2025 NBA All-Star Game revamped format: Details of new rules, stages, & more explored

Over the past few years, the league has worked tirelessly to revamp the NBA All-Star Game. This season, a new format is being rolled out in hopes of providing intrigue to what has become a stale product.

Last week, reports emerged of a tournament-style format to the All-Star Game. It will feature four teams, three groups consisting of eight All-Stars. The final team competing will be the winning squad from the Rising Stars Challenge.

On Thursday afternoon, Shams Charania provided more details of how the new NBA All-Star Game format will play out. It will start with a pair of semifinal games with a target score of 40. From there, the winning teams will face off in the championship round. The final game will be much shorter, as the score is only going up to 25.

When talking about the change earlier this month, commissioner Adam Silver stated the goal is to provide more entertainment value for fans and players.

"We're looking at other formats," Silver said earlier this month. "I think there's no doubt that the players were disappointed as well in last year's All-Star Game. We all want to do a better job providing competition and entertainment for our fans."

All-Star weekend is set to take place February 16th at Chase Center, home of Steph Curry and the first-place Golden State Warriors.

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NBA All-Star weekend could revamped version of fan-favorite event

Last year, NBA All-Star Weekend featured a new event that ended up being a massive success. Heading into this year, there is already chatter of a return in a revamped format.

Aside from the traditional three-point contest, Steph Curry took on Sabrina Ionescu in a separate shooting event. The NBA vs WNBA clash was a hit among fans, which has led to reports of it coming back.

Shams Charania reported that Curry and Ionescu have already discussed running it back. However, this NBA All-Star weekend could feature more men and women entering the fold. Reports have named Klay Thompson and Caitlin Clark as possible names to also partake this year.

"Curry and Ionescu are in strong conversations to return in a variation of the shootout, which could include other NBA and WNBA players such as Klay Thompson of the Dallas Mavericks and Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever, sources said."

Adding Thompson into the mix would be an interesting addition given that All-Star weekend is going to be in Golden State. As for Clark, she'd be a prime option for the WNBA coming off her historic rookie season.

Given all these changes and additions, it's clear the league is very invested in making All-Star weekend more of a draw.