The New York Knicks had representation on two of the three teams competing in the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, with neither Jalen Brunson's Team Stripes nor Karl-Anthony Towns' Team World winning the final event. However, the Knicks did leave the weekend victorious in one regard. Brunson, Towns, and Knicks legend Allan Houston won the league's KIA Shooting Stars Competition, adding the hardware to the NBA Cup Championship trophy they took home from Las Vegas in December.
Knicks add more unique hardware in 2026 championship hunt
Team governor James Dolan told Craig Carton and Chris McMonigle on WFAN's The Carton Show that the Knicks didn't care for Adam Silver's NBA Cup one bit. They wanted a real championship banner: the one teams hang after four rounds' worth of success in June.
While the team probably won't be raising any Shooting Stars-themed banners at Madison Square Garden in the near future, the win was a wholesome one as part of the NBA's All-Star festivities that even involved some family fun.
While Brunson, Towns, and Houston were the players taking jump shots to represent "Team Knicks," they weren't plucking basketballs off of a rack. Each team had a celebrity passer, a role that the Knicks' team filled with one of their own assistant coaches in Rick Brunson.
The elder Brunson, who wore the Kobe 5 "What the Rick" player editions that his son had made to represent the NBA franchises he played for, dished out passes to the three Knick representatives taking shots. That included Jalen, who wore Kobe 3 player editions of his own.
NBA dumps Skills Competition, leans into 3-pointers with shooting event
The group competed against Team Harper, consisting of Ron Harper Sr. and sons Ron Harper Jr. and Dylan Harper; Team Cameron, with Kon Knueppel, Jalen Johnson, and Corey Maggette representing Duke University's indoor stadium; and Team All-Star, featuring Scottie Barnes, Chet Holmgren, and Richard "Rip" Hamilton.
The league's Shooting Stars event was last featured in the All-Star Weekend festivities 11 seasons ago with Chris Bosh, Swin Cash, and Dominique Wilkins having won in 2015. The event returned this year, effectively replacing the Skills Competition.
Whether one views it as a gift, curse, or neither is up to them: but it's undeniable that one of Chris Paul's final NBA contributions was ending the Skills Competition after he and Victor Wembanyama circumvented the rules.
The message was loud and clear: players would put forth exactly as little effort as they needed to. The NBA responded by nixing the event entirely and leaning into its modern 3-point era by replacing it with the return of the Shooting Stars Competition.
It's unclear why the Knicks were the only NBA team to have their own squad in the event, but they made it worth the league's time by taking home the win.