The three teams will face off in a round-robin tournament with each squad playing each other once in a 12-minute game. After those three games take place, the two teams with the best record will face off in one final contest to crown the All-Star Game champions. The All-Star Game takes place on Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. PT and will air on NBC and Peacock.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic was the leading vote-getter amongst all players and will lead the World team, while LeBron James was named to his 22nd consecutive All-Star Game appearance and is part of the USA Stripes roster.

Prior to the All-Star Game itself, All-Star Weekend kicks off on Friday with the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, taking place at the Kia Forum at 4 p.m. PT. That will be followed by the Castrol Rising Stars, which begins at 6 p.m. PT at the Intuit Dome where the majority of All-Star festivities will take place and will stream on Peacock.

NBA All-Star Saturday Night will air on Peacock and NBC and begins at 2 p.m. PT at the Intuit Dome. This will feature the State Farm 3-point Contest, the AT&T Slam Dunk and the return of the Kia Shooting Stars contest, which replaces the Skills competition.

Below are complete details of the three events in the order they will be taking place on Saturday.

State Farm 3-point Contest

The State Farm 3-point contest has a star-studded field featuring numerous current and former All-Stars. Last year’s winner, Tyler Herro will not be defending his crown, but two former champions are participating led by the surprising inclusion of former two-time champ Damian Lillard who won’t play this season due to a torn Achilles, but will still take part in this contest.

Donovan Mitchell will also be participating and would become the first player in NBA history to win the Slam Dunk and 3-point championships if he were to come out on top.

Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns
Kon Knueppel, Charlotte Hornets
Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers
Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers
Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers
Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets
Bobby Portis, Milwaukee Bucks
Norman Powell, Miami Heat

Kia Shooting Stars

The Kia Shooting stars makes its return for the first time since 2015 when Chris Bosh, Swin Cash and Dominique Wilkins won their third consecutive title. This year’s version will feature current NBA players and legends, but not WNBA players as had been the case in previous editions.

Team All-Star: Chet Holmgren, Scottie Barnes, Richard Hamilton
Team Cameron: Kon Knueppel, Jalen Johnson, Corey Maggette
Team Harper: Dylan Harper, Ron Harper Jr., Ron Harper Sr.
Team Knicks: Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, Allan Houston

AT&T Slam Dunk

The 2026 AT&T Slam Dunk will crown a new champion as three-time winner Mac McClung will not be defending his title this year. This year’s field is a group of young players looking to make a name for themselves and also features the only participant from a Los Angeles team on All-Star Saturday night.

Carter Bryant, San Antonio Spurs
Jaxson Hayes, Los Angeles Lakers
Keshad Johnson, Miami Heat
Jase Richardson, Orlando Magic

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The Lakers were not chosen to participate, despite having a European superstar in Luka Doncic and Maxi Kleber, who also comes from Germany. While it’s probably best for the injury-riddled Lakers that they didn’t have to fly to Berlin, then London, then back to L.A., it would have been an incredible experience for Kleber.

The Lakers center spoke about the NBA playing in Berlin and how incredible it is for the sport and the country of Germany, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:

“It was a great event. Big for basketball. We’ve got a lot of basketball fans, it’s growing in Germany, so it was really great to see so many people interested in it. And then obviously with the Wagner brothers being back home in Berlin City, it was just overall an amazing event. Everybody who came back to me said it was just fun to go to.”

The Lakers played on Thursday night, shortly after the conclusion of the Berlin Game, making it impossible for Kleber to have been in attendance. It seemed as though virtually every major NBA player with German ties was at the game, with Dirk Nowitzki playing a major role in the broadcast and fan outreach of the event.

It was clear from the game, though, that the NBA has a real opportunity in Germany. Fans were extremely excited to be in attendance — there was a long waitlist for tickets — and loved seeing the Wagner brothers and da Silva get the win.

Maxi Kleber gets the start in losing effort to Trail Blazers

Lakers head coach JJ Redick turned to Kleber on Saturday night to be in the starting lineup with both Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes out. L.A. was bullied on the boards — 42-27 — and lost by 16 to the Portland Trail Blazers. Kleber had 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting and grabbed five rebounds.

Drew Timme, one of the Lakers’ two-way players, got a career-high 21 points in 29 minutes off the bench, ultimately playing more than Kleber did in the losing effort. The Lakers hope to get one or both of their centers back for Sunday night against the Toronto Raptors.

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Harden has proven himself to be one of the greatest scorers of this generation with his outstanding 3-point shooting and his ability to get to the rim almost at will due to his excellent ball-handling. Harden finished with 32 points in the Clippers’ victory over the Charlotte Hornets and with that, moved ahead of Shaq into ninth on the all-time scoring list.

Afterwards, Harden spoke highly of the Lakers legend, noting that he grew up watching Shaq as a Southern California native and calling it a an honor to surpass him, via NBA on X:

“Shaquille O’Neal somebody that I literally grew up watching, being from LA. Him and Kobe doin their thing, winning multiple championships. The most dominant big man in the history of the game. It’s a true honor, it’s a testament to the work that I’ve put in and it’s all glory to God.”

Harden was born in Los Angeles and attended Artesia High School in Lakewood, so he was able to witness the greatness and dominance of O’Neal right in his backyard. As he said, Shaq was the most dominant big man most have ever seen, and was unguardable, especially in his prime on those early-2000s Lakers teams alongside Kobe Bryant.

Should Harden continue to produce at this level for a couple more seasons, he can still move higher on this list and potentially pass another Lakers legend in Wilt Chamberlain, as well as Dirk Nowitzki, though current Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant is also ahead of Harden and still scoring at a clip that will make it tough for Harden to catch him.

Harden has enjoyed a truly special career and is still one of the best players in the league at 36 years old. Any time you are in the realm of an all-time great like Shaq, it is a truly special accomplishment.

Lakers’ LeBron James humbled by 23rd NBA season jersey patch

It is still James at the top of that all-time scoring list and he continues to create separation by still being great in his 23rd NBA season. In fact, LeBron is the only player ever to even play 23 years in the league and in honor of that, a special 23rd NBA season jersey patch was created by Topps, which he admitted was humbling to see.

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That was in addition to plenty of stars featured with rookie phenom Cooper Flagg, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama, among other. Last year, ratings were a hotly debated topic as the NFL tried to take over Christmas Day while many NBA fans complain that the season is too long with numerous stars sitting out of marquee games.

Under a new media rights deal, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime have spiced up the NBA viewing experience though, along with ESPN. So far, the results seem to be paying off as this year’s Christmas Day slate was the most-watched in 15 years, via NBA Communications:

The NBA delivered its most-watched Christmas Day in 15 years. More than 47 million people in the U.S. watched the NBA on Christmas Day across Disney networks – up 45% vs. last year.

(Excludes the 2011-12 season which started on Christmas Day.) pic.twitter.com/evgUQjlYWp

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 31, 2025

The NBA was the most-viewed brand across social media on Christmas Day, generating 1.6 billion views – up 23% vs. last year.

(Source: Videocites) pic.twitter.com/1etiztHJO7

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 31, 2025

The New York Knicks had an impressive comeback win at Madison Square Garden over the Cleveland Cavaliers, which featured a strong start to kick off Christmas. Then, Wembanyama and company beat the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder for the third time in a matter of weeks.

Lastly, Jokic put up 56 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists in the nightcap in a thrilling overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, where Edwards put up 44 points of his own. Overall, this holiday was a success for the NBA after battling outside criticisms from fans, and hopefully, that positive momentum carries on throughout the rest of this season.

LeBron James discusses significance of playing on Christmas Day

Nobody knows what it is like to play on Christmas like Lakers star LeBron James. Now in his 23rd season, James played in his 20th Christmas Day game and the one downside of that is that he couldn’t spend time with his family.

When asked about the significance of playing on a holiday, he acknowledged that he would rather spend the entire day with his loved ones. However, the 41-year-old knows that at the end of the day, he needs to suit up and put on a performance for his team and it’s an honor to get to play on Christmas.

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This has led the NBA to scramble and figure out how they can maintain the revenue of sports gambling while disincentivizing players to break rules by joining themselves. And while it’s not something they can likely ever do away with entirely, it appears they have found some things to work on.

It was recently reported that the NBA is enacting a handful of new policies to help curb the sports gambling issues from players and coaches, beginning with injury reporting rules related to Billups’ case, via David Purdum of ESPN:

The NBA is attempting to reduce the value of inside information and combat performance manipulation as it reacts to the federal indictments of a current player, a head coach and a former player in gambling cases, according to a memo sent to all teams Friday.

The league is considering potential policy changes to address tanking, increase the frequency of injury reporting and restrict what sportsbooks offer, according to the memo.

The NBA solicited input from teams and reviewed a set of proposed changes with the board of governors before identifying six areas for potential change, according to the memo, which was obtained by ESPN. In addition to tanking, injury reporting and prop bets, the league plans to upgrade its education program on gambling, adopt new measures to protect players, coaches and team personnel from harassment from sports bettors, and enhance its ability to investigate unusual betting activity, the memo states.

The league might also make some bigger changes to curb end-of-season tanking and the gambling issues that come along with it, via Shams Charania of ESPN:

The NBA has begun to gather input from its owners and general managers on new ways to combat tanking in the aftermath of the gambling scandal that rocked the league at the start of the season, sources told ESPN.

At a board of governors meeting Friday, the league presented several ideas around potential modifications to rules regarding draft pick protections, the draft lottery and other possible approaches, according to multiple sources.

In recent years, multiple teams have either shut down players early or sat players for games to try to improve their draft positioning, often tied to a protected pick. Sources said multiple ideas were proposed as a brainstorming measure to combat tanking, including:

• Limiting pick protections to either top four or 14 and higher, which would eliminate the problematic mid-lottery protections.

• No longer allowing a team to draft in the top four two years in a row.

• Locking lottery positions after March 1.

It’s good to see the league finally making important changes like limiting player prop betting. That not only prevents players from cheating, but could also do some work towards helping rampant gambling addiction in the sports world.

It remains to be seen, though, if injury reporting rules and tanking rules will have any impact, as the league has been looking to fix those for years, with no major success.

JJ Redick calls for consistency on NBA officiating

Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick has a tendency to let his emotions show on the sidelines, and he did that against the L.A. Clippers.

The Lakers lost to the Clippers, 103-88, while down three starters, Gabe Vincent and losing Luka Doncic at halftime.

The referees, unfortunately, played a factor in the loss as well.

After the loss, Redick sounded off on the officiating and called for the NBA to address the lack of consistency in calls as he has not been receiving feedback when reaching out to the league.

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