NBA All-Star Weekend is a 3-day weekend affair, made up of six different NBA games or challenge events, culminating in the big All-Star Game on Sunday night.
NBA All-Star Game
The NBA All-Star Game airs live on TNT on Sunday night in primetime, the final event of the All-Star Weekend. The best 24 players in the league face off for charity. Both teams have a chance to win every quarter to keep the game competitive throughout. Teams are decided through a draft, selected by the top vote-getters from each conference.
Saturday Night Events
The Saturday before the All-Star Game has three very popular events - the skills challenge, the three-point contest and the slam dunk contest.
All three events air back to back Saturday evening at 9PM ET on TNT.
The skills challenge airs first.
This is an event that starts with eight NBA players, facing off two at a time to finish an obstacle course with basketballs to get the fastest time. They keep going and ramping up until there is a winner.
The three-point contest comes next.
Again you have eight different NBA players in this event, each shooting three-point shots from five different spots behind the arc. The players with the highest scores advance until there is a winner. Some balls are worth more points than others, called 'money balls', usually multi-colored basketballs.
Finally you get the slam dunk contest.
It's exactly what it sounds like. This event only has four NBA players in it; four NBA players known for their dunking prowess. A panel of judges scores the dunks from each player, and each player gets two dunks, and three attempts per dunk. One dunk is pure skill and the other pure creativity. Whichever player gets the highest combined score is the slam dunk champion.
Friday Night Events
The Friday before the NBA All-Star Game has two different events - the Celebrity All-Star Game and the Rising Stars Challenge, both of which you can watch on TV or live stream online.
The Celebrity All-Star Game
This celebrity-filled game airs live on ESPN Friday night at 7PM ET. This game features actors, musicians and entertainers in general playing in an NBA-style game. You can also see former NBA players and current WNBA players in the game as well. Coaches can be celebrities or well known sports broadcasters or sports personalities in general. All in good fun.
The Rising Stars Challenge
This event airs live on TNT Friday night at 9PM ET. This game features current NBA players that are still in their first two years in the league, to highlight the 'rising' talent the league has in store for the future. This game has evolved to a format of World v USA teams, highlighting all the international talent that has joined the league the last several years.