Dave McMenaminFeb 14, 2026, 06:57 PM ETCloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.Follow on XMultiple Authors
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The last time San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama faced a team stacked with American All-Stars, France and USA played a gold medal game for the ages at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Exclamation-point plays, playing in a solid manner and sharing the ball with energy,” Wembanyama said Saturday when asked how he planned to set a competitive tone. “If you share that energy, people feel like they have a responsibility to share it back to you.”
After the past few All-Star Games barely resembled an NBA basketball game – with the East’s 211-186 win in 2024 in Indianapolis representing the exhibition’s nadir, especially considering that result followed Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Julius “Dr. J” Irving addressing the players pregame and urging them to take the game more seriously – Wembanyama said this year will be different.
When Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, who played in that gold medal game in Paris, was asked if All-Star could duplicate that intensity in anyway, he replied flatly, “No.”
When asked to elaborate, the four-time All-Star, playing on the younger USA Stars team, said, “That was the Olympics. It’s just that simple.”
Kevin Durant, a 16-time All-Star playing on the veteran USA Stripes team, said that the NBA All-Star Game has never been as competitive as it is glowingly remembered as now by sports fans.
While Sunday will determine if the new format will improve the product, Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, making his second All-Star appearance, said that he wants to go back to the traditional conference battle after the league has tinkered with player captain drafts, a target score ending and now USA vs. the World.
“I would like to experience East vs. West,” Cunningham said. “I want to experience what all the greats played in … I’m sure it will come back eventually.”
Dave McMenaminFeb 14, 2026, 06:57 PM ETCloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.Follow on XMultiple Authors
CloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.Follow on X
With the NBA introducing a new All-Star Game format this weekend, hoping to tap into that competitive spirit by breaking up the participants into two teams of Americans and players from around the world — rather than the traditional East-West rosters — Wembanyama vowed to do his part to make Sunday’s game count.
“I’m confident in the way it’s going to go,” Wembanyama said.
Durant said he’s spent time on YouTube watching All-Star Games from the 1960s through the 1990s.
Not that every player didn’t find something to aspire to from past All-Star games.