Adam Silver called new All-Star format “a miss,” suggests an international-themed game next year

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It was better than the year before, but it wasn’t actually good.

That was NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s assessment of this year’s new All-Star format of a mini-tournament of four teams, which echoes the conventional wisdom coming out of the weekend in San Francisco. Add in some extended breaks during the broadcast — including during the championship game of the new tournament — and it didn’t work, which is why that format will be one-and-done.

“I thought this was a little better, but it was a miss,” Silver said Thursday during a press conference announcing the NBA’s working toward a European league. “We’re not there in terms of creating an All-Star experience that we can be proud of and that our players can be proud of.”

What would work? The NBA is thinking about an international competition.

Next year, NBC takes over the broadcast of the All-Star Game, set for Feb. 15, 2026, which happens to fall right in the middle of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, which will run Feb. 6 to 22. That sets up nicely for an international-themed competition, something the NHL had great success with this year, running a Four Nations Face-Off in place of its All-Star festivities.

“We’re going to fall right in the middle of the Winter Olympics, that they will be both the lead-in into the All-Star Game and the lead-out will be out on the West Coast…” Silver said, noting the Clippers will host the game in Inglewood/Los Angeles. “Which, given the Olympic competition, sort of is creating new thoughts around how we can bring national competition to bear. Of course, we took note of the great success the NHL had with their national team competition as their All-Star festivities…

“People have floated USA-World. I’m not sure that makes sense with the level of development, if that’s fair to lump all the other countries together these days. Maybe that we can single out, there are some different national teams that can compete.”

One of the knocks of the USA vs. World format was the depth of the international All-Star roster. While it would have…

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Source link : https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/adam-silver-called-new-all-star-format-a-miss-suggests-an-international-themed-game-next-year

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Publish date : 2025-03-28 16:27:00

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