LAS VEGAS — As expected, the upcoming NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco will be a three-team mini-tournament consisting of the league’s top 24 players and the team that wins the Rising Stars Challenge.
Yes, the idea behind the change – it will be the league’s third different All-Star format since 2020 – is to try to make the game more competitive. But also, or instead, or at least, to make watching on television more interesting.
“I think we’ve come to the conclusion that modern All-Stars are partly about competition, but ultimately their goal is to entertain fans and create a strong experience for them,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday in an interview with Athletics and other national media.
“As you know, I was wrong about last year,” Silver said. “I thought that in Indiana, given the kind of fact that it was kind of considered the heart of basketball and the strong presence of some legends there, that guys would turn back the clock a little bit and play to a traditional game and it wasn’t meant to be.
“So we went back to the drawing board with the players association, again, talking directly to the players and saying, ‘Let’s find a format that we think has a better chance of making a game, or in this case, a series.’ competitions that will interest fans.
The new format, announced jointly Tuesday by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association, will feature three games — two semifinals and the championship — in which the winner is the team that first reaches 40 points or more. There is a prize pool of $1.8 million, with the champion team earning $125,000 per player.
The NBA and NBPA today announced a new format for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Additionally, NBA All-Star Voting presented by AT&T begins Thursday, December 19 at 10 a.m. ET.
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-NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 17, 2024
The selection of the league’s top stars will not change. Twelve players from each conference will be named All-Stars, with fans, media and players voting for the five “starters” and seven reserves from each conference decided by the coaches.
These players will then be selected by TNT’s three analysts – Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal – who serve as honorary general managers of the three All-Star teams. They will split the teams into three groups of eight All-Stars on February 6 before TNT’s weekly doubleheader.
The Honorary General Manager of the Rising Stars team is another Turner Sports analyst, Candace Parker. The Rising Stars Challenge takes place on the Friday of All-Star Weekend; the All-Star tournament will take place on February 16 at the Chase Center.
All-Star Game coaches will be drawn from the staff of the first-place team in each conference beginning February 2. The head coach of each first place team will coach an All-Star team, an assistant from one of the staff will coach the champion Rising Stars, and another assistant will coach the remaining All-Star team.
In November, Athletics reported that Silver’s office was consulting with players, including the Warriors of the Golden State star Stephen Curryabout changing the All-Star Game again in another attempt to make the event more competitive. Silver thanked players association executive director Andre Iguodala for leading the discussion from the players’ side with Silver’s office.
As Silver mentioned, last year’s All-Star Game in Indianapolis set a new record for points scored — and that wasn’t a good thing, because players on both teams simply didn’t makes the slightest effort in defense.
“With the elephant in the room, we’re the ones competing, they’re trying to make things happen, that’s normal and it makes sense,” the Oklahoma City star said. Shai Gilgeous-Alexanderwho is a two-time All-Star. “But ultimately it will come down to whether the players want to go, and I would love to see that. I love being a part of it, for sure, and I hope it happens.
Fan voting for the All-Stars will begin on December 19. No changes have been announced to Saturday’s All-Star lineup, but Curry and WNBA Star Sabrina Ionescu, a Bay Area native, will compete in a shooting competition for the second consecutive All-Star Saturday.
Silver said the league worked with the players’ association to scale back All-Star Game pregame presentations and national anthem productions so players could have a more normal warmup routine before to play.
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Steph Curry consults NBA on changing All-Star format for San Francisco game
“When I was a kid watching All Stars, it was one of the only opportunities you had as a fan to see a lot of those players,” Silver said. “It was one of the only times these players got together. It’s just such a different world now. They are together all the time. They are together in the summer. They are together on the national teams.
“For us, it’s a recognition that it’s a different time,” Silver continued. “And, you know, we’ll see. I am encouraged by this new format because we can create real enthusiasm there.
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(Photo: Kyle Terada / USA Today)