The 2026 NBA All-Star Game will blast off on Sunday, 15 Feb at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. And the NBA has released the rosters in this newly-introduced format which is, for the first time, composed of 3 teams. This 75th NBA All-Star Game will feature a round-robin mini-tournament with four 12-minute games.
There will be two US teams, which were aptly named the USA Stars and the USA Stripes. The U.S. All-Stars were assigned to teams based on age, with the younger players grouped under the USA Stars, while the older, more tenured players were placed under the USA Stripes. The third team, Team World, will be composed of the league’s top international players.
Playing for the USA Stars will be: Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Johnson, Tyrese Maxey Anthony Edwards and Devin Booker. For the USA Stripes, the line-up reads: Jalen Brunson, Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Norman Powell, plus former MVPs Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Lebron James. Suiting up for the powerhouse Team World will be: current MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander (Canada), former MVPs Nikola Jokic (Serbia) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Luka Doncic (Slovenia), Victor Wembanyama (France), Jamal Murray (Canada), Paskal Siakam (Cameroon), Karl Anthony Towns (Dominican Republic) and Deni Avdija (Israel).
LeBron James extended his record for most consecutive and most overall All-Star selections with his 22nd appearance, while six players will be making their All-Star debut next Sunday. The 6 new All-Stars are: Avdija (Portland Trailblazers), Duren (Detroit Pistons), Holmgren (OKC Thunder), Johnson (Atlanta Hawks), Murray (Denver Nuggets), and Powell (MIami Heat).
Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson will lead the USA Stars and USA Stripes, respectively. Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković of Serbia will lead Team World.
The round-robin affair is scheduled as follows: Game 1: USA Stars vs. World; Game 2: USA Stripes vs. winning team of Game 1; and Game 3: USA Stripes vs. losing team of Game 1. Finally, a Game 4 will feature the Championship between the top two teams from the round-robin play. Should all three teams finish 1-1 after the round-robin games, the first tiebreaker will be point differential across each team’s two games.
The All-Star Weekend will encompass three total nights of events from Feb. 13-15.
This Sunday, 15 Feb, get your beer and popcorn ready as the court ignites with a bold new format, with each squad chasing history and glory under the warm California night. Forget the team rivalries for once, as our favorite players regale us with dazzling dunks defying gravity, thundering 3-point shots from the moon and beyond, and the sizzling speed of comic-book superheroes. Don’t miss the 2026 NBA All-Star Games in LA, where the future of basketball erupts in one wild, wicked weekend.
Cover pic courtesy of Maquina de Esporte. Other pics courtesy of Instagram, LA Times.
Color My World 
We’ll see if this new format can raise the NBA All-star Game out of the depths, Charly. It has not been worth a glance in the last few years and at least they are trying something new.
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The Team USA vs Team World should be an interesting one. Why they had to split Team USA into 2 just escapes me.
I believe the fans started not to follow the All-Star game when the All-Stars started making it a pure offense show, when players started not to play defense.
Without the defense, many fans lost interest in the game.
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