2016 NBA All-Star Game

Result

MVP: Russell Westbrook

The first NBA All-Star Game held outside the United States, and Kobe Bryant's final All-Star appearance.

Box score

MVP: Russell Westbrook.

Bench (10+ points): John Wall (22), DeMar DeRozan (18), Andre Drummond (16)

Bench (10+ points): Anthony Davis (24), James Harden (23), Chris Paul (14), DeMarcus Cousins (11)

Game context

The 2016 All-Star Game made history simply by where it was played: hosted at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on February 14, it was the first NBA All-Star Game ever staged outside the United States, a landmark moment for the league's lone Canadian franchise and for its broader international footprint. The game itself produced another record-shattering offensive explosion, with the West's 196-173 win producing 369 combined points, breaking the previous year's total by 48 and pushing both teams past the prior single-team scoring record of 163 set just a year earlier — a vivid illustration of just how quickly the exhibition's offensive pace was escalating in the mid-2010s, several years before the league introduced any format changes meant to address it. Russell Westbrook won his second consecutive All-Star MVP award, scoring 31 points with 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 steals in only 22 minutes of action, becoming the first Black player to win the award outright in consecutive years. The game doubled as an emotional farewell for Kobe Bryant, who was playing the final All-Star Game of his 20-year career in what was already known to be his retirement season. Bryant finished with 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists, and in a gesture of respect several teammates reportedly offered to feed him the ball late in the game to give him a chance at a record fifth MVP award, an offer Bryant declined, preferring to let the game play out on its merits rather than be scripted around him. LeBron James, meanwhile, quietly moved past Bryant on the All-Star Game's all-time career scoring list during the contest, finishing with 13 points to push his career total to 291, surpassing Bryant's previous record of 290 — a symbolic passing of the torch playing out in the same game as Bryant's farewell. Other standouts included Stephen Curry, who added 26 points for the West amid his historic 2015-16 MVP season, Anthony Davis, who shot an efficient 12-of-13 for 24 points, and Paul George, who led the East with 41 points, falling one point short of Wilt Chamberlain's single-game record. The Toronto setting also brought a distinctly Canadian flavor to the surrounding weekend's festivities, and the game's success in the city was frequently cited afterward as validation of the NBA's broader push to grow its audience and presence beyond U.S. borders, a strategy that would continue to shape scheduling and marketing decisions across the league in the years that followed.

Sources

• Wikipedia — 2016 NBA All-Star Game
• Basketball-Reference — NBA All-Star Game History