The NBA announced its overhauled All-Star Game format, including how Adam Silver will make sure the American and International teams both hit their quota of players.
The NBA announced its long-awaited plans to overhaul the All-Star Game Tuesday night, laying out how the new « United States once again versus the World » format will go and how the teams will be formed.
Beyond the obvious change, going to a three-team format featuring eight-man rosters — two of which will be made up of American players, and a third of international selections — there are a couple of changes to how those players will be selected.
The basics — five starters and seven reserves from each conference, with a combination of fans, media and players voting for the starters and coaches picking the reserves — remain unchanged. What is different, though, is that there will no longer be any positional requirements.
In the past, the starters have been made up of two backcourt players and three frontcourt players, with the reserves being the same split plus two wild cards. This year, though, the starters will be the five top vote-getters, regardless of position, and the reserves will be the top seven, also regardless of position.
