.jpg){kind=link}
Upcoming NBA All-Star Game dates
Dates and live ticket listings appear here as soon as they are on sale. The guide below covers what to know before you buy.
All-Star seats decided: sideline, baseline or upper level
For the NBA All-Star Game itself, a lower-bowl sideline seat gives the best view of the game, the introductions and the halftime show. If that is out of reach, take a center-court seat in the upper level, which keeps the whole floor in front of you. The 2027 game goes to Phoenix at Mortgage Matchup Center, a building with roughly 17,071 basketball seats, so supply is tight for a national event.
- Lower-bowl sideline: the strongest all-around seat for Sunday.
- Behind the baskets: the closest look at Saturday's dunks, a flatter view of Sunday's half-court play.
- Upper level, center court: the whole floor and the full production in one view.
- Courtside and front rows: rarely on the open market, since celebrities, guests and broadcast crews fill them.
Matching the seat to the night you buy
All-Star Weekend is usually three separately ticketed nights, and a Sunday ticket does not cover Saturday. Each night favors a different part of the arena.
Friday: Celebrity Game and Rising Stars
The Celebrity Game, a fixture since 2003, puts former NBA players, WNBA stars, entertainers and athletes from other sports on one court. The Rising Stars Challenge showcases rookies, second-year players and prospects from the NBA G League. Friday is usually the easiest night to get into, and a lower-bowl seat that would be out of reach on Sunday can be realistic here.
Saturday: All-Star Saturday Night
Dunks and three-point shooting are the main draws. Shooting Stars, a team shooting event last held in 2015 after debuting in 2004, replaced the Skills Challenge when it returned in 2026. Sit behind a basket to see dunks coming at you, or at center court to follow the three-point racks on both ends.
Sunday: the game
Sunday is when every All-Star plays, so it pulls the most demand of the weekend. Sideline seats in either level pay off here.
The three nights can be in different arenas. The 2026 Celebrity Game, for example, used the Kia Forum, not Intuit Dome, so confirm each ticket's venue before you book a room.
Seats with a catch at an exhibition built for TV
Introductions come with stage lighting, a DJ, temporary stages and pyrotechnics, and halftime stretches out for a musical performance. That staging can take over part of the floor or a baseline. If a listing mentions a limited or obstructed view, assume it is real for this event. Low corner seats near staging areas carry the most risk; a few rows higher usually clears the problem.
Supply, demand and the 2027 Phoenix arena
Most fans have no season-ticket path to the All-Star Game. In 2026 the NBA routed All-Star buyers through NBATickets.com, a Ticketmaster-run storefront, and a large share of public access came through resale, where demand sets the price.
Arena size shapes 2027. Mortgage Matchup Center holds fewer basketball fans than the 18,300 at Intuit Dome, the 2026 host, and the event draws visitors from around the country into that one building. Watch these signals:
- Starter announcements in January and reserve announcements in early February move interest.
- Late roster swaps for injuries can lift or cool demand for Sunday.
- Saturday often offers the best return on the ticket: quick contests, simple scoring, and the same building as Sunday.
Every Reserved Seat order is covered by a 100% guarantee, useful on a high-profile resale purchase.
Today's All-Star format and how players are chosen
Each year 24 players make the team. A weighted ballot picks the starters, with fans counting for half and current players and media for a quarter each. Reserves come from the head coaches, who may not vote for their own players. If someone is hurt, the commissioner chooses the replacement.
The format keeps changing:
- Through 2017: East vs. West.
- 2018 to 2023: captains drafted teams across conferences. Starting in 2020, the last quarter had no clock: the Elam Ending set a target score, and the first team to it won.
- 2024: East vs. West again.
- 2025: four teams, one of them the Rising Stars champion, played a bracket of games to 40 points.
- 2026: three teams, two American squads and one World squad, played 12-minute round-robin games, and the top two met in a final. USA Stars won it over USA Stripes; Anthony Edwards took MVP honors.
Defense stays light until a game tightens, so scores run far above a regular-season game. The short-game formats have produced more close finishes than the old four-quarter setup.
Phoenix logistics: rail, hotels and timing
Mortgage Matchup Center stands on East Jefferson Street (number 201) in the center of downtown Phoenix. Two Valley Metro Rail stations sit within walking distance, 3rd Street/Jefferson for eastbound trains and 3rd Street/Washington for westbound ones, so a hotel along the rail line can work as well as one beside the arena. The Suns and the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA both play here. The arena first opened in 1992 under the America West Arena name and went through several renamings, the latest being Footprint Center (2021 to 2025).
- Book early: fan events, parties and media spread across the host city, and nearby hotels fill first.
- Get there well before tipoff on Sunday: the introductions run first, and screening a full house takes time.
- Bags: bag rules belong to the arena, not the league, and a special event can tighten them; confirm the current arena policy before the trip.
- Start times: they follow the broadcast. In 2026, NBC moved the games to a 5 p.m. Eastern start because of its Winter Olympics coverage.
Official schedules appear on the NBA All-Star site as the league releases them.
All-Star history in brief
The game was a 1951 bet on publicity. With the league trying to recover fans lost to the college point-shaving scandal, three men pushed the idea: league president Maurice Podoloff, publicist Haskell Cohen and Walter A. Brown, the Celtics' owner, who offered his building and promised to absorb any loss. On March 2, 1951, the Boston Garden crowd of 10,094 nearly tripled that season's typical attendance of roughly 3,500. The East beat the West 111–94.
- 2000: the first musical halftime show.
- 2010: Arlington, Texas, packed 108,713 people into Cowboys Stadium, still the largest crowd ever for a basketball game.
- 2017: New Orleans stepped in after the league pulled the game out of Charlotte over North Carolina's House Bill 2. Charlotte got the 2019 game instead.
- 2026: the LA Clippers hosted on their own for the first time, at Intuit Dome on February 15.
- 2027: Phoenix, announced by the league on March 7, 2024.
Two franchises are still waiting for a turn as host: Portland and Memphis.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best seat for the NBA All-Star Game?
A lower-bowl sideline seat shows the game, introductions and halftime best. An upper-level seat at center court is the practical alternative when lower seats are scarce.
Is All-Star Saturday Night worth buying instead of Sunday?
For many fans, yes. Saturday's contests move quickly and are simple to follow, and the night usually draws less demand than Sunday.
Do I need separate tickets for each All-Star night?
Usually yes. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are typically ticketed separately, and some years they use different venues.
Which arena hosts the All-Star Game in 2027?
The Suns' downtown Phoenix arena, Mortgage Matchup Center. Since 2022 the game has fallen on the third Sunday in February.
How are All-Star starters selected?
A weighted vote: fans count for half, and current players and media count for a quarter each. Head coaches choose the reserves.
Which NBA cities have never hosted the All-Star Game?
Memphis and Portland. Every other franchise has had at least one turn as host.