Check out the best plays from Anthony Edwards’ MVP-winning performance at the 2026 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES – Anthony Edwards genuinely looked surprised when NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that he had been named the Most Valuable Player of the 2026 All-Star Game Sunday at the Intuit Dome.
Modesty? Perhaps. But it was admittedly a little trickier to track MVP prospects through a set of four mini-games, a fresh format deployed for the showcase’s 75th edition. Instead of going with the night’s biggest scorer, the panel of media voters had to monitor and weigh each player’s production and impact across multiple 12-minute contests.
So there was no slam-dunk choice, with rivals for the honor – Kawhi Leonard and Victor Wembanyama – losing their last games of the day.
That’s why, in the end, it was Edwards holding up the Kobe Bryant Trophy that goes to each year’s most valuable All-Star. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ effervescent 24-year-old wound up being the best overall player on the winning team, his USA Stars squad surviving the round-robin, single-day tournament.
“It means a lot,” Edwards said. “I love Minnesota, and I know Minnesota loves me. I said I wasn’t going to put on a show for them, but I gave them a show.”
The MVP trophy was named after Bryant, an appreciation of his MVP-winning performances in four of the 15 games in which he played (he was selected as an All-Star 18 times but missed three games to injuries).
It was Edwards’ production in the fourth and final game that clinched his MVP and won the night for USA Stars. His stats were relatively modest: 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting. But added to his body of work across the Stars’ three games overall, the numbers spoke loudly: A total of 32 points in 26 minutes, hitting 13 of his 22 shots overall (6-15 3PM).
Edwards sank the three that sent his team’s first game into overtime and gave them a lead moments later. He also hit from deep late in the Stars’ next game, temporarily confusing himself.
“We didn’t know you play the whole 12 minutes out,” he said. “We thought it was the first to 40. I hit a 3 to get to 40, and we thought the game was over. [De’Aaron] Fox came back and hit a three, and they won. I kind of felt like we got wigged out, but it’s all good.”
KG 🤝 ANT
the only Wolves players to win All-Star Game MVP. pic.twitter.com/89dbRE7xlK
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) February 16, 2026
For a while, it seemed possible an All-Star tradition of “host city heroes” might be revived in the MVP competition. Kawhi Leonard of the LA Clippers put on the biggest individual show of the evening when he scored 31 points for USA Stripes in a 48-45 victory that eliminated World. That made the finale strictly a domestic affair, veering from the initial concept of U.S. players vs. international ones (though the World roster was missing both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to injuries Sunday).
Fifteen times in the All-Star Game’s history, the MVP has been won outright or shared by a player representing the local NBA team. The most recent was a year ago when Warriors guard Stephen Curry won it at San Francisco’s Chase Center. And scoring 31 points in the equivalent of a quarter wasn’t that far off the NBA regular-season record, set by the Warriors’ Klay Thompson in a January 2015 game against Sacramento.
Leonard seemed on track for a hometown MVP nod when he carried the Stripes with his 11-for-13 shooting, including 6-for-7 from the arc, past Wembanyama (19 points) and crew. The Clippers star even chipped in a pair of steals on a day notorious for its defensive apathy.
But Leonard managed just one point in the last game. The Stars jumped to a 12-1 lead and never faltered.
“I told him when we walked out for the last game, I said, ‘Hey, you need to chill out,’” Edwards said.
Said Leonard, a native of Los Angeles, who went to high school in nearby Riverside, California: “Yeah, I grew up coming up here, watching, going to the Convention Center, seeing stars walk around and dreaming of being here.”
Another early MVP contender was Wembanyama, who burst from tipoff in the initial game to score seven quick points and flex some defensive chops for the World squad. Edwards, in a sideline interview, even credited the Spurs’ mantis-like young star for lighting the day’s fire.
“Yeah, he set the tone, man,” Edwards said, “and it woke me up, for sure.”
Said Wembanyama: “It was a pretty good display of basketball. Better than last year, in my opinion. It was fun.”
In just two games, Wembanyama totaled 33 points, one more than Edwards, with eight rebounds and three blocks. But he wasn’t on the floor for the finale, which opened the door for the Wolves’ star.
There was widespread agreement from the participating players that the format led to a livelier, more aggressive level of play compared to some much-criticized recent All-Star Games. Some said they would welcome the old East vs. West set-up, but none seemed unhappy with Sunday’s approach.
“I think they ain’t really going to take in what I’m saying, but I like this format,” Edwards said. “I think it makes us compete because it’s only 12 minutes, and the three different teams separate the guys.”
And by the end, Edwards separated himself.
Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
