NBA reveals new All-Star tournament format for this season: 4 teams, 3 games, 1 night

Published Categorized as NBA No Comments on NBA reveals new All-Star tournament format for this season: 4 teams, 3 games, 1 night
Golden State Warriors (NBA)

The NBA All-Star Game is changing this season and will be turned into an All-Star tournament. The league announced on Tuesday that it has decided on a new format for the upcoming event in San Francisco.

This new format is sure to lower the scoring significantly.

This year, the event will be a four-team, three-game, one-night tournament. There will be three teams, each with eight All-Stars, and the fourth team will be made up of the winners of the Rising Stars challenge, which features first- and second-year players. The winning team in each game will be the first to score 40 points.

The event will take place on February 16 at the Golden State Warriors’ home arena. The Rising Stars event will be held there on February 14, which will be the highlight of All-Star Friday.

“I think we’ve come to terms that modern All-Stars are in part about competition, but at the same time, they’re about entertaining the fans and creating a strong experience for them,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Tuesday.

Adam Silver talks to the reporters

Silver has wanted the All-Star Game to be more competitive for some time, and this change follows last season’s game in Indianapolis, where the teams combined for a record 397 points (211-186 final score).

The teams in last year’s game attempted 289 shots, with 94% of those attempts being either inside the paint or beyond the three-point line.

“Obviously, with the elephant in the room being us competing, them trying to shake things up is expected and makes sense,” said Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is likely to be selected as an All-Star for the third time this season. “At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to whether the players want to go at it, and I would love to see that. Love to be a part of that for sure, and hopefully it happens.”

There have been other changes to the All-Star format in recent years. Before, the game was played as a regular matchup between the Eastern and Western Conference teams, with four 12-minute quarters. Then, the league switched to a format where the top vote-getters from each conference became captains and got to draft their teams.

LeBron James was a captain all six times, while Giannis Antetokounmpo was a captain three times, Kevin Durant twice, and Stephen Curry once.

In four of the captain-pick years, the game used a target score at the end, meaning the winner was decided by the first team to reach a certain score. The fourth quarter was untimed, and the target score was the leading team’s score after three quarters, plus 24 points — a tribute to Kobe Bryant’s jersey number.

Oklahoma City Thunder- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Last year, the format returned to the East vs. West setup, and it led to a record-breaking total of points, with highlights like Luka Doncic attempting a 70-foot jumper, Donovan Mitchell throwing a 50-foot underhand pass, Bam Adebayo inbounding the ball to himself by tossing it off Nikola Jokic’s back, Tyrese Haliburton making five three-pointers in 92 seconds, and Damian Lillard hitting a 44-foot jumper — which wasn’t even his longest shot of the game.

“I think something could be done about it,” Lillard said after winning the MVP last year. “I’m not sure what, but I think there’s a way to make it a more competitive game.”

The NBA, working with the National Basketball Players Association on the new format, hopes it has found a solution.

“We went back to the drawing board with the players association, and again talking directly to players and said, ‘Let’s come up with a format that we think has a better chance of creating a game, or in this case a series of competitions that will be of interest to the fans,’” Silver said. “So, this is where we came out.”

By Christopher Kamila

I am an experienced content writer with a specialization in WordPress. I have written engaging articles for various websites that have achieved a total of 5,500 monthly views. In addition, I have played a key role in boosting their organic traffic by 30% and achieving top Google rankings through SEO. My passion lies in creating user-friendly content.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *