The NBA is once again trying to spice up its All-Star Game.
The league announced sweeping changes to the midseason showcase on Tuesday including a new four-team mini-tournament and a prize pool of $1.8 million.
The reimagined event will take place at Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors, at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16 and air on TNT.
The 24 NBA All-Star selections will be divided evenly into three teams, with the rosters drafted by TNT’s “Inside the NBA” commentators and former NBA stars Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith.
The fourth team will be made up of the winning side of the rising stars game and will be led by TNT analyst and WNBA legend Candace Parker.
Three games, semifinals and finals will be held, with teams winning by being the first to reach or surpass 40 points.
The three analysts will make their respective picks for Team Charles, Team Shaq and Team Kenny live on TNT on Feb. 6.
The Eastern Conference beat the Western Conference 211-186 in the highest-scoring All-Star game in history in 2024.
Several longtime NBA observers ripped the effort in the game afterward using words like “dreadful” and “embarrassing” and former President Barack Obama also had some strong opinions about the state of the game.
“It insults the game,” Obama said in part. “This is your business. This is your product. You don’t want people thinking you’re all out there just half-assed.”
The voting process to determine the 24 players will remain the same. The five players honored as starters in each conference will be selected by fans (50% of the vote), current NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%).
The seven players honored as reserves in each conference will be selected by NBA head coaches.
Each player on the championship-winning team will receive $125,000, the second-place team will receive $50,000 and the third and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000.
This is the latest attempt by the NBA to bring some excitement to the game, which was once a marquee event on the sports calendar.
After the first 66 All-Star Games were played like a normal game, the league switched to a format where the leading vote-getters from each conference served as captains who got to draft their teams.
LeBron James served as one of the captains all six times, with Giannis Antetokounmpo the other captain three times, Kevin Durant twice and Stephen Curry once.
Rules like adding the clockless Elam ending seen in The Basketball Tournament every summer have also been used.
