NBA All-Star Game winners and losers: New format is needed improvement

INGLEWOOD, CA — The 2026 NBA All-Star Game is officially a wrap.

An entertaining showcase on Sunday, Feb. 15 resulted in a victory for Team Stars — a squad composed of mostly younger U.S.-born players — reinvigorated the event, which has faced repeated criticism over a lack of competitive play.

In the All-Star Game championship, Team Stars defeated Team Stripes, which mostly featured a collection of more experienced veterans like LeBron James of the Lakers, Kevin Durant of the Rockets and Kawhi Leonard of the Clippers.

Here are the winners and losers from the 2026 NBA All-Star Game:

WINNERS

The new format

It wasn’t perfect, but the “U.S. vs. World” format the NBA deployed for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game was a marked improvement over previous iterations of the event. Several players said after the game that it increased motivation and incentive and it helped inject competition into an event that had desperately lacked it.

In essence, the four, 12-minute games converted each contest into its own fourth quarter, ramping up the drama, particularly inside the final minutes. The first three games were decided on the last shot, with two game-winners. The first game went into overtime.

Yet, while the format does deserve ample credit, the real champions were the players who invested their competitive energy into the exhibition.

Anthony Edwards

During All-Star media day on Saturday, Feb. 14, Edwards had more or less shrugged when asked about the lack of competitive behavior in NBA All-Star Games. Apparently, all it took was seeing a fellow future face of the league, Victor Wembanyama, going hard for him to ramp it up.

Edwards scored 32 points across the three games he played and won his first career All-Star Most Valuable Player award.

Victor Wembanyama

He was on the losing side, with Team World being eliminated before the championship game, but Wembanyama was widely seen as the catalyst to inspire more invested, competitive play. That became obvious from the start, as Wembanyama won the tip-off and then slashed to the basket, sealing off Cade Cunningham (Team Stars) for a quick dunk six seconds into the event. It generated instant attention.

“He set the tone, man, and it woke me up,” Edwards told reporters after the game. “For sure.”

Wembanyama played extremely well, scoring 33 points on 10-of-13 shooting across two games. He was also visibly upset after Team World lost the first game of the night in overtime, indicating that the league — and All-Star — is in good hands with him as a leader.

Kawhi Leonard

Playing in front of his home fans, Leonard popped off for Team Stripes in Game 3, scoring 31 of the team’s 48 points in the game — or 64.6%. Leonard drew MVP chants from the crowd and at one point scored 11 consecutive points, willing his team to win. The game-winning, stepback 3 over Karl-Anthony Towns represented his greatness in the game.

Think of it this way: scoring 31 points in an NBA game is elite. Doing it in what’s essentially a 12-minute quarter, against the world’s best players, is a singular achievement.

Adam Silver

As Silver, the NBA commissioner, has taken criticism recently over his handling of several off-court scandals and his management of the NBA All-Star Game, having the jewel of the weekend succeed is a massively positive step.

There is still work to be done, especially with the Slam Dunk Contest, but there were plenty of fans wondering if the NBA should do away entirely with the All-Star Game. If this is what fans will get, however, the move should be to continue to refine and improve the product.

“Oh, most definitely,” 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey, a member of Team Stars, told reporters when asked if the format could set the tone for future All-Star Games. “I think if you have these same type of guys in it, these guys compete.”

LOSERS

Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić

They are two of the biggest stars in basketball, but they were the lone available players for Team World to record DNP (did-not-play) designations. Granted, both players have been dealing with injury concerns so it made sense to be cautious. But they are also notorious for loafing through All-Star Games. More than anything, however, having two players on a nine-player team sit out put an unfair burden on the Team World stars who were available.

Team Stripes runs out of gas

In what was a compelling matchup of younger domestic stars versus grizzled veterans, it was the uncs and old heads who ran out of steam. Team Stripes went brutally cold in the championship game, missing its first 8 shot attempts of the contest before starting just 3-of-16 (18.8%).

It probably didn’t help that Team Stripes had to play consecutive games with little rest.

“Yeah, we can make that excuse,” Durant joked after the game. “We can go ahead and make that excuse.”