NBA ALL-STAR GAME GETS ANOTHER MAKEOVER

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U.S. vs. the world? Maybe this time it’ll stick.

Back to the Draw­ing Board… Again

Well, here we go again. The NBA is once again try­ing to fix what’s been bro­ken for years: the All-Star Game for­mat. After the much-panned three-game mini-tour­na­ment in 2025 (which land­ed some­where between a pre­sea­son scrim­mage and a sleep aid), Com­mis­sion­er Adam Sil­ver says the league is “going back to the draw­ing board.” Spoil­er: that board is look­ing pret­ty worn out by now.

This Time: World Dom­i­na­tion?

The lat­est bright idea? A U.S. vs. The World show­down. Yep, the NBA is con­sid­er­ing turn­ing the 2026 All-Star Game into an inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion, split­ting play­ers by birth­place: Amer­i­cans vs. for­eign-born stars. Think Olympic-lite, but with ad breaks and less defense. Accord­ing to Sil­ver, it’s all about sync­ing up with NBC’s cov­er­age of the Win­ter Olympics—and, one assumes, about find­ing some way to make peo­ple care again.

NBC’s Big Bet

NBC seems all-in on the con­cept. Their cov­er­age of the Feb. 15 game at the Intu­it Dome (also set to host Olympic bas­ket­ball in 2028) will like­ly get a jolt from this World vs. USA angle. Byron Spru­ell, NBA pres­i­dent of league oper­a­tions, said the net­work is “lean­ing into” the for­mat. Whether fans will fol­low is anoth­er ques­tion entire­ly.

Tal­ent Is Def­i­nite­ly Not the Prob­lem

The inter­na­tion­al ros­ter would pack seri­ous heat: Jokic, Don­cic, Gian­nis, Wembanyama—the list goes on. But will com­pet­i­tive fire match the star pow­er? After all, the All-Star Game hasn’t exact­ly been appoint­ment view­ing late­ly. Still, if any­thing can inject some real ener­gy, it’s the idea of nation­al (or at least con­ti­nen­tal) brag­ging rights.