2023 NBA All-Star Sunday schedule: Today’s game, times, TV, online - how to watch

Team Giannis will play Team LeBron on the NBA All-Star Game tipping off at the Vivint Arena at 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 PT.

How can I watch the 2023 NBA All-Star Game?

• Date: Sunday, February 19
• Time: 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 PT
• Venue: Vivint Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah
• TV: TNT
• Live Stream: TNT website

AS USA brings you 2023 NBA All-Star Game live

You can follow all the action from the NBA All-Star Game live here on AS USA, with our minute-by-minute coverage. We’ll be building up to tip-off from the All-Star Draft which takes place an hour before, with team news and analysis, so no matter where you are, so long as your phone’s connected you can find out exactly how things are going.

History of the All-Star Game

The best players of the NBA will go head-to-head for this year’s All-Star Game, with team captains James LeBron of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks at the helm. The game caps off a weekend of basketball excitement, and has evolved from the time the All-Star Game was conceived.

The first contest took place in 1951, when 24 of the league’s best were divided into two teams- the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.

Sold-out stadiums

It turned out that basketball fans were eager to see all their favorite players on the court at the same time. That first game held at the Boston Garden was a success, drawing a crowd of more than 10,000.

Since then, the NBA All-Star Game has continued to attract fans into the arena, setting records for audience attendance, reaching more than 100,000 in 2010- a record for audience size for a basketball game at that time.

However, the Games were sometimes viewed as non-competitive, with some stars putting in lackadaisical performances. Something had to be done to make the contest more dynamic.

The NBA makes a change

The league decided to inject some pizzazz into the game by changing the composition of the teams to shake things up. In 2018, squads were no longer divided by conference; instead, the players with the most votes per conference were to be declared team captains who would draft their members from the pool of All-Star starters and reserves, regardless of conference.

The changes have been received positively, and have generated the interest of the fans. For the first time, the draft takes place right before the big game.

Star-studded show

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Despite the perception of non-competitiveness, these exhibition games have provided countless exciting plays by NBA icons through the years.

Game MVPs in the past include NBA legends such as Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant.