NEW YORK – The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) today announced a new U.S. vs. World format for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game. NBC/Peacock will present the league’s annual midseason showcase on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., home of the LA Clippers.
In the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players (known as the World team) will compete in a round-robin tournament featuring four 12-minute games. The three teams will each have a minimum of eight players.
As in the past, 24 NBA All-Stars (12 from each conference) will be selected as follows: The five players honored as starters from each conference will be selected by fans (50% of the vote), current NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%), and the seven players honored as reserves from each conference will be selected by NBA head coaches. This year, the All-Stars will be selected without regard to position. The process for assigning players to the two U.S. teams will be determined at a later date.
If NBA All-Star voting does not result in the selection of 16 U.S. players and eight international players (which can include American players with ties to other countries if necessary), then NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will select additional All-Stars to join either group to reach that minimum. In that case, at least one team would have more than eight players.
In the round-robin tournament, Team A will play Team B in Game 1. The winning team from Game 1 will take on Team C in Game 2, followed by the losing team of Game 1 meeting Team C in Game 3.
After Game 3, the top two teams by record will advance to face each other in the championship game (Game 4). If all three teams have a 1-1 record after Game 3, the tiebreaker would be point differential in each team’s two round-robin games.
