THE NBA has announced a major change to this year’s All-Star schedule.
This season the game will be replaced by a four-team tournament.
There will be 24 All-Stars selected and split up into three teams of eight players.
They will be joined by the winner of the Rising Stars tournament, contested by rookies and second-year standouts, which will take place on the Friday night.
The new All-Star tournament is set to go ahead on Sunday, February 16 at the Golden State Warriors‘ Chase Center home.
All games will be determined by a 40-point target score rather than a game clock.
All-Star weekend has been dogged by criticism in recent years due to players’ lack of effort.
Last year’s contest finished 211-186, a record amount of points scored in an All-Star Game.
Commissioner Adam Silver had implored players to give more effort than in previous years, but was left severely disappointed.
After the lackluster contest, All-Star MVP Damian Lillard admitted, “Two hundred [points] is a lot.
“It just shows we didn’t go out there and compete like I guess you’d want us to or whoever would want us to. That’s just what it is.”
Over the last six seasons, All-Star captains who received the most votes in each conference would draft their teams, in a departure from the previous East vs West format.
This year’s three eight-man squads will be drafted by TNT analysts Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.
All-Star voting is set to open tomorrow and will run through to January 20.
The 10 All-Star starters will be determined by 50 per cent fan voting, 25 per cent media voting and 25 per cent player voting.
Fourteen reserves will be entirely selected by current NBA head coaches.
Each player on the victorious squad will receive $125,000 in prize money.
Runners-up will be handed $50,000 each, while players eliminated in the semi-finals will walk away with $25,000 apiece.
‘HOPEFULLY IT HAPPENS’
Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is encouraged by the changes.
He said, “Obviously, with the elephant in the room being us competing, them trying to shake things up is expected and makes sense.
“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.”
‘I HATE IT’
Kevin Durant, however, who has served as a drafting All-Star captain in two of the past six seasons, has strongly spoken out against the changes.
“I hate it. Absolutely hate it. Terrible,” the 14-time All-Star blasted. “Format changing is terrible, in my opinion.
“We should just go back to East-West. Just play a game.
“I think we have been trying to bring that flair somehow back with the All-Star Weekend, but I think we just keep a tradition. We will see how it goes. I might be wrong.”
