NBA All-Star Game

National Basketball Association All-Star Game
Frequency	Annual
Inaugurated	1951
Most recent	2016 (Toronto)
Previous event	2015 (New York City)
Next event	2017 (New Orleans)
Participants	Eastern Conference and Western Conference All-Stars
Organized by	National Basketball Association

The NBA All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February by the National Basketball Association (NBA), matching the league's star players from the Eastern Conference against their counterparts from the Western Conference. Each conference team consists of 12 players, making it 24 in total. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend. NBA All-Star Weekend is a three-day event which goes from Friday to Sunday. The All-Star game was first staged at the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951.

The starting lineup for each squad is selected by a fan ballot, while the reserves are chosen by a vote among the head coaches from each squad's respective conference. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players. If a selected player is injured and cannot participate, the NBA commissioner selects a replacement.

The head coach of the team with the best record in each conference is chosen to lead their respective conference in the All-Star Game, with a prohibition against repeat appearances. Known as the "Riley Rule", it was created after perennially successful Los Angeles Lakers head coach Pat Riley earned the right to coach the Western Conference team eight times in nine seasons between 1982 and 1990. The coach of the team with the next best record serves instead.

The 2017 All-Star weekend was originally awarded to Charlotte, North Carolina. On March 23, 2016, North Carolina passed House Bill 2 as a remedy to Charlotte Ordinance 7056. This led to the NBA threatening to pull the game from Charlotte if the bill was not repealed or revised so as to not discriminate against the LGBT community. The NBA announced on July 21, 2016 that the game will be moved from Charlotte to New Orleans.

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