Why is the league constantly messing with the all-star game? The team captains thing was okay. The target score thing was convoluted and stupid. Last year's tournament made the weekend seem like less of an event. The idea of a game pitting American and international players is interesting, but why can't it just be two twelve man teams with the starters picked by the fans and the reserves picked by the coaches who go on to play four quarters of regular basketball?
Do I just sound like an angry old man?
The NBA announced its long-awaited plans to overhaul the All-Star Game Tuesday night, laying out how the new "United States once again versus the World" format will go and how the teams will be formed.
Beyond the obvious change, going to a three-team format featuring eight-man rosters -- two of which will be made up of American players, and a third of international selections -- there are a couple of changes to how those players will be selected.
The basics -- five starters and seven reserves from each conference, with a combination of fans, media and players voting for the starters and coaches picking the reserves -- remain unchanged. What is different, though, is that there will no longer be any positional requirements.
In the past, the starters have been made up of two backcourt players and three frontcourt players, with the reserves being the same split plus two wild cards. This year, though, the starters will be the five top vote-getters, regardless of position, and the reserves will be the top seven, also regardless of position.
The league answered another lingering question -- what happens if those 24 players do not evenly break down into 16 American and eight international players? Or would the league force the voting to adhere to those numbers?
The solution is that if the player pool doesn't reflect that 16-8 split, NBA commissioner Adam Silver will name extra players to the roster to get to the minimum 16 Americans or the minimum eight international players.
So if there are 14 Americans and 10 international players, Silver would name two more Americans to get to the 16-player minimum. And if it was an 18-6 split, he would name two international players to get to the eight-player minimum.
Both the NBA and NBC -- which is taking over the All-Star Game broadcast after it has spent the past couple of decades on TNT as part of the league's new television agreement this year -- are hoping this change will breathe life into an event that Silver has repeatedly tried to get players to invest more energy into over the past few years.
Part of the appeal of the international format, for NBC's purposes, is that All-Star Weekend is being built into the network's coverage of the Winter Olympic Games in February.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:23 am
by Iwasawitness
I can't wait for this new concept to last all of two seasons before they realize it doesn't work, and then they go back to East vs West, only to realize that doesn't work either.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:24 am
by HMFFL
The league failed with the all-star game many years ago. I remember always looking forward to watching it. Silver failed in this area. They lived off the dunk contest for too long.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:25 am
by SlimShady83
If this fails ...
Then let's try 3 on 3 allstar games
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:28 am
by MarcusBrody
So for international players, you have locks with Giannis, Jokic, Shai, Luka, and Wemby. Then you have Giddey, Siakim, Sengun, Markkannen, Jamal Murray, Deni Avidja, Hartenstein, Gobert, maybe Edgecombe even if they need more guards and he keeps up his great start. And that's ignoring guys like Sabonis, Dyson Daniels, and some others. Just a really strong set of international players. The competition for those last 3 places will be fierce.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:30 am
by benson13
MarcusBrody wrote:So for international players, you have locks with Giannis, Jokic, Shai, Luka, and Wemby. Then you have Giddey, Siakim, Sengun, Markkannen, Jamal Murray, Deni Avidja, Hartenstein, Gobert, maybe Edgecombe even if they need more guards and he keeps up his great start. And that's ignoring guys like Sabonis, Dyson Daniels, and some others. Just a really strong set of international players. The competition for those last 3 places will be fierce.
You are solving the wrong problem here!!!
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:40 am
by bonita_the_frog
My eyes experienced the most genuinely eye-roll EVER when i saw this thread title
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:52 am
by doogie_hauser
Get rid of it.
The only reason why players/stars still want it is as an excuse to try recruit other stars to their team during ASW.
No players play hard in the game anymore for fear of getting injured.Ditto teams who don't want their stars to compete in the dunk contest.
Part of the problem i think that is with so many teams and divisions these days is the fierce conference rivalry that existed in the 80s and 90s is long gone.
The days are gone of the ultra competitive beasts like Larry Bird and Michael Jordan who took every game they played very seriously (be it exhibition etc)
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 7:49 am
by Sofia
Adam Silver must have one of the most extreme cases of masked ADHD in the world.
He can’t help but **** around with things. Just let them be.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 8:05 am
by pepe1991
This is what, fourth new format in last 10 years?
Nobody cares about East vs West. Because there is no balance between conferences in first place. Guys who are bottom half of top 10 players from East would never get even consideration for all star game on West. For f*** sake Scottie Barnes was all star on 19,8 ppg on 25 wins team.
Whole system doesn't work. There is no rivalry. IF you want "ALL -STAR " in definition of it, just let fans or coaches handpick 20 best players, regardless of conference and let them play some semi competitive game.
This international all star game is even more hilarious. Literally all 5 of best 5 players in the world are international players.
Every damn year there are new all star "rules". And "hot patches " of previous confusions. Last year I tuned in allstar game, than they started with like 10 min explanation what is going on, by the time they explained it, i tuned off. It's such a mess.
Why da hell all star game will have 3 teams ?
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 1:43 pm
by cornchip
East vs. West. Winner gets HCA in NBA Finals. Problem solved.
Can't get rid of it. The NBA needs a singular game event and that's the ASG.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 1:54 pm
by Mr Puddles
I get the three team split given that international players make up about a third of the league, but it looks like this year would have been a great year for there just to be a two team split between international and US.
Shai Doncic Giannis Wemby Jokic
Giddy Avidja Siakam Markannen Sengun
Murray Daniels or Sabonis
Looks like a fine all star lineup across the board
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Why is the league constantly messing with the all-star game? The team captains thing was okay. The target score thing was convoluted and stupid. Last year's tournament made the weekend seem like less of an event. The idea of a game pitting American and international players is interesting, but why can't it just be two twelve man teams with the starters picked by the fans and the reserves picked by the coaches who go on to play four quarters of regular basketball?
they just want to incentivize the players to try during the game. a game where guys are jogging around, not playing defense and most of the time just walking around is completely boring to watch. they've tried different things like the winner gets money for charity, target scores, etc.
after the massive success the NHL had with their 4 Nations Face-off tournament during their all star break that had Canada, Finland, USA and Russia the nba is hoping that country pride gets the players to play harder during the game.
if the league keeps getting feedback that the all star game sucks, what's wrong with them *trying* to improve the game?
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 2:09 pm
by bkkrh
It´s always a good sign if you basically need to read a one pager to understand how All Star nominations work^^.
It would be funny if the voters and coaches pick 24 non American players just to f--- with Silver and he would need to nominate 16 US players additionally .
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 2:15 pm
by chilluminati
It's just another passing All Star concept that'll be gone in a year or two. Just go back to the top 2 drafting their own team.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 2:22 pm
by Calvin Klein
The "game" format didn't change then. it's just the same as it was last year which was so bad it was embarrassing.
If the players don't want to play semi serious basketball anymore just get rid of it. It's become such a joke that they are digging an even deeper hole now.
In 2025 watching all these players in the same game is not exciting anymore for most people. Time to move on from this archaic event.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Why is the league constantly messing with the all-star game? The team captains thing was okay. The target score thing was convoluted and stupid. Last year's tournament made the weekend seem like less of an event. The idea of a game pitting American and international players is interesting, but why can't it just be two twelve man teams with the starters picked by the fans and the reserves picked by the coaches who go on to play four quarters of regular basketball?
they just want to incentivize the players to try during the game. a game where guys are jogging around, not playing defense and most of the time just walking around is completely boring to watch. they've tried different things like the winner gets money for charity, target scores, etc.
after the massive success the NHL had with their 4 Nations Face-off tournament during their all star break that had Canada, Finland, USA and Russia the nba is hoping that country pride gets the players to play harder during the game.
if the league keeps getting feedback that the all star game sucks, what's wrong with them *trying* to improve the game?
Sing the national anthem, make a regular player presentation (no **** live music or kevin harts included) and play a normal game with the best players on it.
If you start mixing 20 minute of the worst music available, 15 minute mr beast bs, kevin hart and all the other cringy brain rotting stuff, how do you expect the basketball to be decent?
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 2:27 pm
by whitehops
one change i really like is that the all stars won't have positions, just the 12 best players from each conference.
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 2:31 pm
by Village Idiot
Spoiler:
HMFFL wrote:The league failed with the all-star game many years ago. I remember always looking forward to watching it. Silver failed in this area. They lived off the dunk contest for too long.
That is part of it. Back when all the good players were African-Americans they turned it into an event for that demographic. For all of us who aren´t African-Americans it felt like we were being invited to our black collegues back-yard barbeque only to find out we were the only white folks there. Nice to be invited but we didn´t fit in and politely declined in following years. Now that all the best players aren´t AA and the audience is much more global it was something that had to change.
It feels like you were careful to write this in the least weird way you could think of, but it's still weird, man. Please avoid the racial commentary. -b
Re: NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 3:01 pm
by Anderson Hunt
If you want to fix the All-Star game (and many other problems), make guys play three years after high school before entering the league, and make all contracts non-guaranteed, including coaches and execs.
