The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and showcases 24 of the league's star players. Since 2022, it was held on the third Sunday of February, the same day that the Daytona 500 was held, and one week after the Super Bowl. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend, a three-day event which goes from Friday to Sunday. The All-Star Game was first played at the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951.
2007 NBA All Star Game in Las Vegas
An exhibition game is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or the team's rankings is either zero or otherwise greatly reduced. Exhibition games often serve as "warm-up matches", particularly in many team sports where these games help coaches and managers select and condition players, before the competitive matches of a league season or tournament. If the players usually play in different teams in other leagues, exhibition games offer an opportunity for the players to learn to work with each other. The games can be held between separate teams or between parts of the same team.
Sydney FC playing a friendly match against the Los Angeles Galaxy at ANZ Stadium in November 2007
A friendly match in Vietnam
Exhibition game of veterans of FC Spartak Moscow against Team of Severodvinsk in Russia
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi taking part in ceremonies before a Portugal–Argentina friendly in Switzerland, 2011