The 2025 NBA All-Star Game introduced a new format, as the league got rid of the normal four-quarter basketball game in favor of a four-team mini-tournament that featured three games to 40. The basketball was pretty good, particularly the first two games, and seemed to move things in the right direction in terms of getting guys to be more competitive in the All-Star Game.
The problem was everything in between, as there was far more non-basketball activity happening on the court than actual hoops, which is an issue for a basketball exhibition. For the 2026 edition, the league will have a new broadcast partner in NBC, and according to Sports Business Journal the two sides are already exploring their options for next year’s event in Los Angeles. It sounds like the mini-tournament could get another year to try and prove itself, but with some tweaks.
One idea floated to SBJ was making it two teams of American stars, one international team, and a team of snubs instead of the Rising Stars winners.
Sources said one possibility for 2026 is a four-team tournament consisting of one squad of International All-Stars, which would conceivably be Antetokounmpo, Wembanyama, Nikola Jokic, Luca Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Joel Embiid, Pascal Siakam and Kyrie Irving (who will have Australian citizenship). Two other teams would be made of U.S.-born all-stars, and a fourth team — instead of a Rising Stars winner — could be a team of All-Star snubs, who’d have everything to prove. This year that might have included Domantas Sabonis, Devin Booker, Tyrese Haliburton, De’Aaron Fox, Jimmy Butler and Tyrese Maxey.
Silver has never been shy about liking a USA vs. World concept, but it doesn’t really work for teams of 12 as there are more American players than international players (even if at the very top the league’s MVP races have been dominated by international players in recent years). However, doing the mini-tournament allows them to make a smaller international team and have two USA squads. There is still the issue of how to create a fourth team. This year they went with the Rising Stars winners, which upset some NBA players that they got to play in the All-Star Game, but it did result in the best game because those young guys were hungry and the vets were determined not to lose.
While one would think the alternative would be to expand the rosters (moving to 14 in each conference would allow them to do four teams of seven players), the NBA is instead considering a team of “snubs”, hoping to replicate the kind of motivation the Rising Stars had. While fascinating, the idea of a snubs team leads to a few questions that the NBA would need to consider before moving forward with this as an actual plan.
Would the Snubs have a chance to steal All-Star status from the first team they face if they win?
The way to get guys to agree to be on the Snubs team would be to let them play for All-Star status. If you made it so that if they won that first round they get to take the All-Star designations from their opponents, you might have something. The All-Stars wouldn’t like it, but also, win the game. That matchup, at the very least, would have some real juice as guys play for those All-Star bonuses.
If not, why would anyone want to be on the Snubs team if they are not considered All-Stars?
Being an All-Star is an honor and one players value, but I have a hard time imagining a bunch of guys that just missed out are going to be really excited to pass on a vacation in order to play in an All-Star Game without being All-Stars themselves. If they are considered All-Stars (which matters for contractual bonuses), you can’t call them Snubs and you lose the motivation factor. If that’s the case, you should just expand the rosters.
How does a Snubs team complicate the injury replacement issue?
Every year there are a couple All-Stars that can’t play due to injury, and that means a couple of snubs end up on All-Star rosters (this year we saw Trae Young and Kyrie Irving get spots). However, if you have a team of snubbed players then you have to dig even deeper for replacements on that team if you’re elevating those guys to the actual rosters. Coming up with eight snubs is already going to get a bit tricky some years, but once you get to 10 or more due to injuries, it could get real murky.
