2026 NBA All-Star takeaways: Anthony Edwards was right, the new format worked, and the dunk contest isn't dead

NBA All-Star Weekend is always a fun time of year for me. Players and media alike get to let their hair down; fans get the opportunity to see — and sometimes interact — with the league’s best players in one spot. It’s a time for celebration and relaxation; a time for us to soak in and share a collective love for the league, and basketball as a whole.

I was fortunate enough to be on the scene for All-Star festivities this year. LA traffic aside (more on that later), I had a blast. Below, you’ll find my big-picture takeaways from the weekend, as well as some less consequential thoughts I wanted to share.

Let’s dig in, shall we?

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Anthony Edwards was right

There I was, standing near the door of a crowded press conference room on Saturday morning. All-Star media availabilities are happening, and a star is up front, on stage, fielding questions.

During one of his answers, the door pops open. In comes Anthony Edwards with a few other members of his crew. Edwards stands to the side for a moment, soaks in part of the answer being given and drops a bar — simultaneously to no one and everyone in that room.

“Man, none of them dudes can guard me.”

Anthony Edwards was named All-Star MVP after leading Team Stars to the tournament win. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Edwards would eventually have his turn as the focus of the media, with questions ranging from his scoring process in isolation situations, to his feelings on being ranked one of the most handsome basketball players of all time, to giving out legitimate hoops advice to an up-and-comer.

No matter the topic, Edwards had a quick quip ready to go, and did so with a seamless flair. It was the kind of showcase, if you want to call it that, one could use as evidence for Edwards as a worthy Face of the League candidate.

Only Edwards, once again, shut that down when asked about it.

“Man, them folks got [Victor] Wembanyama. That’s what they got goin’ on. They got Wembanyama; they’ll be alright!”

There’s a lot that could be said about Edwards’ weekend, but one thing I’ll give him is that he didn’t lie.

Nobody had fun trying to stay in front of Edwards, whether that was Wembanyama when he had that assignment, or Kevin Durant — someone that Edwards looked up to and, ironically, was the guy at the podium when Edwards walked in and proclaimed nobody could guard him.

I mean…

Edwards got to the basket at will, dropped in a barrage of jumpers, and made splash plays defensively. He even attempted (and failed) to win a jump ball against Wemby, whom he credited with setting the tone in their opening 37-35 win over Team World.

Ultimately, Edwards earned All-Star MVP honors for his performance, accumulating 32 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal in nearly 27 minutes of action.

Victor Wembanyama set the tone

As Edwards and others pointed out, Victor Wembanyama was ready to take on whatever challenge he needed to. While it wasn’t full-blown regular season effort — nobody hit that bar consistently — it’s certainly fair to argue that Wembanyama was the closest to that bar, both in approach and in responsibility.

He was the game’s most active screener, often sprinting into position before pushing off and diving to the basket with juice. He showed no hesitation driving, whether that came via perimeter catches or grab-and-go opportunities after missed shots.

Any time a smaller player wound up on him, within the flow of action or due to transition cross-matching, you could expect to see Wembanyama’s hand in the air while working to seal that defender. He kept constant pressure on the defenses he faced — it was funny to see Team Stars experiment with some (late) doubles on some of his touches.

On top of that, Wembanyama remained a menace on the defensive end. Imagine my glee watching him direct traffic on the weak side, swapping places with whoever was in the opposite corner so he could stay lower on the floor — a hallmark of the Spurs’ defensive plan.

While it was genuinely hilarious watching Wembanyama absolutely lose it after his team gave up a game-winning 3 in overtime, that level of care was so refreshing to witness.

The new All-Star Game format was a success — even if it’s not a replacement

There was understandable angst about the format — three teams of eight (kinda), round-robin style with a 12-minute sprint to determine the winner of each game — heading into Sunday’s action. Considering the first three games were decided by a combined seven points — we’ll set the final aside for now — you have to admit the shift was successful.

Players were naturally asked about how they felt about the format after the games were over, and the response was pretty firmly positive. There were players like Kawhi Leonard who expressed a desire to go back to the classic East-versus-West style in the future, but even that came after praising the current form.

Of note: I got to ask Leonard, Jalen Johnson, Chet Holmgren about how the shorter games affected the way they warmed up and established (or maintained) a rhythm. Leonard and Holmgren acknowledged it was a different feel, but ultimately got used to it, while Johnson attributed his (and his team’s) youth to being able to get warm without much issue.

If this format returns next year, I wonder if the timing of the matchups will change at all.

The fans were put in a tough spot this weekend

If you’re reading this article, well, thank you, first of all.

Beyond that, if you’re online enough to read this, you’ve likely been online enough to see some of the unfortunate half-filled crowd shots of Intuit Dome during the weekend. That, combined with the conversation heading in — particularly how perilous the dunk contest and All-Star game felt — would make it easy to conclude that people simply didn’t care and the future of the weekend is in trouble.

Do not fall into that trap. You’re within your right to hold that opinion, of course, but at least consider a few factors.

First, the combination of weekend festivities being held on the West coast and NBC splitting coverage duties between that and the Olympics likely played a role in everything being earlier than usual. And without boring you with the actual logistics, let’s just say driving around Los Angeles (and surrounding areas) comes with its own hassles — that’s ramped up even more with a weekend like this.

Getting to the Rising Stars event on Friday for example, starting at 6 p.m. local time, means dealing with your usual rush hour traffic on top of all of the visitors. It becomes a little easier to understand why the building wasn’t full at the start. To that end, Saturday (also Valentine’s Day) and especially Sunday featured much fuller crowds and a better atmosphere overall.

On a related note, I’d like to focus more on Saturday. I personally thought the events were well done. Damian Lillard shot the leather off the ball to capture his third 3-point contest crown; Team Knicks (Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Allan Houston) bombed away late to sneak past Team Cameron (Jalen Johnson, Kon Knueppel, Corey Maggette) in the Shooting Stars competition; Heat forward Keshad Johnson jumped and danced (and danced, and danced!) his way to a dunk contest win.

It became clear, at least in my social media bubble, that not only were people unaware of the earlier-than-usual start time (2 p.m. local, 5 p.m. ET), they were also unaware at the order of events being shifted. The 3-point contest actually led the show on Saturday versus its usual slot sandwiched between the now-defunct (?) Skills Challenge (Shooting Stars this year) and the dunk contest.

The 3-point contest has been the premier event the last few seasons, so I’m not opposed to that going first moving forward; it just has to be communicated in a better, louder way so people don’t miss out.

Adam Silver really cares about tanking

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spent nearly an hour fielding questions ahead of Saturday’s events. Plenty of ground was covered — potential expansion or relocation (Silver said no on this front), the Clippers/Aspiration/Kawhi Leonard investigation, updates on NBA Europe and more — but tanking ruled the conversation.

“We spend a lot of time at the league office going back and forth with teams on injury reports, on coaches’ decisions. It’s not a position [we] necessarily want to be in … it’s not what the fans want, at the end of the day,” Silver said.

“Although my caveat is, this is where teams are in a difficult place. Many of you in this room have written understandably about our teams that the worst place to be, for example, is to be a middle-of-the-road team. Either be great or be bad, because then that will help you with the draft.

“In many cases, you have fans of those teams — remember, it’s not what they want to pay for to see poor performance on the floor, but they’re actually rooting for their teams in some cases to be bad to improve their draft chances.

“I think we’re coming at it in two ways. One is, again, focusing on the here and now, the behavior we’re seeing from our teams and doing whatever we can to remind them of what their obligation is to the fans and to their partner teams. But No. 2, as I also said in that statement, the Competition Committee started earlier this year reexamining the whole approach to how the draft lottery works.”

I appreciated Silver acknowledging the tightrope non-contending teams are trying to walk. Bad teams need a way to get better, and the draft currently serves as the best opportunity to do so — especially a draft class like this one. Being a team in the middle — too good to be in the lottery, but not nearly good enough to seriously compete for a title — is an area nobody should want to be in.

(I’ve already given my rant about one team this pertains to. I’ll be kind today.)

But Silver, fresh off of fining the Utah Jazz ($500K) and Indiana Pacers ($100K), was also clear in his displeasure with even the optics of rotational hijinks that could increase the odds of losing — and thus, increasing a team’s odds at landing one of the top picks in this year’s draft.

I came away from his presser feeling like he’d consider pretty much anything short of abolishing the draft altogether — and maybe that isn’t as farfetched of an idea as it may have been, say, five years ago. This offseason is going to be an interesting one.

Other thoughts

Leonard’s 31-point performance in a win over Team World is one of the wildest shot-making displays we’ve ever gotten in an All-Star Game. It honestly served as an extension of what the last two-plus months have been like for him — he’s currently on track to have the best scoring season (27.9 points on 61.9 true shooting) of his career.

Speaking of the dunk contest, I stand on it being pretty good this year! I understand people want bigger names, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that desire, but I think there were enough skillful dunks and showmanship (especially from Johnson) to where we can put off the “DUNK CONTEST IS DEAD” talks for another year.

Last thing, do we need to add a blue tent for this contest? Are we sure Jase Richardson didn’t hurt himself before ultimately nailing a 360? Talk about putting it all on the line.

Bobby Portis, your 3-point contest round will live on in infamy. The bar for bigs in the contest will likely skyrocket.
With all due respect to his comedic chops, I think I’ll be OK never seeing Druski on the court during an actual competition again. That brother was tasked with dishing out passes during the Shooting Stars competition (welcome back!) and somehow managed to toss a ball into Row G.

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