NBA announces All-Star Game starters, with 1st version of U.S. vs. The World format now on its way

The first-ever World team for the NBA All-Star Game is already looking loaded. And the fate of LeBron James' record streak of All-Star selections will now be decided by coaches, or perhaps even Commissioner Adam Silver.

Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver's Nikola Jokic, the Los Angeles Lakers' Luka Doncic and San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama were among those announced Monday as starters — an inexact term this year — for next month's All-Star Game at the Los Angeles Clippers' home arena in Inglewood, California. They're likely heading to the World team, which will take on two teams of U.S. players as part of yet another new format for the midseason showcase.

The NBA announced 10 starters, five from each conference. Golden State's Stephen Curry, New York's Jalen Brunson, Detroit's Cade Cunningham, Philadelphia's Tyrese Maxey and Boston's Jaylen Brown all are presumably headed to the U.S. squads that will play in the three-team, round-robin tournament on Feb. 15 — all 12-minute mini-games, with the top two teams advancing to a 12-minute championship game.

“It’s still as special as the first one was, honestly," Gilgeous-Alexander said of the All-Star nod. "I grew up watching All-Star games as a kid, dreaming about playing in them. To be able to play in them will always have that same feeling. All the players that I looked up to, that I imitated my game after, played in those games, played on that stage. And for me to be able do so, it’s a blessing and an honor.”

Starters were selected through a weighted formula, with fan voting counting for 50% of a player’s ranking, the votes of a 100-member panel of broadcasters and reporters counting for 25% and voting by NBA players themselves counting for the remaining 25%.

Doncic got the most fan votes with about 3.4 million, with Antetokounmpo next at around 3.2 million. Wembanyama and Minnesota's Anthony Edwards tied for the fifth Western Conference starter spot; the nod went to Wembanyama because he had the edge over Edwards in fan voting.

The U.S. vs. the World concept was talked about for years before finally becoming a reality this season. The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association unveiled the long-awaited plan earlier this season, after trying yet again to figure out the latest way to spark renewed interest in the game.

It seemed like the right time to try a game with national pride at stake, given that it'll happen this year around the midway point of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. The NBA's All-Star events, like the Olympics in the U.S., will all be broadcast on NBC’s family of networks.

There will be three teams of at least eight players. Games will be one standard NBA quarter, or 12 minutes long.

Team A will play Team B in Game 1. The winner of that game will play Team C in Game 2. The loser of Game 1 will play Team C in Game 3.

The teams with the best two records will play in the championship game. If all three teams are 1-1, point differential would be the tiebreaker.

The league typically has 10 starters picked by the weighted formula voting, then 14 reserves by the coaches, and that’s also the case this year.

It’s just different.

In a standard All-Star Game — two teams, 12 players per side — the old voting formula works out perfectly. But this is three teams, with eight players per side. That means at least 15 players will “start” a game in the All-Star tournament.

Therefore, it’s guaranteed that some players who weren’t announced as starters Monday will be starting on Feb. 15.

And it is possible that some rosters may have more than eight players, if the NBA needs to keep adding in order to get to 16 on the U.S. side or eight on the World side.

James, for the first time in 22 years, wasn't among the group selected as a starter.

His record run of 20 consecutive All-Star Game appearances — not selections, that streak continued — ended last season when he bowed out of another mini-tournament format citing foot and ankle injuries. He could still make it as a reserve, with those 14 spots to be decided by a polling of NBA head coaches.

And he also could get an invite as an injury replacement if one is needed, with Silver picking those players when necessary.

James is in his record-setting 23rd season. His record streak of 1,297 consecutive regular-season games with at least 10 points ended in December, and he has already missed 17 games — meaning he'll probably have to play in every Lakers game for the rest of the season to be eligible for most postseason awards like All-NBA honors. James has been an All-NBA selection in 21 of his first 22 seasons, including a second-teamer last season.

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Minnesota Timberwolves forward Joan Beringer (19) is blocked by San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) as he drives to the basket during the second half of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) gestures after scoring against the Charlotte Hornets during the first half of an NBA basketball game in San Francisco, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) drives to the basket as Toronto Raptors guard Ochai Agbaji (30) defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said America’s relations with Europe remain strong and urged trading partners to “take a deep breath” and let tensions driven by the Trump administration's new tariff threats over Greenland “play out.”

“I think our relations have never been closer,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

On Saturday, Trump announced a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations that have rallied around Denmark in the wake of his stepped up calls for the United States to take over the semi-autonomous territory of Greenland.

Trump has insisted the U.S. needs the territory for security reasons against possible threats from China and Russia.

The American leader’s threats have sparked outrage and a flurry of diplomatic activity across Europe, as leaders consider possible countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs and the first-ever use of the European Union’s anti-coercion instrument.

The EU has three major economic tools it could use to pressure Washington: new tariffs, suspension of the U.S.-EU trade deal, and a “trade bazooka,” the unofficial term for the bloc’s Anti-Coercion Instrument that could sanction individuals or institutions found to be putting undue pressure on the EU.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump posted on social media that he had spoken with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and “I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland,” where they will be attending the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting this week.

Trump also posted a text message from Emmanuel Macron in which the French president suggested a meeting of members of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies in Paris after the Davos gathering.

An official close to French President Macron confirmed Tuesday that the message shared by President Trump is genuine. “It shows that the French President, both in public and in private, takes the same views,” the official said.

France considers respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states to be “non-negotiable,” the official said.

Later, however, Trump posted some provocatively doctored images. One showed him planting the U.S. flag next to a sign reading “Greenland, U.S. Territory, Est. 2026.” The other showed Trump in the Oval Office next to a map that showed Greenland and Canada covered with the U.S. Stars and Stripes.

In a sign of how tensions have increased in recent days, thousands of Greenlanders marched over the weekend in protest of any effort to take over their island. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post Monday that the tariff threats would not change their stance.

“We will not be pressured,” he wrote.

In his latest threat of tariffs, Trump indicated that the import taxes would be retaliation for last week’s deployment of symbolic numbers of troops from the European countries to Greenland — though he also suggested that he was using the tariffs as leverage to negotiate with Denmark.

In a different development, the British government on Tuesday defended its decision to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the plan, which his administration previously supported.

Trump said that relinquishing the remote Indian Ocean archipelago, home to a strategically important American naval and bomber base, was an act of stupidity that shows why he needs to take over Greenland.

The United Kingdom signed a deal in May to give Mauritius sovereignty over the islands, though the U.K. will lease back the island of Diego Garcia, where the U.S. base is located, for at least 99 years.

AP writer Sylvie Corbet contributed from Paris, and Jill Lawless in London.

Scott Bessent, US Secretary of the Treasury, holds a speech at the USA House during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)