The NBA introduced a mini-tournament format to increase the viewership.
The 2025 NBA All-Star event will be held in San Francisco with a new format, which will add more value to the competition. The All-Star Game is an annual event played in February, a week after the Super Bowl.
It’s basically a three-day event that goes from Friday to Sunday. The NBA All-Star Game started in 1951, and the 2025 All-Star Game will be its 74th edition.
Let’s check out the previous formats of the NBA All-Star:
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1951 was the year when the NBA started the concept of the All-Star Game, which featured top players from both conferences. It was a game between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. The final score is generally much higher than a competitive NBA game.
The conference-based format was changed in 2017 and it was the first change in the game format. NBA usually make changes in the rules to gain more viewership but they didn’t change the format for a longer period. However, the 2018 NBA All-Star Game was played in a different format and the idea was taken from the NHL All-Star Game.
Under the new format, the top vote-getters from each conference became team captains, and a draft was held to select players from the remaining starters and reserves, regardless of conference. LeBron James and Stephen Curry were named the captains for the 2018 event, which was the first to use this format.
Draft-style format was scrapped in October 2023 and NBA reintroduced the old format for the 2024 All-Star Game. However, the format didn’t last for a year as the NBA came out with new format for the 2025 All-Star Game.
The NBA introduced a mini-tournament format to increase the viewership. The format for the 2025 All-Star Game has four teams of eight players. Three teams will feature 24 All-Star selections and a fourth team will be a winning team from the Rising Star Challenge, which is an exhibition game. Rising Star Challenge features rookie players and standout performers from the G League.
Each team will be named after the analysts of ‘Inside the NBA’ – Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith. All four teams will play in the semifinals and the winners of both semifinals will meet in the final on Sunday.
NBA has also changed the rules for the All-Star game in recent years. In 2020, the league introduced the Elam Ending which was removed in 2024. In the Elam Ending rule, the game clock gets turned off with four minutes remaining and a target score will be set for both teams. Whoever reaches the target first wins the game. In 2000, the NBA also started hosting musical performances during the halftime of the game.
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