Changes are likely coming to NBA All-Star Weekend. Recent reports suggested that the NBA has been discussing possibly changing the format of the 2025 All-Star Game to a new tournament style that would consist of four different teams. Now, it appears as if this tournament-style All-Star Game is nearing finalization with new details.
With the direction things are currently trending, the new format would consist of two semifinal games up to 40 points, with the winners advancing to the championship. Then the final game in this tournament-style format would see a target score of up to 25 points, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.
Essentially, this would create a fast-paced, pickup basketball feel to NBA All-Star Weekend in attempts to have more fans, and especially players, engaged in the event.
The NBA has been trying to alter the All-Star Game for years in order to create more competition. Players have been less energetic for All-Star Weekend than in years past, and the event has turned more into a three-point shootout than anything that is actually meaningful.
Last season, the 2024 NBA All-Star Game ended in the Eastern Conference defeating the Western Conference 211-186, the highest-scoring All-Star Game in the history of the league. The main goal the league has set out is to create a format that is less of an open-gym type of spectacle.
Since the 2025 NBA All-Star Game is being hosted by the Golden State Warriors, two-time MVP Stephen Curry has been giving his input to the league on possibly changing the format. Curry, along with several other stars around the NBA, have given their input on the festivities that will be held in San Francisco in February.
With this new format, the pool of All-Stars would be broken up into three teams of eight players each, while the fourth team would be the winner of the Rising Stars game. There wouldn’t be the traditional East vs. West format for the All-Star Game, and no real game with four quarters would be played.
Instead, this tournament would take over the NBA All-Star Game, with three smaller, competitive games being played to determine the champions of All-Star Weekend.
The 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend festivities will be hosted by the Warriors during the 2024-25 season, with the All-Star Game schedule to be played on Feb. 16 in Chase Center.
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