NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that the 2026 All-Star Game will be changed to feature Team World versus Team USA.

The 2025 NBA Finals kicked off on June 5th local time, with the Oklahoma City Thunder playing at home against the Indiana Pacers. Before the game, Adam Silver confirmed on a Fox Sports talk show Breakfast Ball that the 2026 All-Star Game will adopt a new format: "As part of the new media broadcast agreement, the All-Star Game will return to NBC. Coincidentally, it will be during the Winter Olympics."

He added: "NBC will be leading up to the All-Star Game with the Winter Olympics and will continue to air more Winter Olympics events after the game. At the same time, the All-Star Game will be moved from the evening to the afternoon. So what better time than now to launch the 'America vs. the World' format?"

As for the specific competition system, Silver admitted that it has not yet been finalized: "I am not completely sure what the final competition system will be, but we did seriously study the four-nation competition held by the NHL in February this year. That's good."

The introduction of a new competition system is clearly another attempt by the NBA to address the declining attention paid to the All-Star Game in recent years. Data shows that the average viewership of the 2025 All-Star Game was only 4.7 million, the second lowest in history and a 13% decline from the previous year. Against the backdrop of declining ratings, the NBA hopes to revive fans' enthusiasm through a more entertaining competition format.