut of the NBA's four-team mini-tournament that drew widespread scorn alongside the coverage of the event.
The Four Nations Face-Off feature four teams of players representing their native countries USA, Canada, Finland and Sweden. The round-robin tournament was held across multiple days in multiple locations in the U.S. and Canada. Canada won via an overtime victory of USA in Boston that capped a tournament that was competitive and well-attended throughout.
In the midst of the Four Nations Face-Off, the NBA debuted a four-team mini-tournament featuring three teams off All-Stars drafted by TNT's Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal. The fourth team wasn't even made up of All-Stars, but a roster of players that emerged from a separate Rising Stars tournament that featured first- and second-year non All-Stars and G League players.
The games and the final in particular were not competitive or compelling. The broadcast of the final that feature a failed comedy routine by Kevin Hart was widely ridiculed.
This story will be updated.
