The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) 73rd annual All-Star Weekend will take place this weekend from Feb. 16-18. The All-Star Weekend is meant to celebrate the NBA’s best players and entertain fans. This will include the All-Star Game, skills challenge, three-point challenge, dunk contest, rising stars game and celebrity game. The weekend will take place in Indianapolis for the first time since 1985 in the Indiana Pacers arena, Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The weekend kicks off with the Ruffles All-Star Celebrity Game on Friday, Feb. 16, featuring NFL Hall-of-Famer Shannon Sharpe’s “team Shannon” and ESPN analyst Stephen. A. Smith’s “team Stephen A.” The game features professional athletes such as CJ Stroud, Micah Parson and Metta World Peace, but also well-known social media influencers Tristian Jass, Lilly Singh, and Kai Cenat. The game will be played just like an average basketball game, with celebrities in place of professional players.
Later that Friday night, The Panini Rising Stars tournament begins. However, the tournament has new rules this year: it consists of four teams, each led by a former NBA or WNBA player instead of the old Rookies vs Sophomores style. Whoever scores 40 points first in the semifinal games advances to the championship game where the winner is decided by whichever team scores 25 points first.
On Saturday, the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night takes place. The night begins with the KIA Skills Challenge, consisting of three teams: Team Pacers, Team Top Picks and Team All-Stars, facing off in a series of challenges such as obstacle courses, shooting drills and passing accuracy tests. After that, the Starry Three-Point Contest has eight contestants, headlined by defending champion Damian Lillard, competing against each other for who can make the most three-point shots out of 27 opportunities in a minute. To end the night, the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest concludes the activities with a contest of four players who try to have the most creative dunks. The dunks are scored by former NBA and WNBA players and coaches. Last year’s champion, Mac McClung returns to defend his title against Jaylen Brown, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Jacob Toppin.
The All-Star Game is the only event taking place on Sunday. The game is returning to its old format of Eastern Conference vs Western Conference. This year’s captains are two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo leading the Eastern team and four-time NBA Champion LeBron James leading the Western team. The game will go back to how it was pre-pandemic and will have four 12-minute quarters and will be like a regular NBA basketball game.
