NBA discussing new international format for All-Star Game - ESPN

The NBA is considering another change to the format of its All-Star Game — and this time, there could be an international twist.

Commissioner Adam Silver and Byron Spruell, the NBA's president of league operations, both acknowledged Monday that the league is having discussions with the NBA Players Association and broadcast partner NBC over replacing the All-Star Game's current format with an international competition next season.

«Our All-Star Game will return to NBC next season in the middle of their coverage of the Winter Olympics,» Silver told The Athletic. «Given the strong interest we've seen in international basketball competitions, most recently in last summer's Olympics in Paris, we're discussing concepts with the players association that focus on NBA players representing their countries or regions instead of the more traditional formats that we've used in the past.»

Earlier Monday, Spruell told The Associated Press that the NBA is mulling «formats that lean into this idea of international play, to some extent leaning a little bit on this idea of U.S. versus rest of the world.»

«NBC is very much leaning into it, given their role — we are, as well,» Spruell added, according to The Athletic. «Looking to do something new and different yet again, but excited about the possibility.»

The 2026 All-Star Game will be played in Los Angeles at the Intuit Dome, the new home of the LA Clippers, on Feb. 15. The game, which will be aired on NBC, will shift from a Sunday evening to a Sunday afternoon start time, which will allow NBC to follow the directly follow the game with its daily Winter Olympics prime-time show in Milan.

Silveer told the AP on Monday that «it's not lost on us» that the All-Star Game will be played amid the