{"id":173641,"date":"2026-01-21T12:22:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=173641"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:22:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:22:47","slug":"boston-celtics-jaylen-brown-first-start-2026-nba-all-star-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/21\/boston-celtics-jaylen-brown-first-start-2026-nba-all-star-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics Leader Receives First-Time All-Star Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jaylen Brown<\/a> has placed a definitive stamp on the NBA MVP map. Stepping up as the offensive focal point in Jayson Tatum<\/a>‘s absence, he’s led the Boston Celtics to a top-two seed in the Eastern Conference (and one of the best records in the NBA) this season. And now, his hard work is providing him with ever more accolades.<\/p>\n

This week, Brown was voted to be an NBA All-Star starter for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

Celtics Leader Jaylen Brown To Start In 2026 NBA All-Star Game<\/h2>\n

In 2026, the annual NBA All-Star game will feature four first-time starters. The Eastern Conference houses all four of those first-timers: Brown, New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson<\/a>, Detroit Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham<\/a>, and Philadelphia 76ers point guard Tyrese Maxey<\/a>. Brown holds the most All-Star appearances out of this group with five.<\/p>\n

With the stars showing out this season, each of them is carrying their respective team. In fact, Cunningham is hearing his name in MVP conversations as a result of the tremendous season Detroit is having. Brunson has also routinely been mentioned as a 2025-26 NBA MVP candidate.<\/p>\n

Although the season started somewhat rough and rocky, Brown’s evolution as a primary option quickly corrected the Celtics’ 0-3 opening. His multiple Player of the Week awards<\/a> and favorable MVP polling<\/a> made this All-Star appearance a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

Averaging 29.8 points per game, Brown is behind only Maxey (30.0 points per game) among the Eastern Conference All-Star starters in scoring. Again, his multitude of prolific scoring performances have been the primary reason Boston remains in title contention this season. This is a surprise because this season was expected to be similar to a gap year<\/a>, given the Achilles injury Tatum suffered in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. Despite this adversity, the Celtics remain a dark horse championship-contender. That is, assuming Tatum’s return is not rushed<\/a>, and Brown can maintain his outstanding play.<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown’s Past All-Star Performances<\/h3>\n

This year’s All-Star Game will be different, with the NBA looking to introduce a USA vs. World format<\/a>. This could create complications around what to expect for this season’s competition.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look back at Brown’s previous performances and what can be expected for the 2026 game:<\/p>\n

Brown earned an All-Star spot in four out of the previous five seasons (2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025). He certainly had impressive performances in multiple games, scoring 35 points in 2023<\/a> and 36 points in 2024<\/a>. It’s a very arduous task to make an impact coming off the bench in an All-Star Game, with no guarantees about minutes or touches. Yet, Brown has done just that. Those scoring outbursts each came in under 30 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Feb 19, 2023; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Team LeBron guard Jaylen Brown (7) dunks the ball during the second half against Team Giannis in the 2023 NBA All-Star Game at Vivint Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Creveling-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The more difficult piece of quantifying these stats comes down to the formatting of the competition itself, which has changed many times over several seasons now. Last year, the All-Star Game even had multiple teams constructed to play in a tournament-style format<\/a>. However, Brown may be in an advantageous position in this year’s competition as a result of his offensive evolution.<\/p>\n

Does He Have Any Chance To Win The 2026 NBA All-Star Game MVP Award?<\/h4>\n

Though already named an All-Star Game starter for the first time, Brown has a chance to add another notch on his belt during the All-Star Weekend festivities. The increased playing time, combined with his aggressive offense and tenacious defense, could result in another first-time achievement for the two-way superstar. Namely, the Kobe Bryant<\/a> MVP Award, which is given to the best performer of the NBA All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

If the 29-year-old’s previous All-Star appearances are any indicator, then he has a great chance to win the prestigious award.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 Kyle Terada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaylen Brown has placed a definitive stamp on the NBA MVP map. Stepping up as the offensive focal point in Jayson Tatum‘s absence, he’s led the Boston Celtics to a top-two seed in the Eastern Conference (and one of the best records in the NBA) this season. And now, his hard work is providing him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5681,"featured_media":173792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1608,10,62,12,3,13],"tags":[450,798,2815],"class_list":["post-173641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celtics","category-basketball","category-pistons","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","category-76ers","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-nba-all-star-game"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5681"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173641"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173794,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173641\/revisions\/173794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}