Report: NBA to tweak All-Star Game with pickup-style tournament originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The NBA All-Star Game is undergoing more changes.
The mid-season exhibition game, which will be held at Chase Center in San Francisco early next year, now will consist of a four-team tournament-style format, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Thursday, citing sources.
Here’s how the competition will work:
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Players will be split up into four teams of eight — three All-Star teams and the winner of the Rising Stars game being the fourth.
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The teams will face each other in semifinal games played up to 40 points.
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The winners advance to the final game, which will be played up to 25 points.
The event is expected to mimic a fast-paced competition that resembles pickup games, where the winner moves on to single-elimination play. It is unclear how the All-Star teams will be split up, but the 24 players likely will still include 12 from each conference.
After years of tweaking the format, the hope is that another new wrinkle will increase the intensity of the games. The league switched from the traditional East vs. West format to have captains pick teams from 2018 to 2023. They also utilized an “Elam Ending” format from 2020 to 2023.
Charania also reported that executives, coaches and players have discussed new All-Star Game concepts with league officials over the past six months. Commissioner Adam Silver has called for changes, especially after last season, when the East defeated the West 211-186 in the highest-scoring All-Star Game in NBA history.
“We’re looking at other formats,” Silver said earlier this month. “I think there’s no doubt that the players were disappointed as well in last year’s All-Star Game. We all want to do a better job providing competition and entertainment for our fans.”
The 2025 NBA All-Star Game is set for Feb. 16 in the Bay Area.
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