On Feb. 15, basketball fans watched as Inglewood, California, hosted the 2026 NBA All-Star Game. Although the Intuit Dome is usually home to the Los Angeles Clippers, last weekend, the venue served as the site of a much larger event: the midseason classic. The location brought much excitement, as the Intuit Dome is the newest arena in the NBA. Clippers fans have not had much to cheer for this season, so perhaps the games’s home location sparked some interest in the disenchanted fans. Those that have followed the past four NBA All-Star games know that their format has been a work in progress, but many officials were confident that this year’s layout would be received positively by fans. The East versus West has always been a staple All-Star rivalry, but this year there was more creativity with the matchups.
The new, innovative format saw a team of well-known, seasoned American All-Stars, another American team with younger players and a combined international team featuring players of various nationalities. The U.S. veterans team was called Team Stripes, while the younger generation team was Team Stars. The third team was called Team World. With the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy coinciding with All-Star Weekend, the NBA tried mirroring that same sense of patriotism of individuals rooting for their home countries in an effort to ratchet up the drama. It was yet another step that the league is taking to grow the game of basketball around the globe, and it paid off. Viewers from all over the world tuned into Los Angeles to see their favorite basketball players in action.
The format of the competition was more elaborate than past years. After each team played twice, the two teams with the best records would face off in the championship game, which took place on Sunday night. Each game was 12 minutes long. This simple style was meant to emulate a recess or pickup basketball game, with the hope that this would capture viewers’ short attention spans. In recent years, the NBA has experienced low interest in its All-Star games. Hopes were high that this design would entice a broader audience.
Notable players for Team Stripes included LeBron James, Brandon Ingram and Kevin Durant. They were joined by a fan-favorite from the New York Knicks, Jalen Brunson. Team Stars consisted of Scottie Barnes, Devin Booker, Tyrese Maxey and several other rising stars. Finally, Team World was represented by Karl-Anthony Towns, Jamal Murray and were helmed by Serbian Darko Rajakovic, the head coach of the Toronto Raptors.
Team Stars faced off against Team Stripes in the All Star Game Final. Despite the highly anticipated matchup, Team Stars dominated Team Stripes, winning by a score of 47-21. Team Stars shot an impressive 62.5% from the field and Minnesota Timberwolves star guard Anthony Edwards was named tournament MVP after posting 32 points, nine rebounds and three assists across the three games.
On top of the tournament itself, there was the Three-point Contest, which is always a crowd-pleaser. Players from different teams competed against each other, trying to score the most points from behind the three-point-arc in a set amount of time. Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard was back to defend his win from last year, hoping to become a three-time Three-Point-Contest champion. After recovery from a nasty achilles injury last April, the veteran put up 29 points in the final round, defeating sharpshooter Devin Booker and rookie sensation Kon Kneuppel to claim his third title in four years.
Another notable champion from the weekend was Keshad Johnson of the Miami heat, who won the dunk contest in nail-biting fashion. Johnson competed against rookie forward Carter Bryant of the San Antonio Spurs, and, despite Bryant receiving a perfect score on one of his dunks in the final round, Johnson was able to put together more consistently higher scoring jams, leading to the win.