Kawhi Explodes in All-Star

- The 75th NBA All-Star Game on February 15, 2026, was held at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, home of the Clippers. It featured a new tournament-style format with three teams: Team World, a younger "Team USA Stars," and a veteran "Team USA Stripes." - Anthony Edwards was named the Kobe Bryant All-Star Game MVP after leading Team Stars to a dominant 47-21 victory over Team Stripes in the championship game. Edwards scored 32 points across the three mini-games. - In the game's final sequence, LeBron James passed to Donovan Mitchell, who then found De'Aaron Fox for the winning shot. The basket gave the veteran "Stripes" team a 42-40 victory over the younger "Stars" team in the second game of the round-robin tournament. - The event marked LeBron James' record 22nd All-Star appearance, but it was his first time playing as a reserve since 2004. Following the loss in the final, James set a record for the most losses in All-Star Game history with 11. - While the summary noted a 23-point performance, Kawhi Leonard actually scored 31 points in just 12 minutes during Team Stripes' 48-45 win over Team World. Leonard, a commissioner's addition to the game, was playing in his home arena. - Players credited the new format and the high effort of rookie Victor Wembanyama for making the games more competitive than in recent years. The first three games of the tournament were all decided by a single possession. - De'Aaron Fox and Kawhi Leonard were both late additions to the All-Star rosters. Fox was named as an injury replacement, while Leonard was added by Commissioner Adam Silver to ensure the U.S. player pool had the required 16 players for the new format. - The "USA vs. USA" game between Team Stripes and Team Stars was the second of three round-robin games. In the first game, Team Stars defeated Team World 37-35 in overtime, with Scottie Barnes hitting the game-winning three-pointer.