Silver's announcement sounds promising after the poor reception to the tournament structure applied to this year's All-Star Game. Whatever the format of the game, Silver's decision to pivot to a format with a global identity appropriately accommodates their media partner's broadcast plans for the Milano Cortina Games in Northeast Italy.

Silver also said that he didn't "see really the benefit to reducing the number of games" in the regular season.

The NBA is working on a plan to turn next season’s All-Star Game into a U.S.-vs.-world competition. That's according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league has not made any final determinations.