2025 NBA All-Star Game format explained: League debuting new tournament-style competition on Sunday

The NBA’s new-look All-Star Game is almost here. The league will be using a “mini-tournament” format in 2025 at the Warriors’ Chase Center, featuring four teams: three teams of NBA All-Stars plus the winner of the annual Rising Stars challenge. Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith of TNT’s “Inside the NBA” are the “honorary general managers” of the three teams and picked their rosters earlier this month.

All-Star staples like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokic will be on the floor Sunday night, as will first-timers like Victor Wembanyama, Cade Cunningham and Tyler Herro. 

Here are more details of the All-Star Game changes.

NBA All-Star Game format

• The NBA is switching to a mini-tournament featuring four teams: three teams of NBA All-Stars and the winner of the Rising Stars challenge. The Rising Stars challenge — itself a four-team tournament — will be held Friday night and features the league’s best first- and second-year players plus a handful of G League players.
• Each team of NBA All-Stars has eight players. There is a total of 24 NBA All-Stars (excluding injury replacements), the same number as previous seasons. 
• The tournament format: “Two teams will meet in one semifinal (Game 1), and the remaining two teams will meet in the other semifinal (Game 2). The winning teams from Game 1 and Game 2 will advance to face each other in the championship (Game 3). For each game, the winner will be the first team to reach or surpass 40 points.”
• The first round of the tournament was announced earlier this week: Team Kenny (full of younger NBA stars) will face Team Chuck (full of international players) in the first semifinal. Team Shaq (full of veterans) will play the Rising Stars winner (coached by Candace Parker) in the second semi. The winners will meet in the final.
• The voting process remained the same, so 10 players were picked as “starters” and there were 12 players per conference.
• There is a prize pool of $1.8 million. Each player on the championship-winning team gets $125,000. Players on the second-place team get $50,000. Players on the teams that lose in the semifinals get $25,000.

Previously the league held one 48-minute All-Star Game, traditionally between the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. Teams were picked by leading vote-getters between 2018-2023, but the league returned to East vs. West last season in Indianapolis. The result was a 397-point affair that led to plenty of criticism.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has repeatedly lamented the quality of play in recent All-Star Games and stated that the league is open to tweaking the format. During his media availability in Mexico on Nov. 2, Silver hinted at something like this by saying the league was looking at not having a “traditional game format” this year.

Silver added: “I think everyone was disappointed in what they saw last year. It wasn’t just the league, it was the players, as well, the players association. I think we all did what we thought we could, thinking we would — particularly in Indiana, sort of the heartland of basketball — somehow we would give it the college try, and we’d see a more competitive game.”

Where to watch 2025 NBA All-Star Game

• Time: 8 p.m. ET | Date: Sunday, Feb. 16
• Location: Chase Center — San Francisco
• TV channel: TNT | Live stream: Max

Silver said that the league had confirmed a committee to talk about the issue with the NBPA and team representatives about trying “something new” in order to “excite the fans and also excite the players, so it’s something they’re enthusiastic about participating in.”

2025 NBA All-Star Game rosters: LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards lead three squads in new format

Sam Quinn

The 2025 All-Star weekend will be held from Feb. 14-16 in San Francisco. Silver said league officials have “had direct conversations” with Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry about changing the format because Curry is “very prideful and wants to make sure that the players put their best foot forward.”