The NBA All-Star Game is officially back. After years of embarrassing efforts, even by exhibition game standards, the players finally delivered a showcase that they, and the league, can be proud of — even if the championship game of the new Team USA vs. Team World format was a bit of a dud.
The USA Stars, the younger roster of American All-Stars, destroyed Team Stripes, to more veteran American group, 47-21, in the championship to lift the trophy after a thrilling round-robin series. Anthony Edwards, who poured in 32 points across Team Stars’ three games, was named MVP, becoming the first Minnesota Timberwolves player to earn the honor since Kevin Garnett in 2003.
After a fun night of action inside the Intuit Dome, here’s a look at the winners and losers from the 2026 All-Star Game.
Winner: Victor Wembanyama
In the lead up to Sunday’s showcase, the French phenom made it clear that he was not happy with what the event had turned into in recent years, and was going to do his best to change it.
“I want to push the great players of this sport to play in the All-Star game just as hard as I will,” Wembanyama said in January. “We’ll see how it goes, but if they don’t play hard, I’ll do it without them.”
He expanded on those thoughts on Saturday. “Exclamation-point plays, playing in a solid manner and sharing the ball with energy,” Wembanyama said, when asked how he planned to set a competitive tone. “If you share that energy, people feel like they have a responsibility to share it back to you.”
Wembanyama walked the walk right from the opening tip of the first game. Within the first two minutes, he threw down a huge slam, scored the first seven points for Team World and swatted a Jalen Duren attempt into the crowd. When Team World lost the opener in overtime because of a bad defensive rotation, he threw his hands up and stormed off the court like he had just lost a playoff game.
Everyone else followed suit.
“I ain’t gonna lie, Wemby set the tone,” Anthony Edwards said. “He came out and played hard, so it’s hard not to match that.”
Winner: The NBA
Between all of the tanking discourse, some of Adam Silver’s comments during his Saturday press conference and a disastrous All-Star Saturday Night, the league was facing more public criticism than it had in a long time. As an entity, the last thing the NBA needed was another lifeless All-Star Game.
Instead, the players delivered the most memorable mid-season showcase since 2020, and one of the most competitive events ever.
The first three games of the round robin format were awesome and all went down to the wire.
- Team Stars defeated Team World in overtime of Game 1 on a game-ending 3-pointer by Scottie Barnes
- Team Stripes defeated Team Stars in Game 2 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by De’Aaron Fox
- Team Stripes defeated Team World in Game 3 on a last-second 3-pointer by Kawhi Leonard
The championship turned into a rout, as the much younger Team Stars cruised past the veteran-filled Team Stripes, who seemed to be out of gas. The last few minutes of that contest looked a lot like the previous All-Star Games. But even though the night ended on a low, the overall product was much better than anyone expected, and spared the league another wave of criticism.
Loser: The championship game
As mentioned, the new All-Star Game format pitting the best American players against the best international players was working to perfection through the round robin format, thanks to a big assist from Wembanyama.
The two American squads, Team Stars and Team Stripes, advanced to the championship, and everything was set up for a thrilling conclusion to the best All-Star Game in years. So, of course, we got a blowout.
The younger Team Stars had way more juice left in their legs, and they jumped out to an early double-digit lead. Team Stripes briefly gave itself some hope with back-to-back 3s from LeBron James and Jalen Brunson to cut the deficit down to nine with seven minutes to play, but never got closer.
While the night was an overall success, the way it ended was definitely a bummer.
Winner: Kawhi Leonard
Leonard has had a strange six months.
During the offseason, Leonard was the subject of an investigative report by Pablo Torre that alleged the Clippers star had received $28 million via a fradulent marketing agreement that allowed his team to circumvent the salary cap. The NBA’s investigation into the matter has not yet concluded.
Shortly after the season got underway, Leonard was forced to the sidelines for nearly three weeks with ankle and foot sprains. The Clippers went 2-8 without him, part of a disastrous start to the season for the team, which was expecting to get back to the playoffs.
A few days before Christmas, Leonard began one of the best stretches of his career, which included three 40-point outings in the span of five games, including a career-high 55 points in a win over the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons. The hot streak kicked off a stunning turnaround for the Clippers, who went from 6-21 to 26-28 in the span of two months to climb into Play-In Tournament position in the Western Conference.
Despite an incredible last few weeks, Leonard wasn’t initially named to the game, but eventually made it as an injury replacement. He proved to be a wise pick by Silver, and put on an incredible show in front of the Clippers fans on Sunday, as he helped Team Stripes reach the championship game. In Game 3 of the round-robin format, Leonard poured in 31 of Team Stripes’ 48 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the field, including a 6-of-7 effort from 3-point range, and hit a game-winning triple over Karl-Anthony Towns (more on that later) in the closing seconds.
Leonard’s 12-minute bonanza was one of the best parts of the night, and was yet another reminder that when he’s healthy, there are few better players in the world.
“It was great. Happy that Adam [Silver] let me in. That’s what the home crowd wanted to see. I’m glad I was able to do something in that game,” Leonard said.
Winner: Anthony Edwards
Earlier this weekend, Edwards was blunt when asked for his thoughts on the state of the All-Star Game (“It is what it is at this point”) and whether the new format would make a difference (“No”).
But by the end of the first game, Edwards had changed his tune.
“I ain’t gonna lie, Wemby set the tone,” Edwards said. “He came out and played hard, so it’s hard not to match that.”
Edwards can at times appear aloof and “too cool for school” during press conferences, but on the court he’s one of the league’s most fierce competitors. It’s unlikely that he went into Sunday night with a plan to play hard, but once Wembanyama had laid down a marker, he couldn’t help but respond.
“Yeah, [Wembanyama] set the tone, man, and it woke me up, for sure,” Edwards added after the game.
Edwards had 13 points in Game 1, 11 points in Game 2 and eight points in the championship, for a total of 32 on the night, and was named All-Star MVP for his efforts.
Loser: Karl-Anthony Towns
Towns spends all season hearing about his defensive deficiencies, and how they might prevent the New York Knicks from winning a championship. All-Star Weekend is supposed to be a respite from that sort of talk, but somehow Towns found himself on the receiving end of even more criticism.
Game 1 between Team World and Team Stars went to overtime, and instead of putting any time on the clock, a winning score of five points was set. Team World was up 3-2, and should have been playing a no-3s defense, but Towns for some reason rotated into the paint to try and stop Jalen Duren, which left Scottie Barnes wide open from behind the arc. Duren found Barnes for the game-winning shot.
In Game 3 between Team World and Team Stripes, the score was tied in the closing seconds when Towns got switched onto Leonard. Towns actually played pretty good defense, but Leonard drained a game-winning 3 right in his face.
Poor Towns. The first time anyone has been expected to show any sort of effort on that end of the floor in the All-Star Game and he immediately finds himself on a defensive lowlight reel.
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