You’d have to flip your calendar back to February 13, 2000—nearly a quarter century ago, just six weeks into the supposedly-doomed Y2K meltdown, a time so bygone that the Hyphy Movement hadn’t even reached its spastic crescendo—for the last time the Bay Area hosted an NBA All-Star Weekend. As KQED’s Pendarvis Harshaw wrote, it was a “very different Bay Area” back then.
Since 1965, the annual event has showcased the NBA’s talent in an exhibition game between the league’s top players. Rotating from city to city, the game debuted in Boston Garden as a way to promote the relatively nascent National Basketball Association, and has evolved to include the famed Slam Dunk Contest, a Three-Point Contest and other varieties of challenges, celebrity games and displays of skill.
Surprisingly, since its inception, it has only made its way to the Bay Area twice, and never to San Francisco proper. In 2000, the event took place at Oakland Arena, former home of the Golden State Warriors. Before that, the NBA’s flashy spectacle came to the Bay in 1967, back when the Warriors played at the Cow Palace in Daly City. (The Warriors also hosted the event in 1960 at the Convention Hall in Philadelphia as the Philadelphia Warriors).
This year, the event will return to the Bay for its third appearance, marking the first-ever San Francisco edition. From Friday, Feb. 14 to Sunday, Feb. 16, local and international hoop fans will descend upon Chase Center (and will have an opportunity to revisit Oakland Arena, formerly Oracle Arena) to experience the Association’s 74th annual All-Star Weekend for three days.
What to expect at this year’s NBA All-Star Game in SF
Though not the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star Game (ASG) is among the more culturally significant sporting events every February. The Warriors, helmed by the planet’s greatest three-point specialist and 11-time All-Star in Stephen Curry, will serve as worthy flag bearers on both sides of the Bay Bridge.
Having lost its potency in recent years—in 2023, the NBA ASG hit a 20-year low point in viewership—the league’s commissioner Adam Silver has been scrambling to resuscitate the somewhat anachronistic showcase of otherworldly athleticism. The MLB, NHL, NFL and other major sporting leagues with All-Star festivities have been struggling with ratings as well. And yet, host cities continue to benefit. The NBA’s All-Star bonanza helped Salt Lake City, Utah, gain an estimated $280 million during one weekend in 2023, with a record-breaking 33,000 hotel reservations near the city’s arena.
Former San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared “135,000 visitors and $350 million in economic impact” could be seen from the ASG’s visit. Such an influx of fans and robust spending bodes well for San Francisco, a city that has dealt with its fair share of criticism and naysayers of late.
Outside of basketball, Pier 48 will host a concert series that weekend—which, hey, could be more Bay-oriented.
Not to be forgotten, Oakland—the 47-year headquarters for the Dubs—will also play a part by hosting the Celebrity Game and other events on Friday. NBA executives were vocal about paying homage to The Town, with Warriors President Brandon Schneider stating, “We say we’re the Bay’s team, but we like to show it.”
Most notably for basketball fans, this year’s ASG will introduce a new set of rules and a completely different structure from prior ASGs. Rather than the traditional East versus West format, in which the highest performing players from each conference take each other on, the game will take place as a “pickup-style” tournament.
Two rounds will be played by four separate teams (three All-Star squads consisting of eight players each, and the fourth team being derived from the winners of the Rising Stars game earlier that weekend).
Though a bit confusing (or, what some sportswriters have dubbed a “weird disaster”), the one-day tournament hopes to generate more buzz, excitement, and competition among players and fans alike.
A history of ballers in the Bay
It’s easy to forget that Warriors haven’t always been belles of the ball (no pun intended). For most of their tenure in Oakland, they were a cellar-dwelling basketball organization that regularly ended each season at the bottom of the league’s rankings.
In 2000, when the NBA last brought its national event to the region, Warriors fans famously booed Chris Cohan, the team’s owner-at-the time. With an abysmal performance that year, the team failed to produce an All-Star player, and had zero representatives across all events, considered an act of blasphemy in the world of hoops.
The most notable occurrence that year came from an Oaklander by proxy. Isaiah Rider, who was born in Oakland and raised in nearby Alameda, made his mark in the NBA after winning the 1994 Slam Dunk Contest in his debut All-Star appearance, which took place in Minnesota. His signature move, known as “East Bay Funk Dunk,” required the 6-foot-5 Rider to launch himself toward the rim while shuttling the ball between his legs midair and then reaching skyward to throw the ball back down through the cylinder in one swift, uninterrupted motion.
In Oakland, Vince Carter, who was a rising star in his own right, delivered the ultimate homage to Rider by replicating “East Bay Funk Dunk” in Rider’s hometown.Carter’s iconic remix of Rider’s between-the-legs throwdown has graced posters and highlight reels ever since. It’s even the current logo for Toronto’s alternate uniforms and court design.
Outside of that, you’d have to travel to Daly City, circa 1967, for the only time a Warrior has appeared in an ASG in the Bay Area. That’s when Warriors’ star Rick Barry dropped 38 points on his way to becoming the game’s Most Valuable Player, leading his Western unit to victory against the heavily favored Eastern Division.
The contest also saw the NBA’s only coach ejection in ASG history, when Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics was tossed, despite having retired nearly a year prior after claiming 10 championships with the Celtics. In the strangest of scenarios, the coach who had been selected to lead the Eastern Division was fired from the Philadelphia 76ers days prior, so Auerbach—a notoriously competitive, hard nosed Hall of Famer—came out of retirement for the one-day job. He didn’t last, getting booted after he called out the referees.
There likely won’t be an ejection (it’s only happened once in 74 years!) or another Vince Carter-like performance (he’s known as Half Man Half Amazing for a reason), but with a redesigned in-game format and a slew of basketball celebrities coming to San Francisco for the once-a-year hoops fest, there will be no shortage of on- and off-court entertainment.
