All-Star Weekend 2023 is here! Find out everything you need to know

This year’s annual NBA All-Star Game is just around the corner. The All-Star Weekend will take place from 17-19 February and this time it will bring some exciting new features. This will be the 72nd All-Star Weekend, which is sure to enhance the short month of February. You know how the unofficial NBA saying goes? The real season doesn’t start until after the All-Star game. Here’s what you need to know about it in this week’s Grosbasket blog.

All-Star 2023

This year’s All-Star Weekend will take place in Salt Lake City (Utah), more precisely at the Vivint Arena. As tradition dictates, all eyes will be on the All-Star Game, the Rising Stars Game, AT&T Slam Dunk contest, Kia Skills Challenge and the 3-Point contest.

The All-Star game will once again be in the spotlight

We all know it and we all look forward to it. This year’s all-star game will again follow the format introduced by Adam Silver. Team LeBron and Team Giannis will compete to win the first three quarters. Each of the quarters will start at 0 points and the winner of each will be the team that scores the most points in 12 minutes. Then the fourth and final quarter will begin. At this point, a Final Target Score will be set, which will be the total points scored by the leading team in the three previous quarters, plus 24 points in honour of Kobe Bryant. Example: If the leading team scores 100 points in three quarters, the 24 points added will mean the All-Star game is played to 124 points. It is worth noting that the last quarter has no time limit.

The starting five at the All-Star game

The most exciting new feature of this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend is the selection of the teams. We were once used to EAST vs. WEST and have almost gotten used to the drawing of the two captains, but now we will get it in a slightly different form. LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo will draw their teams right before the game.

The so-called “starters” were chosen by a large group of people. 50% of the votes were cast by the fans in a ballot that took place between 20 December and 20 January. NBA players and members of the media each had 25% of the vote in selecting the top five. Together, they decided on two captains and the remaining eight members.

The head coaches of the teams will be Mike Malone (Denver Nuggets) and Joe Mazzulla (Boston Celtics).

Western conference starters in the All-Star game:

Eastern conference starters in the All-Star game:

Reserves for the All-Star game

14 more reserves were selected from each NBA conference, a task for the 30 NBA coaches. NBA League Commissioner Adam Silver will again have the responsibility of selecting a basketball player to fill in for any missing members. We learned about them at the beginning of February. The 14 basketball players are:

Eastern Conference:

Western Conference:

2023 All-Star Weekend schedule

The full schedule of the most action-packed weekend of the NBA season. Game times in brackets are adjusted to Central European Time (CET).

Friday, 17 February

  • Jordan Rising Stars training (at 20:30)
  • Basketball Hall of Fame (conference at 23:30)
  • NBA Hall of Fame Game (01:00 Saturday night)
  • Rising Stars game (03:00 Saturday night)

Saturday, 18 February

  • NBA All-Star practice and Media Day (at 19:00)
  • NBA x HBCU Classic (at 22:00)
  • Conference of Commissioner Adam Silver (at 01:00 on Sunday night)
  • Kia Skills Challenge (first event), Starry 3-Point Contest (second event), AT&T Slam Dunk (third event) at 02:00 on Sunday night)

Sunday, 19 February

  • NBA Legends Awards (19:00)
  • NBA G League Next Up Game (at 21:00)
  • All-Star Draft Presented by Jordan Brand (at 01:30 on Monday night)
  • 72nd NBA All-Star Game (at 02:00 on Monday night)

And for the readers of the Grosbasket blog, we have two questions for you this time around! Who else do you think deserved a spot in the All-Star game and which team will you be rooting for in mid-February?