{"id":474573,"date":"2026-02-14T13:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/474573\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T13:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:55:12","slug":"2026-nba-all-star-game-will-show-if-the-league-still-cares-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/474573\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA All-Star Game will show if the league still cares | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Durant<\/a> said the question bothered him because everybody\u2019s been talking about it, so he used his answer to take aim at others.<\/p>\n

When asked if he and the \u201cold heads\u201d team, which also features LeBron James, would play hard in this year\u2019s NBA All-Star Game<\/a>, which is once again debuting a new format, Durant called out Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic for their efforts in recent All-Star games. He wondered why they don\u2019t face the same criticism his generation of Americans do.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey don\u2019t care about the game at all. These dudes be laying on the floor, they shoot from halfcourt, but you\u2019ve got to worry about the \u2018old heads\u2019 playing hard,\u201d Durant told reporters in Houston on Wednesday, Feb. 11<\/a>. \u201cI can read between the lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about reading the room, first?<\/p>\n

1 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

The NBA has announced its starters for the 2026 All-Star Game. Starters were selected through a fan vote (50% weight), and a survey of NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%). Players were selected without regard for position. See the five starters from each conference.<\/p>\n

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1 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

The NBA has announced its starters for the 2026 All-Star Game. Starters were selected through a fan vote (50% weight), and a survey of NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%). Players were selected without regard for position. See the five starters from each conference.<\/p>\n

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2 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Eastern Conference Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons (second All-Star selection)<\/p>\n

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3 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks (third)<\/p>\n

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4 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers (second)<\/p>\n

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5 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics (fifth)<\/p>\n

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6 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks (10th)<\/p>\n

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7 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Western Conference Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors (12th All-Star selection)<\/p>\n

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8 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder (fourth)<\/p>\n

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9 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Luka Donc\u030cic\u0301, Los Angeles Lakers (sixth)<\/p>\n

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10 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs (second)<\/p>\n

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11 \/ 11<\/p>\n

Giannis, Curry, Doncic highlight 2026 NBA All-Star Game starters<\/p>\n

Nikola Jokic\u0301, Denver Nuggets (eighth)<\/p>\n

However accurate Durant\u2019s whataboutism concerning his European counterparts may well be, one of the NBA\u2019s greatest scorers is completely missing the point. They learned it from somewhere. But Durant’s not alone here, and it\u2019s threatening the very product that made all these NBA players, executives and owners so rich over the years.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

It’s long overdue for the NBA to show it still really cares \u2013 about the fans, about the quality of its regular season, about the integrity of the entire enterprise. The NBA\u2019s check engine light is flashing as the league commences its annual All-Star break, and those with any kind of power should be looking under the hood. The paint job from that lucrative new media rights deal<\/a> can only hide the issues for so long.<\/p>\n

The NBA All-Star Game<\/a> was once a cultural event unlike anything American sports could deliver. Basketball stars crossed over with the music world and Hollywood, with celebrity sightings and parties that made the whole weekend seem like an invitation-only event oozing with cool.<\/p>\n

But the NBA All-Star Game returns to Los Angeles in 2026 not as a celebration of basketball, but instead as a convention for complaining about the state of the league. Just consider the potential questions and controversies NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could have to address when he speaks to reporters, any one of which is a big problem on its own.<\/p>\n

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A current NBA player (Terry Rozier) was indicted by the federal government<\/a> for allegedly faking an injury and removing himself from an NBA game for gambling purposes and a current head coach and Hall of Fame player (Chauncey Billups) was indicted for his alleged involvement in illegal poker games with Mafia ties.<\/p>\n

The NBA still hasn\u2019t completed its investigation into the September 2025 report from Pablo Torre that the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the salary cap<\/a> by facilitating a $28 million “no-show endorsement contract” for Kawhi Leonard under the table when it signed him in 2019.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t even take into account that one NBA owner could be supplying the Russian Army with wireless communications during its war against Ukraine<\/a>, or that several people with NBA connections<\/a> were mentioned in the Epstein files, or that so many of the league\u2019s stars are out injured right now, or that one of those stars recently became a minority investor in a major predictions market, or that the analytics revolution in the NBA has begat a generation of league executives beholden to numbers instead of fans.<\/p>\n

But that all means what Silver says is far more important this weekend than whatever takes place on the basketball court.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good thing the players don\u2019t care about the All-Star Game anyways.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA All-Star Game will show if the league still cares<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant said the question bothered him because everybody\u2019s been talking about it, so he used his answer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[8080,49,48,22892,14722,8217,1443,2697,14728,6695,2327,1522,1527,12887,459,5725,82,26574,15717],"class_list":{"0":"post-474573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-all-star-game","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-chauncey-billups","12":"tag-draymond-green","13":"tag-golden-state-warriors","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-indiana-pacers","16":"tag-kawhi-leonard","17":"tag-kevin-durant","18":"tag-lebron-james","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","21":"tag-luka-doncic","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nikola-jokic","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-terry-rozier","26":"tag-utah-jazz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}