NBA Aims to Recapture ASG Magic

Sunday Edition

February 15, 2026

I’m out in Los Angeles for the NBA All-Star Game at the Intuit Dome, home of the Clippers, who are still in the middle of the unresolved Aspiration scandal, even as Kawhi Leonard plays for the U.S. team on Sunday. Other big questions loom over the festivities—from player buy-in to TV ratings—and a lot is at stake for the league.

Also, a note to FOS readers: We are off on Monday, but will be back in your inboxes Tuesday for our regularly scheduled morning newsletter.

—Alex Schiffer

NBA Tries to Reignite All-Star Game Flame—Again

LOS ANGELES — NBA All-Star weekend has descended on L.A. It has a new format and a new venue, but the questions swirling around the event feel very familiar. Will people care enough to watch? Will the players care enough to try?

The NBA is well aware it’s up against these issues again—and that the pressure is on to perform.

Last year’s event across TNT Sports platforms barely registered, becoming the second-least-watched NBA All-Star Game on record, averaging just 4.7 million viewers. That’s a 13% decline from the 2024 game.

This year, the viewership calculus may be different: The game is airing on NBC for the first time since the network reacquired NBA media rights in its new deal beginning this season. The timing is good for the NBA: NBC is currently holding lots of attention as it carries the Winter Olympics, for which viewership is way up.

NBC has carved out the primetime spot for the NBA—the All-Star Game will air Sunday at 5 p.m. ET—to create conditions for the best possible outcome. But even with the cleared broadcast window, the Milan Cortina Games will continue to air across several platforms, which means the NBA will still have to deliver a good enough product to make viewers shift gears.

The league aims to do that this year by getting players more invested. For 2026, the All-Star Game setup pits the U.S. vs. the World—a format commissioner Adam Silver introduced in hopes of stoking players’ national pride after seeing the success of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament (which largely stole the spotlight from the NBA’s All-Star weekend last year). It is yet another effort to find the right format since moving away from the traditional Eastern vs. Western Conference competition in 2018.

Last year’s game had three teams drafted by TNT Sports commentators and former players Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith; this year, the league will have to see whether the team-composition tweak can shift fan sentiment and draw more interest.

Otherwise, the format isn’t much different from last year’s: a round-robin tournament of 12-minute games with two teams of American players and one international team; the championship game will be between the two teams with the best record and point-differential will serve as a tiebreaker. But that approach drew a lot of criticism in 2025: too much time between games, commercials interrupting game flow, and an extended halftime honoring TNT’s Inside the NBA crew—despite the show being licensed to continue on ESPN in the new media deal.

If the NBA is going to succeed with the All-Star Game, the time is now. League viewership started off strong this season, and it has continued to post solid ratings.

What could be the biggest needle-mover, though, is out of the NBA’s hands. While the league is doing all it can to try to make the All-Star Game exciting again, it’s up to the players to bring competition back to the court.

It’s already a talking point among players in L.A.

“I’ve seen the All-Star Game, and obviously it hasn’t been competitive. And I’ve always thought myself that if I was in there, I’m never stepping onto the court to lose, or not caring,” Spurs star Victor Wembanyama said. “Just like at home, I’m never stepping into a board game not caring, thinking I’m going to lose. … I’m going to be out there, I might as well win.”

But Kevin Durant was skeptical of Wembanyama’s comments. “We’ll see,” he said. “He said that last year, too. They said it was the worst All-Star Game that people watched. So we’re going to see. Who knows what’s going to happen? This format might change the game, but who knows? We’ll see.”

State Farm With the Assist

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NBA at the All-Star Break

Some of the All-Star Game’s biggest critics are the players themselves. Are the NBA’s stars ready to break the game out of its “irredeemable” state? Read the story.
Ahead of the All-Star break, several teams have already thrown in the towel as they eye a top pick in the 2026 NBA draft. Read the story.
In an abrupt move, 12-time All-Star Chris Paul has called it quits in the middle of his 21st NBA season. Read the story.
Steph Curry’s final Under Armour signature shoe launched Friday—but he has “no plans” to wear the Curry 13 in any NBA games. Read the story.

This Week In College Sports

The CSC’s First NIL Investigations Have Begun

Dec 20, 2022; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; The mascot of the Nebraska Cornhuskers performs during a break in the game against the Queens Royals in the second half at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

The College Sports Commission—the new enforcement entity set up to enforce House v. NCAA settlement rules including new NIL restrictions—has said it’s started looking into players who may have failed to report name, image, and likeness deals to the NIL Go platform. But it has declined to say which athletes or which schools are involved.

This week, however, Front Office Sports first reported that Nebraska was one of the schools whose athletes were under investigation. The revelation came through a public records request, which revealed an email thread between CSC officials and Nebraska officials. The Huskers are the second program to be publicly named as part of this first round of inquiries—The Athletic previously reported LSU as the first.

The emails showed the CSC asked for a call with Nebraska officials to talk about the unreported deals. Two weeks later, Nebraska officials wrote the players had submitted deal information, and that their initial lack of doing so resulted from “confusion” among the players. (The inquiry appears to be resolved, but neither the CSC nor Nebraska has confirmed to FOS whether it’s officially closed.)

One big thing we’ve learned: Rather than punishing schools and players immediately, the CSC first approached officials to see whether they would cooperate and get players to submit the unreported deals. While we’re digging into more potential investigations, the CSC is going on a hiring spree to beef up its team and will likely launch more complex inquiries in the months to come.

—Amanda Christovich

Written by Alex Schiffer, Colin Salao

Edited by Katie Krzaczek, Meredith Turits, Catherine Chen