NBA All-Star Weekend woes
By Cael Cross, February 24, 2026
The 2026 NBA All-Star Weekend occurred Feb. 13-15 in Inglewood, California, and it was a mixed bag to put it lightly.
While the All-Star Game itself was the best one we’ve seen since 2020, the events held before were a letdown. The All-Star Celebrity Game was average; The 3-Point Contest was ok at best, and The Slam Dunk Contest was the worst I’ve ever seen, and this isn’t something new.
The NBA All-Star Weekend is supposed to be a midseason festival of the best the league has to offer in different events, culminating in the All-Star Game, which shows the best players in the league going head-to-head. But that feeling has gone away over the past few years. The All-Star Weekend is losing its entertainment value.
For example, the Slam Dunk Contest has typically been the most exciting event for fans wanting to see the best dunkers in the league compete against each other.
If you look at the history of the contest, Hall of Famers such as Dominique Wilkins, Vince Carter and even Michael Jordan have all competed and won, as well as some of the best dunkers in history like Zach LaVine, Aaron Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr. having legendary battles against each other. It produced iconic dunks like Dwight Howard’s “Superman” dunk and Blake Griffin taking flight over a Kia to win the 2011 Dunk Contest.
Now the league struggles to get anyone to participate, which makes the league resort to unproven rookies. Chicago Bulls guard Mac McClung, who won the competition three times in a row from 2023-2025, is the perfect example of this. While an amazing dunker, McClung wasn’t on a guaranteed NBA contract for any of the years he won, which kind of defeats the purpose of the “league’s best.”
This year none of the participants are really considered one of the top high-flying players in the league. The NBA even included Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson, even though he only has four career dunks, simply because his father, former Golden State Warriors guard Jason Richardson, was a back-to-back Slam Dunk Contest champion.
The reason for this lack of participation boils down to one thing: embarrassment. Social media nowadays can take anything and make a joke out of it, and players would much rather avoid the embarrassment if they do notdo well.
McClung recently came out and said he declined the invitation to participate in this year’s Slam Dunk Contest because he was told players didn’t want to compete against him if he joined.
There have also been five different format changes to the All-Star Game since 2018 with the goal of boosting excitement and competitiveness. While commendable, the changes have mostly caused confusion for both fans and the players.
There have been multiple instances of players telling media they do not understand the format, while fans have said they can never tell what format the league will use on a year-by-year basis.
Both Kawhi Leonard and Cade Cunningham said they would rather play in the traditional East vs. West format during NBA All-Star Media Day, while Donovan Mitchell said post-game he doesn’t believe the format was the reason behind the success of this year’s game, but rather the effort given by the players.
The NBA deserves some credit for trying to bring back the excitement, but the format changes have not made a difference, rather they’ve made it confusing.
Furthermore, the NBA’s advertising for All-Star Weekend is poor. For an event the league puts so much time into, the advertising of it in recent years has been horrible.
For example, the NBA did a poor job this year properly advertising what time their events started. Many people did not know Saturday’s events started at 2 p.m., which caused a lot of people to miss the Three-Point Contest.
Multiple videos and images also surfaced showing Intuit Dome, the event venue, with hundreds of seats empty while the competitions were taking place.
Many fans also feel like the NBA has turned everything into a cash grab and focused more on advertising their sponsors than the players themselves, something that NBA fanatic John Brooks felt strong about.
“It feels a lot more like an ad for whatever company they’re trying to promote,” Brooks said. “They don’t really take time to really credit these players for how special they are and how good they’ve been playing throughout these particular seasons.”
All-Star Weekend still has positives going for it despite the decline it’s had in recent years. The HBCU Classic is a newer addition to All-Star Weekend and is unique, fan-engaging and produced very well. This year’s matchup between Hampton University and North Carolina A&T was a thriller.
The stakes are much higher for the players, as this is a real collegiate level game being broadcasted nationally,, and these players have goals of eventually making it professionally, but if the NBA can either add more events like the HBCU Classic or incorporate some aspects of it, it could benefit All-Star Weekend as a whole.
There’s always going to be fan interest for All-Star Weekend, but I don’t know if we’ll ever see a consistent level of entertainment. As much as I’d like to take this year’s All-Star Game as a sign of improvement, it doesn’t feel like the start of a trend but rather a one-off.
Feature graphic courtesy of Cael Cross
