The Pistons' Cade Cunningham, left, greets the Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo following a preseason game on Oct. 6, 2024, in Detroit. (AP file photo)

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. Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, New York’s Jalen Brunson, 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.”

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.

What is the format?

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.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA