After an eight year absence, the 2026 NBA All-Star festivities took place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. The event held through Feb. 13-15 marked the city’s seventh time hosting the event in its 75-year history.
The $2 billion home of the Los Angeles Clippers, opened in Aug. 2024, was the obvious choice for Commissioner Adam Silver and the league due to the unparalleled, high-tech, basketball-centric experience the building offers fans.The Intuit Dome is the newest of the NBA’s 30 arenas.
“I’ve seen pretty much every major arena in the world at this point — 32 years in the NBA — and this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Silver said to ESPN. “It starts with the fact that [Clippers owner] Steve Ballmer chose to build a basketball-centric arena. He wanted to build this arena to make basketball the centerpiece.”
All-Star Saturday notably featured the fan-favorite Dunk Contest and 3-Point Contest. Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard took home the 3-Point contest title for the third time, despite not playing the entire season due to an Achilles injury. He joined Craig Hodges and Larry Bird as the only players to win the contest three times. Costa senior and basketball player Jayden Kainsinger enjoyed Lillard’s win and the event as a whole.
“It was a memorable experience to be able to be in the crowd live during the event,” Kainsinger said. “I was really impressed with the 3-Point Contest.”
In the Dunk Contest, Miami Heat forward Keshad Johnson take home the title,which many noted as a let down this year compared to recent years. Johnson faced Southern California native and San Antonio Spurs forward Carter Bryant in the finals. Bryant, who played high school basketball at both Sage Hill and Corona Centennial, trained in Costa’s gym in preparation for the nearby contest.
“[The dunk I couldn’t hit] is probably the dunk I’ve practiced the most throughout my life,” Bryant said to a user on X. “The ball just didn’t go my way tonight. But that’s life. It happens.”
The main event of the weekend, Sunday’s All-Star Game, introduced a three-team tournament that replaced previous formats. One team was comprised of younger U.S. players (“US Stars”), another featured seasoned U.S. veterans (“US Stripes”), and a third team consisted of international players. The teams competed in shorter, 12-minute games. This new format reduced the game to essentially only crunch time and addressed many of the league’s recent struggles with incentivizing its biggest stars to compete seriously in a game that offers little beyond the honor of participation.
US Stars defeated US Stripes in the final match of the tournament, 47–21. Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards was named MVP of the event.
“We chose to compete today and we came out on top,” Edwards said on X.
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