The NBA just had its All-Star Weekend at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California and what should have been a weekend to enjoy the stars of the 2026 Season ended with disappointment and shock at some of the greatest names in the league’s history.
The first of these controversies doesn’t directly involve the NBA but does involve arguably its biggest star of all time, Michael Jordan. On Sunday, Jordan’s NASCAR team, 23XI Racing, won the biggest race of the season, the Daytona 500, with Tyler Reddick behind the wheel of the 45 car and Jordan in attendance on his birthday to witness it. Jordan appeared to pull on Beau’s lower back area and then appeared to inexplicably reach further down, all of which was caught as the broadcast was about to end. While to many outsiders this seemed like a disgusting act from Jordan, with many asking who the child was and where his parents were, there’s a possibility this isn’t actually as bad as it may seem to the general public. Many have suspected that Jordan was trying to get ice out of the back of Beau’s shirt, as he was given an ice bath in victory lane.
Beau and Jordan have been spotted together in the pit lane watching the race on several occasions, including the 2024 event at Talladega Superspeedway, which Reddick also won. As Reddick celebrated on the front straightaway, the camera showed Jordan carrying Beau and getting him excited to celebrate. It seems that whenever he attends races, Jordan plays more of an uncle figure in the kids’ lives and that what was likely an innocent thing got taken way out of context by outsiders.
On Feb. 18th, Reddick confirmed this in an interview with Stephen A. Smith, that there was no inappropriate intention by Jordan. Jordan has not commented in writing but he was once again spotted in victory lane after Reddick won his second straight race on Sunday, February 22, at EchoPark Speedway.
A smaller-scale but still relevant controversy occurred in an interview before Sunday night’s All-Star Game, with the current statistically greatest active NBA player, Lebron James. James was asked for his opinion on Israeli player Deni Avdija of the Portland Trailblazers, where he said he “believe[s] he (Avdija) is an All-Star.” Not an inflammatory quote by itself, however, he then proceeded to say about Israel itself, that he “hope[s] someday to make it over there” and he “heard great things” about the country and his fans in it. James came under heavy fire for praising Israel, as they’re still looked on very negatively globally in their conflict with Palestine, and James did not denounce any of the genocidal actions committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip. James has not commented since on the controversy and his inaction has further angered fans who expected better from the star.
During Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, Kevin Durant of the Houston Rockets was caught being on his phone for pretty much any moment he got during the game. During the game, screenshots of burner Twitter accounts in group chats allegedly owned by Durant were showing up on Twitter, most of which contained Durant saying negative comments about several players, some of whom were his own teammates. Durant has been caught using burner accounts to trash-talk several times before, first in 2017 when he talked about leaving Oklahoma City and was caught being “homophobic and misogynistic” (per the NBA’s statements) on an Instagram burner in 2021. This time, comments were directed at opposing players Steph Curry and Devin Booker, opposing coaches Steve Kerr and Frank Vogel and his teammates on the Rockets, Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr. (according to The Athletic). Durant claimed after practice on Wednesday that he is “not here to get into Twitter nonsense” and is drawing criticism for a lack of accountability.
All of this off-court action does not mean there was a lack of controversy on the court itself; quite the contrary. The Dunk Contest went on record with fans as possibly being the worst of all time, with the winner Keshad Johnson straight up missing one of his dunks and even his winning dunk was very underwhelming. Carter Bryant had a close runner up after receiving a perfect score on one of his dunks but was unable to pull through in the end. In the first round, Jaxson Hayes had a very “questionable” dunk, with it only being a run up and a one handed dunk, a very underwhelming dunk that did not seem at all fit for the contest. Also, Jase Richardson suffered a hard fall attempting a 360 degree tomahawk, where he hit the backboard and came crashing down to the ground. These fails were pretty much the main highlights of the contest, with pretty much no dunks leaving fans with shock or any sort of excitement. Many content creators and fans have since called for the ending of the Dunk Contest, saying that it has hit its peak and is now past its prime and that it just isn’t exciting to watch anymore like it used to be.
As the NBA picks back up with its regular season, all of these story lines continue to hang over the NBA fan base and after all of this chaos and controversy, who knows what’s to come next?
