The NBA's Fourth All-Star Format in Four Years: Will USA vs. World Finally Fix the Midseason Showcase?

Damian Lillard hasn't played a game all season. He tore his Achilles in April, signed with Portland for $42 million in July, and spent the fall shooting hundreds of jumpers every morning in an empty gym. On Saturday night at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, he stepped onto an NBA court for the first time since the injury and won his third career 3-point contest, tying Larry Bird and Craig Hodges for the most in history.

"When he stepped on the court for Saturday's All-Star 3-point shootout, it was Dame Time once again. Lillard won the competition with a final-round score of 29, edging Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker and Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel."

That moment set the tone for a weekend the NBA desperately needs to work. The league is trying its fourth All-Star Game format in four years, and today's main event will test whether pitting American players against international talent can generate the competitive intensity that recent exhibitions have lacked.

How the New Format Actually Works

In the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players will compete in a round-robin tournament featuring four 12-minute games. The two U.S. teams are USA Stars and USA Stripes. The U.S. All-Stars were assigned to teams based on age, with the younger group placed on USA Stars and the older group placed on USA Stripes.

USA Stars is made up of the younger American All-Stars like Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham and Tyrese Maxey. The winner of that matchup will face USA Stripes, made up of American vets like Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard.

The schedule works like this: USA Stars faces Team World in Game 1, the winner plays USA Stripes in Game 2, and the loser of Game 1 also plays USA Stripes in Game 3. At the end of the first three games, the two teams with the best record will face off in Game 4 to determine the champions. If there is a three-way tie, point differential will be used to determine the two teams that will advance.

The money is real, at least by exhibition standards. The players on the winning team will each walk away with $125,000. Players on the second-place team get $50,000, while players of the third-placed team get $25,000.

The Rosters and Who's Missing

Twenty-eight players in total were named All-Stars this season, though the injury list has scrambled the original selections. Team World is headlined by Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, though this roster has taken some hits via injury with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander both out.

On February 12, De'Aaron Fox was named as an injury replacement for Giannis Antetokounmpo; Fox was added to the Team Stripes roster, while Norman Powell was reassigned to Team World. The NBA first moved New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns to Team World last week. NBA commissioner Adam Silver filled that vacancy with Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, now a seven-time All-Star.

Brandon Ingram was selected as Stephen Curry's replacement. Alperen Şengün was selected as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's replacement.

J.B. Bickerstaff, head coach of Eastern Conference leader Detroit Pistons, earned a coaching spot on January 24. Although the Oklahoma City Thunder have the best record in the Western Conference, their head coach, Mark Daigneault, was ineligible to coach in the All-Star Game because he had coached in the 2025 game and league rules prohibit a coach from coaching in consecutive All-Star Games.

Saturday Night's Highlights

The Rising Stars followed at Intuit Dome with Team Vince defeating Team Melo to win the championship in a highly competitive game.

On Saturday night, Keshad Johnson defeated Carter Bryant in the slam dunk contest, Damian Lillard edged Devin Booker to win the 3-point contest, and Team Knicks beat Team Cameron in the Shooting Stars competition.

The 3-point contest delivered something the NBA has struggled to manufacture in its All-Star festivities: genuine drama. Damian Lillard has not appeared in a game this season due to an Achilles tear in last year's NBA Playoffs, but that didn't stop him from participating in the 3-point contest. Lillard defeated Kon Knueppel and Devin Booker in the final round to win the event for the third time in his career.

Lillard, 35, suffered a torn left Achilles in Game 4 of the Milwaukee Bucks' first-round series against the Indiana Pacers in April and underwent surgery in May. Milwaukee waived him via the stretch provision in July, and he signed a three-year, $42 million contract to return to Portland.

Miami Heat forward Keshad Johnson has won the Slam Dunk Contest. Johnson finished with a score of 97.4 in the final round. He was able to win the contest after San Antonio Spurs rookie Carter Bryant scored a perfect score on his first attempt. However, on Bryant's final attempt, he didn't land a dunk that impressed the judges.

Why the Format Keeps Changing

The NBA has been tinkering with its midseason showcase for years. The Elam Ending came and went. Captain drafts had their moment. Last year's tournament format produced some competitive moments but still felt disconnected from what fans remember All-Star Games being. During an interview on Fox Sports 1's Breakfast Ball on June 4, 2025, Silver revealed that the game will most likely be played in a format pitting U.S. players against international players. He cited the concurrent 2026 Winter Olympics on NBC and the success of the NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off as influences on the format.

The international angle makes some sense. Of the top-six players in the regular-season MVP odds, four of them are international players. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander not playing this weekend due to an abdominal injury, the "World" team has to lean on only Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, and Victor Wembanyama. That's still a formidable trio. And there's something inherently competitive about national pride, even in a loose exhibition context.

This year marks the 75th annual All-Star Game, and it will be unlike any other. The L.A. area has hosted the event a record seven times and last had it in 2018.

What to Watch Tonight

The NBA has announced the team rosters for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, which will take place on Sunday, Feb. 15 (5 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock) at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. The game was televised nationally by NBC for the first time since 2002 and was streamed live on Peacock.

The big storyline heading into the game is whether Team World can compete despite losing two of its biggest names. Team USA Stripes is a little too cool and creaky, while Team World will be without the twin engines of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But Jokic, Doncic, and Wembanyama sharing the floor might produce the kind of passing sequences that make All-Star games worth watching when the defense is optional.

NBA head coaches selected 14 reserves, namely James, who's on an All-Star team for the 22nd consecutive season. That number is staggering. LeBron was first named an All-Star in 2005, when George W. Bush was in his first year of his second term and the iPhone didn't exist yet.

There were no positional requirements for this year's All-Star lineups. That's a first for the exhibition, which will soon be played in its 75th iteration.

Whether this format sticks around for 2027 depends entirely on what happens in the next few hours. If Jokic and Wembanyama start throwing no-look passes to each other while LeBron and KD try to prove they've still got it, the league might be onto something. If the games devolve into the usual uncontested dunks and lazy defense, the format discussions will start again by March.

The 75th All-Star Game tips off at 5 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.