NBA All-Star Game

The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and showcases 24 of the league's star players. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend, a three-day event which goes from Friday to Sunday. The All-Star Game was first played at the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951.

National Basketball Association All-Star Game
Frequency	Annual
Inaugurated	1951
Most recent	2020 (Chicago)
Previous event	2019 (Charlotte)
Next event	2021 (Indianapolis)
Participants	Eastern Conference and Western Conference All-Stars
Organized by	National Basketball Association

The starting lineup for each squad is selected by a combination of fan, player, and media voting,[1] while head coaches choose the reserves,[2] seven players from their respective conferences, so each side has a 12-man roster. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players. If a selected player cannot participate because of injury, the NBA commissioner selects a replacement.

Starting in 2018, the leading vote-getters for each conference are designated as team captains and can choose from the pool of All-Star reserves to form their teams regardless of conference. LeBron James and Stephen Curry became the first players to choose teams through the new format, selecting players for the 2018 NBA All-Star Game in a non-televised draft on January 25.[3] Likely due to fan interest in the draft process, captains for the 2019 All-Star Game, James and Giannis Antetokounmpo, drafted their teams live on TNT.[4] The teams also play for a charity of their choice to help the games remain competitive.[5]

The head coach of the team with the best record in each conference is chosen to lead their respective conference in the All-Star Game, with a prohibition against consecutive appearances.[2] Known as the "Riley Rule", it was created after perennially successful Los Angeles Lakers head coach Pat Riley earned the right to coach the Western Conference team eight times in nine seasons between 1982 and 1990. The coach of the team with the next best record gets to coach instead.

History

The idea of holding an All-Star Game was conceived during a meeting between NBA President Maurice Podoloff, NBA publicity director Haskell Cohen and Boston Celtics owner Walter A. Brown. At that time, the basketball world had just been rocked by the college basketball point-shaving scandal.

In order to regain public attention to the league, Cohen suggested the league to host an exhibition game featuring the league's best players, similar to Major League Baseball's All-Star Game.[6] Although most people, including Podoloff, were pessimistic about the idea, Brown remained confident that it would be a success, and he even offered to host the game and to cover all the expenses or potential losses incurred from the game.[7] The first All-Star Game was hosted at the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951, where the Eastern All-Stars team defeated the Western All-Stars team, 111–94.

Boston Celtics' Ed Macauley was named as the first NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player, and the All-Star Game became a success, drawing an attendance of 10,094, much higher than that season's average attendance of 3,500.[8] In 2010, the NBA All-Star Game set the attendance record for a basketball game with 108,713 people attending at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This shattered the existing attendance record previously held at Ford Field on December 13, 2003, when 78,129 attendees watched Michigan State play Kentucky.[9]

The 2017 All-Star Weekend was originally awarded to Charlotte, North Carolina. On March 23, 2016, North Carolina passed House Bill 2, also known as a "bathroom bill," which was seen as discriminatory against transgender persons. As a result, the NBA announced that it would move the game to another city if the bill was not repealed or revised. After North Carolina took no action, on July 21, 2016, the NBA announced that the 2017 game would be moved to New Orleans. In March 2017, after several provisions of the bill were partially repealed, the NBA awarded the 2019 All-Star Weekend to Charlotte.

On October 3, 2017, the NBA and NBPA announced changes to the game format, starting in 2018. Instead of being divided by conference, the top vote leaders for each conference would be team captains and hold a draft to choose among the rest of the starters and reserves, regardless of conference.[5]

Rosters selection

The starting five from each conference consists of three frontcourt players and two guards, selected by a combination of fan, player, and media voting. In 2017, the NBA moved from a pure fan vote to a weighted process wherein fan voting accounts for 50%, with player and media voting account for 25% each.[1][10] Prior to 2013, fans selected two forwards and one center instead of generic frontcourt players.[11] The NBA in 2003 began offering All-Star ballots in three languages—English, Spanish and Chinese—for fan voting of the starters.[12]

NBA coaches vote for the reserves for their respective conferences, but they cannot choose players from their own team. Each coach selects two guards, three frontcourt players and two wild cards, with each selected player ranked in order of preference within each category. If a multi-position player is to be selected, coaches are encouraged to vote for the player at the position that is "most advantageous for the All-Star team", regardless of where the player is listed on the All-Star ballot or the position he is listed in box scores.[13] If a player is unavailable for the game due to injury, the NBA commissioner selects a replacement for the roster. If the replacement is for a fan-selected starter, the All-Star Game coach chooses the replacement in the starting lineup, and is not limited to the commissioner's addition to the roster.[14]

Multiple All-Star players can be chosen from one team, with the record being four. This has occurred eight times, the first such instance being in 1962, when four players each from the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers were chosen. The most recent game with four All-Star players from one team was the Golden State Warriors in the 2017 game.[15]

The game

The Game is played under normal NBA rules, but there are notable differences from an average game. Since the starting All-Stars are selected by fan vote, players sometimes start the game at atypical positions. For instance, in the 2007 game, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady were chosen as the starting Western Conference guards. As both players normally play shooting guard, Bryant started the game as a point guard. Gameplay usually involves players attempting spectacular slam dunks and alley oops and defensive effort is usually limited. The final score is generally much higher than a competitive NBA game. If the score is close, the fourth quarter is more competitive. This format was changed in 2020 to use the Elam Ending. In normal Elam Ending rules, the game clock is turned off with four minutes remaining and a target score is set; whoever reaches the target wins the game. In 2020, the NBA took the score at the end of three quarters and added 24 points (in honor of Kobe Bryant, who had been killed in a helicopter crash a month prior). With Team Giannis leading Team LeBron 133–124 at the end of the third quarter, the target score was 157 points, and Team LeBron won the contest.

The player introductions are usually accompanied by a significant amount of fanfare, including lighting effects, dance music, and pyrotechnics. Special uniforms are designed for the game each year, usually red for the Western Conference and blue for the Eastern Conference. From 1997 to 2002, players could wear their normal team uniforms. The "host conference" also traditionally has light uniforms, except from 2010 to 2014. Players on the same All-Star team who wear the same number used to have the option to change numbers: Patrick Ewing, who normally wore #33, chose to wear #3 as Larry Bird also had that number. Since 1997, players can keep their uniform numbers. A major recording artist typically sings "O Canada" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" prior to tipoff.

Halftime is also longer than a typical NBA game due to musical performances by popular artists. The first such halftime show happened in the 2000 game, with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Mary J. Blige, and LL Cool J performing.

All-Star Game records

Main article: NBA All-Star Game records

All-Star Game results

This is a list of each All-Star Game, the venue at which it was played, and the Game MVP. Parenthesized numbers indicate multiple times that venue, city, or player has occurred as of that instance (e.g. "Michael Jordan (2)" in 1996 indicates that was his second All-Star MVP award). As of the 2017 All-Star Game (the 2016–17 NBA season), the Eastern Conference leads with a record of 37 wins and 29 losses.

Eastern Conference (37 wins)	Western Conference (29 wins)

Note: Stadium names are named based on the name at the day of the All-Star Game.

Year	Result	Host arena	Host city	Game MVP
1951	East 111, West 94	Boston Garden	Boston, Massachusetts	Ed Macauley, Boston Celtics
1952	East 108, West 91	Boston Garden (2)	Boston, Massachusetts (2)	Paul Arizin, Philadelphia Warriors
1953	West 79, East 75	Allen County War Memorial Coliseum	Fort Wayne, Indiana	George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers
1954	East 98, West 93 (OT)	Madison Square Garden III**	New York City, New York	Bob Cousy, Boston Celtics
1955	East 100, West 91	Madison Square Garden III** (2)	New York City, New York (2)	Bill Sharman, Boston Celtics
1956	West 108, East 94	Rochester War Memorial Coliseum	Rochester, New York	Bob Pettit, St. Louis Hawks
1957	East 109, West 97	Boston Garden (3)	Boston, Massachusetts (3)	Bob Cousy (2), Boston Celtics
1958	East 130, West 118	St. Louis Arena	St. Louis, Missouri	Bob Pettit (2), St. Louis Hawks
1959	West 124, East 108	Olympia Stadium	Detroit, Michigan	Elgin Baylor, Minneapolis Lakers Bob Pettit (3), St. Louis Hawks
1960	East 125, West 115	Convention Hall	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Wilt Chamberlain, Philadelphia Warriors
1961	West 153, East 131	Onondaga County War Memorial Coliseum	Syracuse, New York	Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati Royals
1962	West 150, East 130	St. Louis Arena (2)	St. Louis, Missouri (2)	Bob Pettit (4), St. Louis Hawks
1963	East 115, West 108	LA Sports Arena	Los Angeles, California	Bill Russell, Boston Celtics
1964	East 111, West 107	Boston Garden (4)	Boston, Massachusetts (4)	Oscar Robertson (2), Cincinnati Royals
1965	East 124, West 123	St. Louis Arena (3)	St. Louis, Missouri (3)	Jerry Lucas, Cincinnati Royals
1966	East 137, West 94	Cincinnati Gardens	Cincinnati, Ohio	Adrian Smith, Cincinnati Royals
1967	West 135, East 120	Cow Palace	Daly City, California	Rick Barry, San Francisco Warriors
1968	East 144, West 124	Madison Square Garden III** (3)	New York City, New York (3)	Hal Greer, Philadelphia 76ers
1969	East 123, West 112	Baltimore Civic Center	Baltimore, Maryland	Oscar Robertson (3), Cincinnati Royals
1970	East 142, West 135	The Spectrum	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2)	Willis Reed, New York Knicks
1971	West 108, East 107	San Diego Sports Arena	San Diego, California	Lenny Wilkens, Seattle SuperSonics
1972	West 112, East 110	The Forum	Inglewood, California	Jerry West, Los Angeles Lakers
1973	East 104, West 84	Chicago Stadium	Chicago, Illinois	Dave Cowens, Boston Celtics
1974	West 134, East 123	Seattle Center Coliseum	Seattle, Washington	Bob Lanier, Detroit Pistons
1975	East 108, West 102	Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum	Phoenix, Arizona	Walt Frazier, New York Knicks
1976	East 123, West 109	The Spectrum (2)	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (3)	Dave Bing, Washington Bullets
1977	West 125, East 124	Milwaukee Arena	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Julius Erving, Philadelphia 76ers
1978	East 133, West 125	Omni Coliseum	Atlanta, Georgia	Randy Smith, Buffalo Braves
1979	West 134, East 129	Pontiac Silverdome	Pontiac, Michigan†	David Thompson, Denver Nuggets
1980	East 144, West 136 (OT)	Capital Centre	Landover, Maryland	George Gervin, San Antonio Spurs
1981	East 123, West 120	Coliseum at Richfield	Richfield, Ohio	Nate Archibald, Boston Celtics
1982	East 120, West 118	Brendan Byrne Arena	East Rutherford, New Jersey	Larry Bird, Boston Celtics
1983	East 132, West 123	The Forum (2)	Inglewood, California (2)	Julius Erving (2), Philadelphia 76ers
1984	East 154, West 145 (OT)	McNichols Sports Arena	Denver, Colorado	Isiah Thomas, Detroit Pistons
1985	West 140, East 129	Hoosier Dome	Indianapolis, Indiana†	Ralph Sampson, Houston Rockets
1986	East 139, West 132	Reunion Arena	Dallas, Texas	Isiah Thomas (2), Detroit Pistons
1987	West 154, East 149 (OT)	Kingdome	Seattle, Washington† (2)	Tom Chambers, Seattle SuperSonics
1988	East 138, West 133	Chicago Stadium (2)	Chicago, Illinois (2)	Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls
1989	West 143, East 134	Astrodome	Houston, Texas†	Karl Malone, Utah Jazz
1990	East 130, West 113	Miami Arena	Miami, Florida	Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers
1991	East 116, West 114	Charlotte Coliseum	Charlotte, North Carolina	Charles Barkley, Philadelphia 76ers
1992	West 153, East 113	Orlando Arena§	Orlando, Florida	Magic Johnson (2), Los Angeles Lakers
1993	West 135, East 132 (OT)	Delta Center§	Salt Lake City, Utah	Karl Malone (2), Utah Jazz John Stockton, Utah Jazz
1994	East 127, West 118	Target Center	Minneapolis, Minnesota	Scottie Pippen, Chicago Bulls
1995	West 139, East 112	America West Arena§	Phoenix, Arizona (2)	Mitch Richmond, Sacramento Kings
1996	East 129, West 118	Alamodome	San Antonio, Texas	Michael Jordan (2), Chicago Bulls
1997	East 132, West 120	Gund Arena§	Cleveland, Ohio	Glen Rice, Charlotte Hornets
1998	East 135, West 114	Madison Square Garden***	New York City, New York (4)	Michael Jordan (3), Chicago Bulls
1999	Canceled due to the league's lockout. The game was originally set to play at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[16]
2000	West 137, East 126	The Arena in Oakland	Oakland, California	Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs Shaquille O'Neal, Los Angeles Lakers
2001	East 111, West 110	MCI Center	Washington, D.C.	Allen Iverson, Philadelphia 76ers
2002	West 135, East 120	First Union Center	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (4)	Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
2003	West 155, East 145 (2OT)	Philips Arena	Atlanta, Georgia (2)	Kevin Garnett, Minnesota Timberwolves
2004	West 136, East 132	Staples Center	Los Angeles, California (2)	Shaquille O'Neal (2), Los Angeles Lakers
2005	East 125, West 115	Pepsi Center	Denver, Colorado (2)	Allen Iverson (2), Philadelphia 76ers
2006	East 122, West 120	Toyota Center	Houston, Texas (2)	LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
2007	West 153, East 132	Thomas & Mack Center	Paradise, Nevada*	Kobe Bryant (2), Los Angeles Lakers
2008	East 134, West 128	New Orleans Arena§	New Orleans, Louisiana	LeBron James (2), Cleveland Cavaliers
2009	West 146, East 119	US Airways Center (2)	Phoenix, Arizona (3)	Kobe Bryant (3), Los Angeles Lakers Shaquille O'Neal (3), Phoenix Suns
2010	East 141, West 139	Cowboys Stadium	Arlington, Texas#†	Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat
2011	West 148, East 143	Staples Center (2)	Los Angeles, California (3)	Kobe Bryant (4), Los Angeles Lakers
2012	West 152, East 149	Amway Center (2)	Orlando, Florida (2)	Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder
2013	West 143, East 138	Toyota Center (2)	Houston, Texas (3)	Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
2014	East 163, West 155	Smoothie King Center (2)	New Orleans, Louisiana (2)	Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers
2015	West 163, East 158	Madison Square Garden (2)*** / Barclays Center	New York City, New York (5)	Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder
2016	West 196, East 173	Air Canada Centre	Toronto, Ontario	Russell Westbrook (2), Oklahoma City Thunder
2017	West 192, East 182	Smoothie King Center (3)	New Orleans, Louisiana (3)	Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans
2018[5]	Team LeBron 148, Team Stephen 145	Staples Center (3)	Los Angeles, California (4)	LeBron James (3), Cleveland Cavaliers
2019	Team LeBron 178, Team Giannis 164	Spectrum Center	Charlotte, North Carolina (2)	Kevin Durant (2), Golden State Warriors
2020	Team LeBron 157, Team Giannis 155‡	United Center	Chicago, Illinois (3)	Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers
2021[17]	TBA vs. TBA	Bankers Life Fieldhouse	Indianapolis, Indiana (2)
2022[18]	TBA vs. TBA	Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (2)	Cleveland, Ohio (2)
2023[19]	TBA vs. TBA	Vivint Smart Home Arena (2)	Salt Lake City, Utah (2)

Notes

• * denotes a city without an NBA team in play during that calendar year.
• ** denotes game played at the "third" Madison Square Garden on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, which the first three NBA All-Star Games played in Madison Square Garden (1954, 1955 and 1968) were.
• *** denotes game played at the "fourth" (or current as of 2017) Madison Square Garden that runs from 31st to 33rd Streets from 8th to west of 7th Avenues above the western half of Penn Station in Manhattan that opened in February 1968, approximately one month after the 1968 game was played in the "old" MSG.
• † denotes an NBA All-Star Game that is held at an NFL or MLB stadium.
• § denotes a stadium or arena whose venue name has since changed AND the venue has hosted a subsequent NBA All-Star Game under the alternate name.
• Portland, Sacramento, Memphis, and Oklahoma City are the only current NBA cities that have not yet hosted an NBA All-Star Game.[lower-alpha 1]
• New arenas that have not hosted the All-Star Game are Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, TD Garden in Boston, American Airlines Arena in Miami, Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (set to host the 2021 game), American Airlines Center in Dallas, AT&T Center in San Antonio, Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, and Chase Center in San Francisco.
• # Arlington, Texas does not have an NBA team within its city limits, but it is a part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex that has an NBA team (the Dallas Mavericks).
• ‡ This was the first game played under the Elam scoring format, where instead of a time limit, the fourth quarter would end when either team reached the target score, defined as 24 plus whichever team had more points after three quarters. Team Giannis led 133–124 after three quarters, so the target score was 157. Anthony Davis hit a walk-off free throw to win it.

Other All-Star events

Main article: NBA All-Star Weekend

The All-Star Game is the featured event of All-Star Weekend, and it is held on a Sunday night. All-Star Weekend also includes a number of popular exhibition games and competitions featuring NBA players and alumni as well as players from the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and NBA G League (G League).

See also

• List of NBA All-Stars
• WNBA All-Star Game

Notes

1. Although Brooklyn has not hosted an All-Star Game, New York City has hosted at the third and current Madison Square Gardens, both home to the New York Knicks.

References

1. "How NBA's new voting format determined All-Star starters, snubs". ESPN. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
2. "Anthony snubbed when All-Star reserves announced". espn.com. Associated Press. February 1, 2007. Retrieved February 2, 2007.
3. Barnewall, Chris. "NBA All-Star Game draft results: LeBron James, Stephen Curry select their teams". CBS Sports. CBS. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
4. Smith, Sekou (February 11, 2019). "All-Star Draft filled with surprises and even one trade". NBA. NBA.
5. "No more East vs. West as NBA revamps All-Star Game format". NBA.com. October 3, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
6. Goldstein, Richard (July 3, 2000). "Haskell Cohen, 86, Publicist; Created N.B.A. All-Star Game". The New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
7. Forrester, Paul (February 16, 2007). "That's entertainment; Counting down the top 15 All-Star Weekend moments". Sports Illustrated. Time Warner Company. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
8. Penikis, Andrejs. "57 Memorable All-Star Moments–1950s". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on March 5, 2009. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
9. MacMahon, Tim. "Jones, Cuban hoping to break 100,000". ESPNDallas.com.
10. "Players and media can now vote on NBA All-Star starters". SBNation.com. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
11. Beck, Howard (October 24, 2012). "The All-Star Center is Officially Extinct". New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2012. The N.B.A., bowing to new realities in a multi-positional era, has eliminated "center" from its All-Star ballots for the 2012–13 season. Instead, fans will vote for three frontcourt players and two guards.
12. Vecsey, George (January 12, 2003). "Fans in Shanghai Are Voting in the Mainstream". The New York Times.
13. Stein, Marc (January 18, 2013). "1. Reserve Judgment: Stein's All-Star Benches". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013.
14. "DeMarcus Cousins to replace Kobe Bryant in 2015 NBA All-Star Game" (Press release). NBA. January 30, 2015. Archived from the original on February 2, 2015.
15. "Trivia:NBA Teams with 4 All-Stars".
16. Steele, David (December 9, 1998). "NBA Drops All-Stars — What's Left? February game in Philly latest casualty of lockout". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
17. "Indianapolis selected to host NBA All-Star 2021". NBA.com. December 13, 2017.
18. "Cleveland to host NBA All-Star 2022". NBA.com. November 1, 2018.
19. "Utah Jazz to host NBA All-Star 2023". NBA.com. October 23, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.

External links

• NBA All-Star Game at NBA.com
• NBA All-Star Game at Basketball-Reference.com
• NBA All-Star Game at ESPN.com