The new All-Star Game format for 2026 featured two teams of United States players, Team Stripes and Team Stars, and a third team comprised of international talent, Team World. In a Round Robin style, all three teams faced one another, with Team USA Stars coming out as the winners with Anthony Edwards taking MVP honors.

However, the games this year highlighted basketball on an international level, with players representing nearby nations like Canada, but a majority coming from countries overseas in Europe and Africa. For New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns, he was representing his nation, the Dominican Republic.

When Americans think of professional athletes and the Dominican Republic, they go straight to baseball, looking at MLB stars like Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Rafael Devers, and José Ramírez. The NBA has some to showcase, but Al Horford and Towns are the only notable ones of the group.

Finishing the All-Star Game, across two contests, with 16 points and three rebounds, Towns spoke about what it means to represent his nation.

“To play in the All-Star game and have our flag on my back means a lot. To all my fans in Dominican Republic & Latin America watching, it’s truly an honor to represent y’all… I love them tremendously. My heart’s in Dominican Republic. It’s always going to be there," Towns said.

The first-overall pick from the 2015 NBA Draft, Towns already has the most All-Star selections for a Dominican player with six, as well as three All-NBA selections to go along with it.

He isn't quite at Hall of Fame status yet, but if he's able to win a championship and add some more All-Star appearances to his resume, he'll have a case when it's all said and done.

Going from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the New York Knicks, Towns now has more Dominican fans near him who are rooting for him. With over 600,000 Dominicans living in New York City, Towns can feel like the nation is rooting for him, even in the US.

The Knicks will be hoping that, coming out of the All-Star break, Towns can start to turn his season around. He's posting the second-worst scoring average and three-point shooting percentage of his career, and will need to play a major role if the Knicks want to make a deep playoff run.

Whether or not Jayson Tatum returns to action this season for the Boston Celtics, the Knicks should be the favorites to make it out of the East, even though the Detroit Pistons have had their number this season. But if Towns and the Knicks can win a title this year, he'll cement himself as an all-time great among Dominican athletes.