The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) announced on Wednesday a new format called “USA vs. The Rest of the World” for the 2026 All-Star Game.
The spectacle will be on February 15 in California, at the home of the Los Angeles Clippers.
In the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, two teams composed of players from the United States of America and one team of international players (known as the Rest of the World Team) will compete in a round-robin tournament format, which will include four games lasting 12 minutes each. Each of the three teams will have at least eight players.
As before, a total of 24 All-Star players (12 from each conference) will be selected as follows: five players chosen as starters in each conference will be determined by fan votes (50% of votes), current NBA players (25%), and media representatives (25%), while seven reserves from each conference will be chosen by the NBA teams’ head coaches.
All-Star players will be chosen regardless of position. The process of distributing players into the two USA teams will be determined later.
If the All-Star voting does not result in the selection of at least 16 players from the USA and eight international players (which may include American players with ties to other countries, if necessary), NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will select additional All-Star players to reach that minimum number. In that case, at least one team might have more than eight players.
Within the round-robin tournament format, Team A will play against Team B in the first game. The winner of the first game will then face Team C in the second game, after which the loser of the first game will play against Team C in the third match.
After the third game, the two teams with the best performance will advance to the final match (the fourth game). If all three teams have a 1–1 record after the third game, the point differential from each team’s two games in the group stage will be used as the criterion for placement.
Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić are expected to play for the international team, as well as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, Alperen Şengün, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander…
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Source: Nova.rs; Photo: Sports Illustrates