NBA considers international format for 2026 All-Star Game

The NBA is considering a new international format for the 2026 All-Star Game.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver and president of league operations Byron Spruell said the league is talking with the Players Association and broadcast partner NBC about replacing the current All-Star format with an international competition.

"Our All-Star Game will return to NBC next season in the middle of their coverage of the Winter Olympics," Silver said Monday, according to The Athletic's Joe Vardon. "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."

Spruell said the potential international format would be "to some extent leaning a little bit on this idea of U.S. versus rest of the world," he told The Associated Press, according to ESPN.

He additionally said "NBC is very much leaning into it."

The 2026 All-Star Game will take place Feb. 15 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The game will be aired Sunday afternoon instead of the usual evening slot because of the Olympics.

Silver said "it's not lost" on the NBA that the game will be played amid the Winter Olympics coverage, and the new Intuit Dome will have a role in the 2028 Summer Games.

"We'll be competing in the arena at Intuit, where the basketball competition will take place in the 2028 Olympics," Silver said. "So I think all of those factors, when they come together, it presents an enormous opportunity for us to do something with an international competition instead of the traditional All-Star formats that we've used."

The NBA used a mini-tournament format at this year's All-Star Game but announced last month that they would not be bringing it back. Silver described the mini-tournament as a "miss."