Changes to the NBA All-Star Game format are reportedly coming into sharper focus.
Following reports that the league was considering a four-team tournament for the All-Star Game, the tourney will likely be a pickup-style format in which the two semifinal games would be played to 40 points and the championship would be played to 25.
The 2025 NBA All-Star Game is scheduled for Feb. 16 at the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center.
As previously reported, the four teams would consist of three All-Star teams of eight players each with the fourth team being the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge.
The Rising Stars game is also a four-team tournament, with each squad made up of rookies and sophomores. Standouts from the G League also make up one of the rosters.
Among the players in last year’s Rising Stars competition were Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero, Jalen Williams and Dereck Lively II. Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland, who were both first-round picks in the 2024 NBA Draft, also participated.
Coaching staffs from the top two teams in each conference would lead the All-Star tournament teams, The Athletic reports. If the current standings hold, Kenny Atkinson of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla would coach the Eastern teams. The Western teams would be coached by the Warriors’ Steve Kerr and Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The NBA and commissioner Adam Silver were eager to make changes to the All-Star Game after last year’s contest wasn’t very competitive and finished with a final score of 211-186.
“I think there’s no doubt that the players were disappointed as well in last year’s All-Star Game,” Silver told reporters before the Heat-Wizards game in Mexico City on Nov. 2. “We all want to do a better job providing competition and entertainment for our fans.”
The NBA All-Star Weekend could also include a variation of last season’s NBA versus WNBA 3-point challenge which featured Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty. Among the players rumored to be included in an expanded competition are Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark and Klay Thompson of the Dallas Mavericks.
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