Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The 2026 All-Star weekend mattered and more notes

Everyone in the NBA owes a debt of gratitude to the old timers who treated the All-Star Game like it mattered. It would have been harder for the NBA to sell its product to TV partners if it were a joke, so the disrespect to the game that had gone on for way too long hopefully came to an end after Kawhi Leonard’s epic performance, Victor Wembanyama breaking the ice and Anthony Edwards’ MVP showing. 

Sure, there were few like Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić who didn’t go as hard. They are presumably happy for their teammates, but who knows what they must’ve felt watching themselves get upstaged like that. Shame on them for the low RPMs.

The standard has been set for next season, yet there’s one wrinkle: many players before the game said they wanted to go back to an East v. West format, yet the current one works. The NBA should side with what the fans want.

The first good omen was the NBA’s signature theme song, performed by its composer, John Tesh, at midcourt. But there was abysmal transition defense early, then the intensity meter elevated and peaked in Game 3 (Stars v. World*) as Leonard dazzled with 31 digits on 84.6 percent accuracy. 

When they go hard like that, it’s worthy of Oscar Robertson and Julius Erving’s time. Fingers crossed the next hosting stars give it everything like Leonard did, and the younger stable treats the fans better than the last generation did.

The one part of the weekend the big-timers are lacking is the dunk contest for fear of their peers embarrassing them on an island. It’s reminiscent of boxing champions holding belts hostage by refusing to fight the best contenders in their division. 

Credit to the background players who prepare for it and use it as an opportunity to elevate their status. It was special to see the pride and joy on Keshad Johnson’s face as he walked into the press room carrying his trophy. Still, the lack of star power there is eternally disappointing.

Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins having memorable showdowns helped grow the game, too. There was a time when people would look forward to this, and now it’s dreaded. The last great one was Aaron Gordon against Zach LaVine in 2016. The last All-Star who competed in the dunk contest and the exhibition on the same weekend was Jaylen Brown in 2024, and before that, it was DeAndre Jordan in 2017.

From now on, the league should forget starting at 5PM ET, and Kevin Durant should get his eyes checked. How is it possible for Durant to be such a lethal marksman, yet not know what he’s seeing when watching All-Star games in which the men wore high shorts? Lots of people will thoughtlessly believe him after he said he didn’t see vigor. 

The 1992 game was a 43-point blowout, but the other ones of the decade were decided by an average of 13 points. Plenty of competitive games end in double-figure margins, and they weren’t BSing. No one’s saying it had playoff intensity, but they were real games.  Keep in mind that one 1990 had 17 blocks, in 1995 there were 21 and last year’s had one. The 1993 game was decided by three points in overtime, and both squads combined for 28 steals. 

Every era is special, and no one should stand for a warped re-telling of NBA history.