Curry, James and Durant — players of the same Stripes

Stephen Curry will be joining Olympic teammates LeBron James and Kevin Durant once again, this time at the All-Star Game.

The NBA announced the rosters for this season's midseason showcase event on Tuesday night, splitting 25 names into three squads. It's the debut of another new All-Star format — this one is United States vs The World, on Feb 15 at the Los Angeles Clippers' home in Inglewood, California.

It's a concept that commissioner Adam Silver thinks will tap into national pride for the players and comes at a fitting time. The game will be aired on NBC, which is also broadcasting the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, which officially start Friday and run through Feb 22.

The US vs The World concept was talked about for years before becoming a reality this season. The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association unveiled the long-awaited plan in their latest attempt to spark renewed interest in the showpiece event following a largely panned tournament format last season.

The Clippers' Kawhi Leonard, likely the most deserving name left off the original list of 24 All-Stars, was added to the pool of US players Tuesday shortly before the rosters were unveiled. And that move likely was what sent New York's Karl-Anthony Towns to the World team.

Towns was born in New Jersey, but has played international basketball for the Dominican Republic — his late mother's homeland.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is not expected to play for the World team because of injury, which is why that squad has nine players.

The US teams were split by age: The older players were assigned to USA Stripes, the younger ones to USA Stars.

USA Stripes roster

Jaylen Brown, Boston; Jalen Brunson, New York; Stephen Curry, Golden State; Kevin Durant, Houston; LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers; Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers; Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland; Norman Powell, Miami.

Coach: Mitch Johnson, San Antonio.

USA Stars roster

Scottie Barnes, Toronto; Devin Booker, Phoenix; Cade Cunningham, Detroit; Jalen Duren, Detroit; Anthony Edwards, Minnesota; Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City; Jalen Johnson, Atlanta; Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia.

Coach: J. B. Bickerstaff, Detroit.

The World roster

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee; Deni Avdija, Portland; Luka Doncic, Los Angeles Lakers; Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City; Nikola Jokic, Denver; Jamal Murray, Denver; Pascal Siakam, Indiana; Karl-Anthony Towns, New York; Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.

Coach: Darko Rajakovic, Toronto.

Schedule

All games will be 12 minutes.

— Game 1: USA Stars vs World.

— Game 2: USA Stripes vs winner of Game 1.

— Game 3: USA Stripes vs loser of Game 1.

— Game 4: Championship (top two teams from round-robin play). If all three teams finish 1-1 after the round-robin games, the first tiebreaker will be point differential across each team's games.

Agencies Via Xinhua