How the All-Star Game works: A breakdown of the NBA's new format
The NBA is taking a completely different approach to the All-Star Game this year as the league's biggest players descend on the San Francisco Bay Area for a full weekend of festivities starting Feb. 14.
The NBA All-Stars have been selected. Next up is the job of assigning them to teams.
The 10 players designated as starters were announced on Jan. 23, while the remaining 14 players designated as reserves were revealed Thursday. Now, those 24 players will be drafted onto eight-player teams for the games that will be played on Feb. 16 in at the Golden State Warriors' home court, the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Who will select the teams?
TNT analysts and basketball greats Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith will draft the teams on Feb. 6. The eight-player teams will bear their names — Team Shaq, Team Charles and Team Kenny.
They'll pick from this pool of players:
— LeBron James and Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers
— Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Darius Garland of the Cleveland Cavaliers
— Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics
— Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks
— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder
— Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves
— Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons
— Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves
— James Harden of the Los Angeles Clippers
— Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns
— Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets
— Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors
— Pascal Siakam of the Indiana Pacers
— Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat
— Alperen Sengun of the Houston Rockets
— Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies
— Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs
Curry was the only member of the host team selected among the All-Stars.
How the tournament works
A fourth team will be determined Friday, Feb. 14, at the Rising Stars one-night tournament. Those games will feature four rosters of seven players each featuring rookie and second-year players plus a fourth team composed of G League players. The sole representative for the Rising Stars tournament from this year's hosting Golden State team is Warriors power forward/center Trayce Jackson-Davis.
Those four Rising Star tournament teams will play semifinal games where the first to 40 points wins; those semifinal winners will then play in a championship game, with the winning team being the first one to 25 points. That team will be called Team Candace, for Candace Parker, and advance to the Sunday tournament.
The games on All-Star Sunday will be fast. Games are to 40 points; first one to reach that total wins. The two semifinal winners will meet in the All-Star final, that game also goes only to 40 points.
Voting format
There was a weighted formula to pick the 10 players designated as "starters." It was 50% fan vote, 25% media panel vote, 25% current player vote. NBA head coaches picked the 14 players designated as "reserves."
But the starter and reserve columns won't mean much on game night, since there will be 15 different players starting — five from each of the three teams — and only nine players coming off the bench in those semifinal games.
Why the change?
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has wanted a more competitive All-Star event for some time, and this change comes after the teams combined to score a record 397 points — 211-186 was the final — in last season's game at Indianapolis.
The teams combined to take 289 shot attempts in last year's game, 94% of those being either inside the paint or beyond the 3-point line.
Coaching staffs
Kenny Atkinson of the Cleveland Cavaliers will coach one All-Star team, Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder will coach another, and two of their assistants — one from each team — will have the other teams under their direction.
Cleveland and Oklahoma City are sending their staffs to the game because those are the teams with the best records in the Eastern and Western Conferences.
Prize money for the players
There is a prize pool of $1.8 million for the All-Star Game.
Each player on the All-Star champion team gets $125,000, each player on the runner-up team will get $50,000 and the players on the teams eliminated in the semifinals will each get $25,000.
