Another year, another All-Star weekend come and gone. But this year was different. This year felt different.
For what felt like the hundredth time, the NBA switched up its All-Star Game format. The old East vs. West structure got tired. They tried a player draft, but that came and went. Even last season, they did a pseudo-young-versus-old game, but nobody seemed to care for it.
So, they split up the All-Stars into groups. USA vs. the world. Two teams of American-born players took on the international guys in a sort of Round Robin matchup. All three teams would play each other once, and the best two would play in a championship game.
It had a decent concept behind it, but everything hung on the players’ decisions. If they tried as little as they have in years past, nothing would work.
Enter, Victor Wembanyama.
In the very first game – Team World vs. Team Stars – Wembanyama won the tip-off against Anthony Edwards, sprinted to the paint, posted up Cade Cunningham, and threw down a monster jam.
It took six seconds. There was 11:54 on the game clock in what was a one-period, 12-minute contest. But that’s all Wembanyama needed to alter the course of the All-Star Game’s future forever.
Wembanyama surged forward with his scorched-earth approach. He hunted mismatches. He swatted a Jalen Duren layup attempt into the third row. He wanted to win.
From there, everyone fell in line.
Anthony Edwards took the game personally. Scottie Barnes made it his mission to slow down the towering Frenchman. Everyone started playing basketball. Not All-Star basketball. NBA basketball.
By the time overtime came around – an overtime period where the first team to five points would win – both teams were locked in.
Team Stars scored first, but then, Wembanyama drained a three. That meant that if Team World could keep the Stars from nailing a triple, they would have a chance to win the game at the other end.
But Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t get that memo. He sank into the paint to guard a Duren drive, but the Detroit Pistons big man kicked out to an open Barnes, who drained a three for the win.
Wembanyama threw his arms up in disgust.
That one game, a battle between Wembanyama and the Stars, led by Edwards and Barnes, was enough to change everything.
When the Stars trotted back out onto the court to face Team Stripes, the older generation of American stars, the intensity remained the same.
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who made his first All-Star start, enjoyed a personal dunk fest, helping the Stripes to a two-point win, finalized by a game-winning three at the buzzer from De’Aaron Fox.
Then, when it was the Stripes’ turn to square off against the World, Kawhi Leonard took over on his home floor at Intuit Dome. He scored 31 of their 48 points, earning a three-point win and a place in the championship game.
But by then, the Stripes’ legs were gone.
The young-gun Stars completely wiped the floor with the Brown, Leonard, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James-led Stars.
Edwards took home All-Star MVP as his squad won 47-21 in the title match.
The last game was a blowout, but the players still cared. Barnes was scoring buckets down to the wire, even when his team was up by 24 with the shot clock off.
For the first time in a long time, players cared about the All-Star Game. That matters.
It’s the first sign of light the NBA has received in years. The first chance fans have had in a long, long time to enjoy the All-Star Game product. And Wembanyama, despite not even making the title game, was the reason why.
Edwards followed suit. So did Barnes. Cunningham, Duren, Leonard, Tyrese Maxey, Devin Booker, and more all did the same.
That’s an exciting sign for the future.
The first NBA All-Star Game presented by NBC Sports since 2002 delivered the largest NBA All-Star Game audience since 2011, according to preliminary Nielsen data and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
Per @NBCSportsPR pic.twitter.com/EMObgmN91B
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) February 16, 2026
Brown’s 11-point performance in the Stripes’ win over the Stars was notable, but he didn’t do much else in the actual All-Star Game. That didn’t stop him from making headlines over the weekend.
The Celtics star threw an event at a private residence in Beverly Hills, but it was shut down.
Beverly Hills released a statement noting that Brown and the event organizers were denied a permit to run the event, but he denied the notion that a permit was even necessary.
“I’m offended by Beverly Hills by the statement they put out, like we applied for something and didn’t get it, and we did it anyway [and] we were insubordinate,” Brown said via ESPN. “I know how to follow the rules. I’m smart enough to follow the guidelines. It just seemed like somebody didn’t want whatever we had going on to go on because out of everybody that was doing something, it seemed like I was the only one that gets shut down.”
More details on the incident can be found here.
As for the Celtics’ other representative at All-Star Weekend, Ron Harper Jr. wasn’t successful in his pursuit of victory.
Not only did his Rising Stars team lose, but his brother, Dylan Harper, hit the game-winner over him.
Both brothers and their dad, Ron Harper, also competed in the Shooting Stars challenge on Saturday, but they came up short. Team Knicks, led by Towns, Jalen Brunson, and Allan Houston, took home the crown.
Also of note: Jayson Tatum released a teaser for a five-part docuseries that will detail his road to recovery.
No definitive statement has been made, but considering this was aired during the All-Star Game, and that the Celtics’ March 1 game against the Philadelphia 76ers was coincidentally moved to prime-time at 8 p.m., a mid-season return is looking more realistic by the day.
