Jaylen Brown challenges NBA All-Stars to rare tournament

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Jaylen Brown challenges NBA All-Stars to rare tournament

Souichi Terada · MassLive

Sun, Feb 15, 2026 ·

2 min read

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While the NBA All-Star festivities were ongoing in Los Angeles this weekend, Unrivaled hosted a tournament of its own. Unrivaled, a three-on-three women’s basketball league, had its one-on-one tournament for some of the top pros in the women’s game.

Celtics star Jaylen Brown spoke about how much he enjoyed the one-on-one format, going as far as challenging some of his fellow All-Stars. Chelsea Gray beat Allisha Gray to win Unrivaled’s tournament and the $200,000 prize.

“You could do it like boxing, like you can call a guy out and challenge some people,” Brown said. “There are some people I would love to challenge. Some people that are here this weekend I would love to challenge. All of them, Luka (Doncic), Shai (Gilegous-Alexander), (Jalen) Brunson, Donovan (Mitchell). I would challenge all them guys, one-on-one. We could donate to whatever charity. Let’s set it up.”

It’s no surprise to hear Brown wants to compete in a tourney like that. He prides himself as one of the game’s best two-way players, which should translate well to one-on-one.

The NBA is at an interesting point this weekend. The league has been criticized for its handling of the All-Star weekend. What used to be a marquee event with a lot of buzz hasn’t gotten as much attention. Plus, the Intuit Dome crowds in Los Angeles for Friday and Saturday’s events had rows of empty seats.

The league could explore other ways to bring attention to All-Star weekend. The game itself hasn’t been competitive for a few years. This year’s edition has a World vs. USA angle to it in a four-team tournament format. So it’s clear the NBA is open to tinkering with new ideas.

However, a one-on-one event is unlikely to happen on the men’s basketball side in the near future. Some guys like Brown have been open to the idea, but there hasn’t been much momentum behind it.

“I actually love watching it because it reminds me of the purity of the game,” Brown said. “Like, it’s just mano y mano. You got people on the court talking trash. You’ve got to play two sides. You got to be an offensive and a defensive player. I think that will be great.”

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