NBA All-Star weekend reactions

The 2026 NBA All-Star weekend was, surprisingly, a success. An average of 8.8 million viewers tuned in during the All-Star Game, the most since 2011.

Coming into this event, there were discussions throughout the NBA community about just how far All-Star weekend has fallen. Last year, the skills challenge was made a mockery of when Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama didn’t take it seriously, resulting in the challenge being scrapped altogether.

The Rising Stars game, which is meant to put a spotlight on young players in the league, ironically had the lowest in-person attendance of the weekend. Despite this, the young stars showed out, with the Philadelphia 76ers’ VJ Edgecombe winning MVP.

The remaining two events featuring NBA talent, the dunk contest and three-point contest, were both very underwhelming as well.

The days of iconic showdowns in the dunk contest are long gone, with the winner this year being Miami Heat player Keshad Johnson, a second-year player who came into the league undrafted.

The winner of the three-point contest was Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard, who still hasn’t returned to regular-season play yet, coming off a torn achilles less than a year ago.

With all these complaints, how was the event a success? Well, in the wise words of author Jim George, "It's not how you start that's important, but how you finish."

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver changed the format of the All-Star game for the fourth time in the last 10 years. Fans were criticizing him heavily for this, but came out of the weekend praising him.

The 25 All-Stars were split into three teams: Team Stripes, Team Stars and Team World. It was a round-robin style tournament, with four games of 12 minutes being played. For the first time in a while, it felt like players actually wanted to win.

Victor Wembanyama, whose mockery of the skills challenge last year resulted in its demise, came out the gate hot this weekend, setting the tone for what was to come in the round-robin tournament. In just the first five seconds of the game, he won the tip-off and dunked on a defender.

Many media members claimed that the older players in the league were setting a precedent to the younger generation not to try in these events, but that was not the case at all.

In a game that advanced the USA Stripes team to the championship, 34-year-old Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points out of his team's 45 points. He did that on 11-13 shooting from the field, and 6-7 from deep.

The first three games of the round-robin tournament were one-possession games; however, the championship ended with the Stars beating the Stripes 47-21. Despite the blowout, the tournament added an intrigue we haven’t seen in years.

The excitement that was added to the weekend is expected to carry over to next season, where Steph Curry has already announced he will be joining the playing field in the three-point contest, Damian Lillard is expected to run it back to try and win his fourth three-point contest, and Curry will be attempting to recruit Klay Thompson to join them.

With the weekend now behind us, NBA fans can safely say that there is something to now build upon, with the hope that All-Star weekend can return to greatness.

Nicholas Smith is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please contact him at nbs5826@psu.edu.