Jaylen Brown isn’t asking the NBA to reinvent the wheel as much as he’s asking it to embrace a format fans already argue about every day. Speaking during All-Star weekend, the Celtics wing said he’d like to see the league borrow from Unrivaled’s one-on-one tournament concept and build a true 1-on-1 event into the NBA calendar.
Brown’s pitch is simple and intentionally theatrical. He suggested treating matchups “like boxing,” where a player can call out another player and set the stage for a head-to-head duel, with proceeds going to charity. In the same breath, Brown named the kinds of opponents he’d want: Luka Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson, and Donovan Mitchell.
Jaylen Brown said he’d like to see the league borrow from Unrivaled’s one-on-one tournament concept and build a true 1-on-1 event into the NBA calendar. pic.twitter.com/tbtsQPOAj9
— OpenCourt-Basketball (@OpenCourtFB) February 16, 2026
The timing of Brown’s idea matters, because it’s explicitly framed as a response to what Unrivaled is doing. The women’s league has been promoting a standalone 1-on-1 tournament as part of its product, complete with a defined ruleset and a significant cash prize structure. In Brown’s view, that model offers the NBA an easy plug-in: take an element that already generates nonstop debate – “who would win one-on-one?” – and turn it into an event with stakes, structure, and a cause.
Whether the NBA would ever green-light it is a separate question. The modern league is built around five-man solutions, spacing ecosystems, and defensive schemes that don’t translate cleanly into isolation theater, and star players have historically weighed injury risk and brand risk when asked to do something outside the normal competition frame. Brown’s argument, though, is that the risk-reward equation changes if the format is treated like a showcase, the matchups are chosen with intent, and the stakes are tied to charity rather than ego alone.
What’s undeniable is the marketing clarity. Brown didn’t speak in hypotheticals, he put names to it, and he put himself in it. In a weekend designed to celebrate skill, his proposal landed as the most direct challenge of all: if fans want authenticity, let the best players settle at least one argument on an empty court, with no teammates, no schemes, and nowhere to hide.
