The NBA on Tuesday unveiled a new format for the 2025 All-Star Game scheduled for Feb. 16 in San Francisco.
To generate a more competitive game, this season’s All-Star Game will feature a mini-tournament with four teams in a three-game event.
Two teams will play in one semifinal and the other two teams will play in the other semifinal with the winners meeting in the final. The first team to reach 40 points in each game is the winner.
Each team will have eight players – three teams will be comprised of the 24 NBA All-Stars and the other team will be players from the championship game of the Rising Stars game.
The three teams with NBA All-Stars will be split up via a draft by honorary general managers Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. The draft will take place Feb. 6 on TNT.
The coaches for each team at the All-Star Game will come from the coaching staffs with the best record in each conference in games played through Feb. 2. The head coach from the East and the head coach from the West will each lead one of the NBA All-Star teams, an assistant coach from one team will coach the other NBA All-Star team and another assistant will coach the Rising Stars team.
The NBA has tinkered with its All-Star format over the past several seasons to make the game more competitive. There have been varying degrees of success, but last season’s game included an All-Star record 211 points by the East, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was not thrilled – especially after he touted a more competitive game the day before in his All-Star news conference.
Suns forward Kevin Durant, who has been named an All-Star 14 times and twice been the game’s MVP, was not immediately thrilled with the new concept when asked about it Tuesday.
“I hate it. Absoutely hate it. It seems terrible. … We should go back to East-West and just play a game. I think we’ve been trying to bring that flair back somehow with the All-Star Weekend, I think we just keep it traditional. We’ll see how this one works.
“I might be wrong. I’m just another guy with another opinion. But we’ll see how it works,” he added, with a smile.
NBA All-Star Game prize money
Each player on winning team: $125,000
Each player on second-place team: $50,000
Each player on third- and fourth-place teams: $25,000
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
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