Greg Cote: NBA's All-Star Weekend gets needed bounce with US vs. World

Greg Cote, Miami Herald on Feb 16, 2026

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A small miracle happened In Los Angeles Sunday night. The NBA All-Star Game was interesting — comparatively, at least.

It was competitive. The players seemed to care. It was the opposite of recent All-Star Weekends that ended with somnambulant players going through the motions as if they would rather be anywhere else, feigning defense and only adding to the narrative of a league mired in malaise.

The NBA ditched its East vs. West conference format in 2018 and ever since has been dreaming up ways to make fans care about its annual all-star break again. More accurately, to make players care.

Tapping into national pride — dare say jingoism — might have done the trick. Suddenly the hoops was U.S. vs. the World, and we perked up. No surprise and why not?

The NBA’s celebration of itself on NBC happened this year smack in the middle of the Winter Olympics in Italy, whose main appeal is obvious. U.S. Olympic TV ratings on NBC have been great. You think it’s because Americans are suddenly enthralled by curling, biathlon, luge or a sport creepily name skeleton? No. It’s because we’re enthralled to chant “U-S-A!” when an American athlete we never heard of beats somebody from Norway for the gold medal.

“We’re sandwiched between the Olympics now so it seemed like the appropriate time to try this new format,” as NBA commissioner Adam Silver put it.

The NBA is blatantly ripping off what worked so fabulously for the NHL last year with the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. Hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, eh?

So the NBA had two U.S. teams (Stars and Stripes) and one World team playing four 12-minute games Sunday in a round-robin format, each game being tantamount to having fourth-quarter drama in its 75th All-Star Game(s). It worked. The first three games were 37-35, 42-40 and 48-45, all ending on last-second shots.

Alas, the U.S. vs. U.S. championship game was a rout, 47-21, but that too had its own appeal because it was Youth vs. Age. And Youth was served led by MVP Anthony Edwards, whose team routed the LeBron James-led old guys, who were playing a third straight mini-game and showed.

The World team was hampered when stars Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic sat out their team’s second game, verifying the new all-star format is not perfect, just better.

Credit World star Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs for slapping some life into his NBA colleagues.

“I’ve seen the All-Star Game, and obviously it hasn’t been competitive,” he said. “And I’ve always thought that if I was in there, I’m never stepping onto the court to lose, or not caring. If I’m going to be out there, I might as well win.”

The attitude evidently was catching. And needed.

Said game MVP Edwards of Wembanyama’s comments: “He set the tone, man, and it woke me up.”

Last year’s NBA All-Star Game on TNT was the second-least watched ever, drawing only 4.7 million viewers, a 13% decline from the year before.

The NBA needed a bump this time if for no other reason than to divert attention from the league’s other woes.

Tanking, for one, with Utah just fined $500,000 for a recent obvious intention to lose with a higher draft pick in mind..

“Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory?,” admitted Silver. “Yes, is my view.”

Also, All-Star Weekend regrettably was hosted in L.A. by the Clippers, a franchise under a cloud from the ongoing investigation of the Aspiration scandal related to alleged under-the-table money given star Kawhi Leonard.

Yes, the NBA needed Sunday night, needed an uplifting weekend overall including the 3-point and Slam Dunk contests — both still in need of improvement.

Miami Heat reserve Keshad Johnson won the Slam Dunk with a vintage running windmill jam, becoming the Heat’s fourth Dunk winner, after Harold Miner in 1993 and ‘95 and Derrick Jones Jr. in 2020.

“Little Keshad, he dreamed of everything. Anything he put his mind to, I’m sure he believed he could do it,” said Johnson. “I’m sure I made little Keshad proud. Everybody’s journey is different. To all the kids out there, keep dreaming!”

Good for Keshad and good for the Heat. But the Slam Dunk needs help. It isn’t great for the NBA when that once-riveting contest is won by an end-of-the-bench guy who is 14th on his own team in minutes played. Or when the contest draws a meager four players in all, none a big star. No Dr. J’s here. No Wembanyama. No LeBron.

The 3-point contest, won by Damian Lillard for a third time, may be even more unsalvageable simply because it is so superfluous. The 3-pointer has overtaken the NBA. League TV ratings are up this season, but, when “too many 3’s” is a common complaint, do we need or want an all-star event giving us even more?

Still, basketball had a good night Sunday.

U.S. vs. the World worked.

NBA All-Star Weekend bounced back.

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