NBA Mulling Yet Another All-Star Revamp With 'International' and 'Snub' Teams

The league continues to tinker with its midseason showcase.

Stephen Curry after the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 16, 2025. / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

In recent years, the NBA has tinkered relentlessly with its All-Star format—attempting to reintroduce the pride the game is perceived to have carried in a less affluent era of basketball.

That led to a four-team tournament on Feb. 16 featuring teams drafted by Hall of Fame forward Charles Barkley, Hall of Fame center Shaquille O'Neal, and guard Kenny Smith—as well as the winner of the league's annual Rising Stars showcase.

Per a Monday report from Sports Business Journal, the NBA is considering tweaking the format yet again in 2026.

"Sources said one possibility for 2026 is a four-team tournament consisting of one squad of international All-Stars," Sports Business Journal wrote. "Two other teams would be made of U.S.-born all-stars, and a fourth team—instead of a Rising Stars winner—could be a team of All-Star snubs, who’d have everything to prove."

The reported proposal comes amid an avalanche of positive press toward the NHL, which staged a small international tournament—the 4 Nations Face-Off—in lieu of its All-Star Game. Canada's 3–2 overtime victory over the United States in the final gave the sport of hockey its largest American audience since 2010.

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