LAS VEGAS — As expected, the NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco will be a mini-tournament pitting three teams comprised of the league’s top 24 players against the team that wins the Rising Star Challenge.
Yes, the idea behind the change (this will be the league’s third All-Star format since 2020) is to make the game more competitive. But also, or instead, or at least to make it more interesting to watch on TV.
“I think we’ve gotten to the point where the modern All-Star is partly about competition, but ultimately it’s about entertaining fans and creating a powerful experience,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in an interview Tuesday. athletic and other domestic media outlets.
“You know, I was wrong last year,” Silver said. “I thought the guys would turn back the clock a little bit and play some traditional games, considering Indiana is considered the capital of basketball and has some legendary players, but that wasn’t the case. It is going to be.
“So we went back to the drawing board with the Players Association and talked directly to the players and said, ‘Let’s think about what format we think is more likely to make games. In this case it’s a series. “It’s a competition that fans will be interested in,” he said.
The new format, jointly announced Tuesday by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association, includes two semifinal games and three championship games, which will be won by the first team to reach 40 or more points. The prize pool is $1.8 million, with the winning team receiving $125,000 per player.
The NBA and NBPA today announced a new format for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Additionally, NBA All-Star voting, presented by AT&T, ends at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday, December 19.
More details ➡️ https://t.co/KntyklRIe7 pic.twitter.com/3jIbW1tZWZ
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 17, 2024
The selection of the league’s best stars remains unchanged. Twelve players from each conference are named All-Stars, and fans, media and players vote on five “starters” and seven reserves from each conference, as determined by the coaches.
Those players will then be put into a pool for selection by TNT’s three analysts (Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal) who serve as honorary general managers for all three All-Star teams. They will split the team into three groups of eight All-Stars on Feb. 6 before a weekly doubleheader on TNT.
The honorary general manager of the Rising Stars team is Candace Parker, another Turner Sports analyst. The Rising Stars Challenge takes place on the Friday of All-Star Weekend. The All-Star Tournament will be held February 16 at the Chase Center.
Starting February 2, the All-Star Game coach will be the staff of the top team in each conference. The coach of each first-place team will coach an all-star team. Staff members coach the Rising Stars champions, while other assistants coach the rest of the All-Star team.
In November athletic Silver’s office reported that it was consulting with players, including Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, about changing the All-Star Game again in another attempt to make the event more competitive. Silver credited Andre Iguodala, executive director of the players’ association, with leading player-side discussions in Silver’s office.
As Silver noted, last year’s All-Star Game in Indianapolis set a new record for scoring. And this wasn’t a good thing. This is because players on both teams did not put any effort into defense.
“With the elephant in the room competing against us, it’s expected and makes sense for them to want to shake things up,” said two-time All-Star Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. “But at the end of the day it will come down to whether the players want to play that game or not. I would like to see that. I would definitely love to be a part of that, and I hope that happens.”
Fan voting for All-Stars begins on December 19th. No changes have been announced for the All-Star Saturday program, but Curry and Bay Area native WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu are expected to be in the mix. Second straight All-Star Saturday.
Silver said the league has worked with the players’ association to reduce All-Star Game pregame introductions and production of the national anthem to allow players to have a more normal warm-up routine before games.
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Stephen Curry talks with NBA to change All-Star format for San Francisco game
“Watching All Stars as a kid, it was one of the only times I got to see a lot of these guys as a fan,” Silver said. “It was one of the only times these guys got together. It’s a really different world now. They are always together. They are together in the summer. They are together in the national team.
“For us, it’s about recognizing that times are different,” Silver continued. “And you know, we’ll see. I’m encouraged by this new format that we can see to generate real excitement there.”
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(Photo: Kyle Terada / USA Today)
