The NBA All-Star Game has drawn a lot of ire from fans in recent years. Basketball lovers wanted to see competitive hoops, not the biggest stars in the Association just going through the motions. To address these concerns, the league implemented an All-Star round-robin tournament that showed some promise in terms of competition.
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who's always played with zeal, added to the fun of the 2026 All-Star experiment in Los Angeles. He joined Team Stripes, which featured veteran stars from the United States like LeBron James and Kevin Durant, and led them to a 42-40 victory in the first game against Team Stars, which rostered young stars from the United States like Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Maxey.
Showing up & showing out 🤩
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 15, 2026
JB in Game 1:
11 PTS
3 REB
1 BLK pic.twitter.com/wXcYn3pVxH
Brown notched a team-high 11 points in the narrow win while shooting over 50% from the floor during the 12-minute contest. Team Stripes then moved onto its next game against the third and final squad of the mini-tourney: Team World. While Brown didn't contribute any points in his team's meeting with the global NBA stars, he still managed to notch 2 steals and 1 block en route to an exciting 48-45 win.
The fun ended there for Team Stripes, as the vets were crushed 47-21 by Team Stars in the All-Star championship game. The Stars used their fresh legs to dominate the rematch, with Edwards' 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists in 8 minutes of play helping him secure the All-Star Game MVP award.
Brown struggled in the finale, missing 8 of his 10 shots and netting 0 triples on 7 attempts. His 4 points were still more than the majority of his teammates — outside of James, who had 5 points in the loss, and De'Aaron Fox, who finished with a team-high 6 points.
Results aside, the overall effort of the tournament seemed to breathe some new life into the star-studded spectacle. That should make the league happy, so perhaps it's a smart idea to invite Brown and several of the other fiery competitors back next year.
Of course, it's not like the five-time All-Star needs any help returning in 2027. His play should speak for itself. But before All-Star talks resume in a year from now, Brown will focus on leading the Celtics to the 2026 NBA Playoffs. His journey to do so continues on Thursday, Feb. 19 when the C's travel to San Francisco to face the Golden State Warriors.
Listen to "Havlicek Stole the Pod" on:
Blue Wire: https://tiny.ee/CdKp
iTunes: https://tiny.ee/RK47
YouTube: https://tiny.ee/cOW3
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Jaylen Brown, Team Stripes advance to All-Star championship game before coming up short