Why 2026 NBA All-Star game might not be as exciting as you would think.
14/01/2026
International basketball tournaments have always been the place to watch the best basketball you have ever seen – The Olympics, World Cup, Eurobasket. I am talking about national teams, players representing their countries, not the NBA or Euroleague club basketball, where players go to work every day to retire their family with their first paycheck. The pride in having your flag on your chest and go fight for medals on the worldwide stage is far more different than a 10-point win against the Charlotte Hornets on some Thursday in January. With that said, the NBA has finally made the All-Star game interesting…USA vs WORLD. The fans have been asking for this for quite some time and we finally have it. But is it really going to be as exciting as it sounds?
Does anyone remember USA’s run in 2023 Basketball World Cup? Probably not, because they didn’t even bring a medal back home and the most memorable things where the loss against Lithuanian national team consisting of one NBA player (Jonas Valanciunas), and bronze medal game thriller against Canada, or rather Dillon Brooks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander duo combining for 70 points and leaving Team USA just behind podium. The USA national team in the past years has not been as dominant as before or rather the world has finally caught up. You might say that this statement is not true because 2024 Olympic games showed something different - USA assembled the so-called Avengers team for the tournament including stars such as Lebron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and even Embiid joined in on the fun. The veterans showed and proved the world why the USA is still on the top of the mountain regarding basketball. Flawless 6 games won and a gold medal in the bag. By looking at the game scores the image is clear, Team USA won fair and square, but if you dive deep into the games the image becomes even clearer. There is no dominant future for the USA basketball, every game of the tournament we could see the real team leaders - Lebron, Durant and Curry. Yes, Anthony Edwards and Devin Booker also played in a very great tournament, but without Steph’s clutch moments or Lebron’s playmaking in this tournament the scenario would be the same as the 2023 World Cup. And to top it all, Team USA almost lost to Serbia in semifinals. Serbian team had a clear plan how to defeat this “avengers” team and in my opinion, they executed it perfectly and probably made them nervous for 35 out of all 40 minutes that the Serbians spent in the lead of the game. Come on, they even had a physiotherapist from USA that probably helped with spotting the weaknesses of all the 37+ year olds in team USA. It sounds like I am a massive Serbian fan, but in reality, it was enjoyable to watch USA sweat a bit more than usual and to really lock in, because the team was very much on the brink of collapsing at one point with 17-point deficit. And then Stephen Curry started lasering threes and USA won the last quarter 32:15 and eventually won the game with only 3 minutes total spent in the lead.
Have I persuaded you to believe that the best basketball you could experience is the international basketball tournaments? Or am I just sounding like a NBA hater? I am just really worried about the future of USA basketball and at the same time excited because the world is catching up. But how does all this international basketball talk relate to this new All-Star game format? Pretty much by nothing, because the format is nowhere near perfect.
The new All-Star game format consists of three teams - 1 world team and 2 separate USA teams. They will play against each other once and the two top teams will play in the final. In total there will be four games each 12 minutes long. If you did good in 2nd grade math, then you’ll probably realize that this is just one big 48-minute NBA game behind the mask.
And why are will still voting by conference if they don’t even play East vs West? It should just be 24 best stars voted by us, players themselves, coaches and media…24 best NBA players in that part of the season hence why - All…Stars…
The league has entered the era where less and less players are actually from USA and even more players are coming in from all over the world, so this All-Star format makes sense because it is easily doable. But why make 3 teams, why not the regular 2 teams-one game format. Arguably the top 5 NBA players right now are from outside the USA, so starting five is done for the world team. Get the veterans from Olympic games team and pair them with some young stars and the starting five for the USA team would also be complete. But now we are just confused because who will be the 8 players for one USA team and who will be the other 8 on the second team, is it like a draft or just randomly picked, no one knows yet.
On one side it feels like this 3-team tournament is unfair, because the World team consisting of potentially Doncic, Jokic, Giannis, Shai, Wembanyama, Sengun, Avdija, Siakam, Giddy, Markkanen and Wagner just sounds ridiculous. It is just best players form their respective teams put together, 7-foot-tall triple double maniacs combined and most of them look like they don’t know how to properly run or jump. And yet on paper they instantly obliterate any other team that tries to even poke a finger at them.
On other side, the All-Star game for these world players isn’t anything they strive to be the best, because in reality it is just a fun playful basketball game between these NBA stars. While NBA is trying to make it more competitive and showcase the best vs the best, the European stars are actively avoiding these gimmick games for the way to rest and relax from the hard season. And this is my way of tying up this year’s All-Star game with international basketball I previously talked about. A lot of people expect the world team to “go ham” and play like it’s the Olympic final to prove to USA that they finally have become better than the country that created basketball. But also, none of these players are from same country, none of them have even played together. It isn’t the same feeling as Jokic led Serbia to fight as one country, or Doncic carrying Slovenian team to one goal. USA on the other hand is actually just USA; I would say that THEY are the ones to prove something…prove that they still are the number one basketball country and that the future for them is still bright. If this game becomes competitive and these USA teams can’t beat a world team that doesn’t even bother to be there, it becomes a big problem for USA basketball and its future.
And no. I don't want to see team USA lose ever again (I do).
Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
If you love hockey, you will know that NHL All-Star game also tried something similar last year called 4 Nations Face Off – NHL players from 4 countries compete in tournament with their respective national team. USA, Canada, Sweden and Finland were the four teams that showcased spectacular brawl between them and ultimately Canada took the crown beating USA in the final game 3:2 in overtime. This tournament really showed the potential of these All-Star weekends and the ways we can make them more competitive if that even is the ultimate goal. Obviously, it is very different and more difficult to replicate in NBA, because it is more global sport, and more countries play the game, so the number of players from around the world is still not enough to make 8 player teams specifically from one country. I don’t like predicting things, because of the consequences of being completely and utterly wrong, but I am going to say, that I still think the world team is going to win this All-Star weekend despite the fact that they aren’t serious about it, but only because the USA cannot put two great teams together that could beat them. One combined USA team is a different story, but two are just not enough, also considering the fact that USA teams are basically just point guards against the big forwards and centers in worlds team.
I completely get the idea of this USA vs World format, because the NBA is expanding their market and making the league as global as possible. But it just feels like the traditional East vs West is forgotten and we have been chasing this more competitive style All-Star game format in recent years. Like in 2018 when they introduced the drafting from most voted team captains, then the target score, then back to East vs West for one year, then with four team mini-tournament and then finally now USA vs World. It has been 9 years since the first change and by the voices of the fans, NBA still haven’t found the right recipe for the All-Star game format, and no one is happy. After all it’s not even that serious…it’s not Olympics nor the World Cup, it is just a fun basketball game between some guys who live to play the game.
