2026 NBA All-Star Game new format explained: Date, time, teams, players, coaches and how to watch and stream online

The countdown to the 2026 NBA All-Star Game has begun. This weekend, the regular season is put on the back burner as the top stars from the best basketball league in the world head to Los Angeles for three days of unrivaled skills, thrills and quality entertainment.

The Intuit Dome in Inglewood, the newest arena in the NBA, is where all of the action will be taking place. It will be the seventh time that the All Star has been hosted by LA.

The weekend kicks off with the All Star Celebrity game and Rising Star Championship, then continues through All Star Saturday when the league’s big names will be showcasing their skills in the 3-point contest, slam dunk contest and the return of the shooting stars event, which was last held in 2015.

The weekend reaches its climax on Sunday with the All Star Game which has undergone numerous revamps and alterations since the inaugural game in 1951 - among them, changes to the selection process, roster construction and the game format.

New All Star Game format: the USA versus the World

And a brand new format has been introduced for this year’s All Star Game, the 75th edition. From 2018 to 2025, two captains picked the teams from a pool of 24 players who were voted for by fans, journalists and players - the captains’ era replaced the original Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference format.

And starting from this year, there is a new, United States versus Rest of the World format with three teams taking part in a round-robin format.

Two of the teams taking part comprise only players who were born in the US: USA Stars and USA Stripes. The other, the World team features international players who are currently based at NBA teams. Each team will each have a minimum of eight players.

USA Stars, USA Stripes and the World team will compete in a round-robin tournament featuring four 12-minute games.

In the round-robin tournament, USA Stars will play Team World in Game 1. The Game 1 winners will take on USA Stripes in Game 2, followed by Game 3 between the losing team of Game 1 versus USA Stripes.

When all three games have been completed, the top two teams by record will advance to face each other in the championship game. If all three teams have a 1-1 record after Game 3, the tiebreaker would be point differential in each team’s two round-robin games.

The selection process has also been modified. As in the past, 24 NBA All-Stars (12 from each conference) were selected as follows: The five players honored as starters from each conference were selected by fans (50% of the vote), current NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%). The seven players honored as reserves from each conference were selected by NBA head coaches. The major change this year is that the All-Stars were selected without regard to their position.

The All-Star Game starters were announced on January 19, with the reserves announced on February 1.

When is the 2026 NBA All-Star Game?

Game 1 of the 2026 NBA All-Star Game round robin tournament begins at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT at The Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California on Sunday February 15 2026. Game 2 follows at 5:55 p.m. ET / 2:55 p.m. PT and Game 3 at 6:25 p.m. ET / 3:25 p.m. PT. The All-Star Game will be decided with the Championship Game at 7:10 p.m. ET / 4:10 p.m. PT.

The tournament will be aired live by NBC, and streamed on Peacock, DirecTV Stream, Sling TV and Hulu+ Live TV.

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