The NBA All-Star game will get a makeover. On Tuesday, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced a new format for the 2025 game set to take place in San Francisco.
The league announced that this season’s All-Star game will feature a mini-tournament with four teams and three games. It’s the first time that the league will run the game in a tournament, with four teams facing off in two semifinals games. The winning teams from each game will advance to face each other in the championship game. For each game, the winner will be the first team to reach or surpass 40 points.
Each team will have eight players, with teams named after “Inside the NBA” analysts Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith. Those three will draft their rosters live on TNT in the NBA All-Star draft, which will be conducted Feb. 6 just before the network’s doubleheader that night.
The fourth team will be the winning team from the championship game of the Rising Stars game, which will be played Feb. 14 during NBA All-Star 2025. The Rising Stars showcase features the top first- and second-year NBA players and NBA G League standouts. TNT analyst and former WNBA star Candace Parker will serve as honorary general manager of the Rising Stars champion, known as Team Candace.
The process to pick All-Stars hasn’t changed, with the five starters in each conference selected by fans (50% of the vote), current NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%). NBA head coaches will select the seven reserves in each conference.
Voting for All-Stars begins at 10 a.m. ET Thursday and end at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 20. The NBA will share fan voting updates Jan. 2, Jan. 9 and Jan. 16. TNT will reveal the All-Star game starters Jan. 23 and the reserves Jan. 30.
The four All-Star game head coaches will come from the coaching staffs of the teams with the best regular-season record in each conference through games played Feb. 2. Head coaches with the best record in each conference will each coach an NBA All-Star team. An assistant coach from each of those staffs will coach the Rising Stars champion and the remaining All-Star team.
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