{"id":598427,"date":"2026-02-12T07:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T07:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/598427\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T07:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T07:33:18","slug":"ask-world-team-if-they-plan-to-compete-in-all-star-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/598427\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask World team if they plan to compete in All-Star Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON — Kevin Durant<\/a> joked Wednesday that he\u2019s playing on an \u201cold head\u201d squad alongside LeBron James<\/a>, Stephen Curry<\/a> (now sidelined) and Kawhi Leonard<\/a> at the 2026 NBA All-Star Game — but the 37-year-old downplayed concerns about how hard his team, the USA Stripes, will play.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should ask the Europeans and the World team if they\u2019re going to compete,\u201d the Houston Rockets<\/a> star said, laughing. \u201cIf you look at Luka Doncic<\/a> and Nikola Jokic<\/a> now, let\u2019s go back and look at what they do in the All-Star Game. Is that competition? So, we haven\u2019t questioned what they\u2019ve been doing. But we\u2019re going to question the old heads, and the Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut these two dudes out there, Luka and Jokic, they don\u2019t care about the game at all. These dudes be laying on the floor. They\u2019re shooting from half court. But you\u2019ve got to worry about the old heads playing hard? I can read between the lines, bro. It\u2019s just an overall topic that everybody\u2019s been talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA announced the rosters for the midseason showcase event last week, splitting 25 names onto three squads. It\u2019s the debut of another new All-Star format — this one a U.S. vs. World round-robin tournament, on Sunday at the LA Clippers\u2019 home in Inglewood, California.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Adam Silver thinks the new format will tap into national pride for the players involved, but Durant preferred to take a wait-and-see approach.<\/p>\n

For years, the subject of a U.S.-vs.-World concept has been discussed as a potential way to spark renewed interest in the All-Star Game. Durant seemed unsure the new format would work.<\/p>\n

Durant was later told that San Antonio Spurs<\/a> star Victor Wembanyama<\/a> intends to put forth maximum effort at the All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama, speaking to reporters Tuesday night, said, \u201cI\u2019ve seen the All-Star Game and obviously it hasn\u2019t been competitive. And I\u2019ve always thought myself that if I was in there, I\u2019m never stepping onto the court to lose or not caring. Just like at home, I\u2019m never stepping into a board game not caring, thinking I\u2019m going to lose. … I\u2019m going to be out there, I might as well win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant\u2019s response: \u201cWe\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said that last year, too,\u201d Durant continued. \u201cThey said it was the worst All-Star Game that people watched. So, we\u2019re going to see. Who knows what\u2019s going to happen? This format might change the game, but who knows? We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON — Kevin Durant joked Wednesday that he\u2019s playing on an \u201cold head\u201d squad alongside LeBron James, Stephen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,57162,4066,79969,6,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-598427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houston-rockets-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-10","12":"tag-houstonrockets","13":"tag-kevin-durant-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-329525","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116056503391390213","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}