NBA planning a new round-robin All-Star Game format

The NBA plans to trot out a round-robin tournament format for the 2026 All-Star Game at the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome on Feb. 15, 2026, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.

The league has been nothing if not proactive in tinkering with the format of the competition in recent years, cycling through many different approaches to engage players and fans.

Sources inform Charania that this coming season’s round-robin competition is expected to comprise a trio of eight-player teams, including a pair of U.S.-born rosters and one international club. They would play 12 minutes per quarter of action in a Ryder Cup-emulating setup.

The NBPA and the league received a “positive” reaction from the Competition Committee on Wednesday, Charania notes. NBA executives, owners and players were all involved in talks.

For this past February’s All-Star Game, the league attempted a four-team tournament format with three All-Star clubs and a fourth “rising star” team. Judging by the ratings, fans were relatively unmoved.

Rumors have abounded since the spring that the league would embrace more of an “international” flavor to the All-Star Game’s format. The competition will next be broadcast on NBC, after the league’s longtime partnership with TNT ended this past season.

Roughly a quarter of current players were born outside the U.S., including all of the league’s MVP honorees since James Harden in 2017-18.