With 2026 NBA All-Star Weekend heading to Los Angeles in a mere matter of days, three-time Los Angeles Lakers champion (and seven-time NBA champ) forward Robert Horry has opted to pinpoint some of the most exciting new talent touching down in Tinseltown.

MORE: 3-time All-Star, Lakers champ breaks down insane 2000 NBA Finals run

A 6-foot-10 sharpshooting combo forward out of Alabama, Horry supplied that special championship role player sauce for three very different pro franchises.

As a young gun in from 1992-96, he provided a steadyingly effective scoring presence with the Houston Rockets. Following a brief, unhappy stint with the Phoenix Suns, Horry later took his knack for late-game heroics to the Los Angeles Lakers from 1997-2003. He capped off his 16-year NBA career as a critical vet on the San Antonio Spurs, from 2003-08. 

Exciting New Faces At All-Star Weekend 2026

Horry won two straight titles with Houston in 1994-95, three consecutive championships for L.A. from 2000-02, and a pair of Larry O’Brien Trophies with San Antonio in 2005 and ’07.

The now-Spectrum SportsNet studio commentator never made an All-Star team. These days, it makes sense that he appreciates late-bloomer All-Stars who may not quite be household names, but do the little things to help their teams win. 32-year-old Miami Heat combo guard Norman Powell, fits that bill.

“I think for me, it’s Norman Powell,” Horry tells The Sporting News. “I’m a huge Norman Powell fan. I think he got robbed last year when he was with the Clippers. And now he’s showing, ‘Yo, I can be in the East, I can be in the West, it don’t matter. I’m going to show you that I’m at a point now where I’m at the upper echelon of my game.’ And I think for me, it’s just due.”

The 6-foot-3 former UCLA swingman, who won a title as a role player on the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors, is in the midst of his best scoring season yet with Miami. Powell’s averaging 23.8 points on .474/.396/.843 shooting splits, 3.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals. Solid sums, but on a 28-27 club, Powell’s big year has been fairly overshadowed.

“Our league is built on the superstars. And a lot of times, those are the ones that are always plastered on TV,” Horry adds, “but I’m the type of the guy — I mean, I guess because I was one of those guys —  that appreciates the guys who come out and play hard each and every night but don’t get any recognition. The All-Star Game, to me, is a way to recognize these guys. And Norman Powell is one I’m excited for.”

Three big first-year names have made this year’s Rising Stars Game. It appears to be shaping up as a three-man Rookie of the Year race this season, between Charlotte Hornets small forward Kon Knueppel, Dallas Mavericks power forward Cooper Flagg, and Philadelphia 76ers shooting guard V.J. Edgecomb.

Who will or should win the honor this year? And who will be the best player in five years?

“I want to say Knueppel, because I think he should win Rookie of the Year, but I think Cooper Flagg, the system he’s in is going to allow him to blossom a little more,” Horry opines. “Because you look at V.J. — you’ve got [Tyrese] Maxey in front of you, you’ve got Paul George in front of you, and you’ve got [Joel] Embiid in front of you. So it’s always kind of a little bit hard to develop and shine. Even though you’re going to be good, you’re still behind three guys.

“And then you look at Kon Knueppel over here, you’ve got Ball, you’ve got Miles, there’s so many guys that can hamper you. Then you go to Dallas, there’s nobody in front of him! I think his maturation’s going to be a little better because he’s going to have more room to make mistakes and learn from them. Because every player learns from their mistakes and they grow from that, and I think he’s going to have that growth.”

Hornets All-Star point guard Lamelo Ball, who’s fitfully available due to health trouble, plus forward Miles Bridges and Brandon Miller, had been the Hornets’ players of the future. Now, Knueppel’s emergence on the national stage has made him a real threat to win ROTF honors.

“The game is hard to play defense now because guys are moving so much coming off screens, and nowadays guys don’t really get to play defense anymore because of the way the game is called,” Horry cautions. “And there’s so much switching going on. But I think he has the ability to be one of the greatest players to play this game, but he’s got to just keep grinding and stay injury-free.”

Horry also explains why Los Angeles is such a perfect backdrop for All-Star Weekend.

“I’ve always felt like it was a basketball town. You think about a city that has a great NBA and a great college team — you think of UCLA, you think of the Lakers. So you think about all the great players that have come out of the LA area,” Horry remarks. “You think about who’s in the league now — you think about [Russell] Westbrook, [James] Harden, DeMar DeRozan, Paul George — and so it’s a basketball city, man. You think about all the great football teams and hockey teams that’ve come through here but at the end of the day, I think basketball is king.”