National Basketball Association All-Star Game
The NBA All-Star Game is an exhibition game hosted annually by the National Basketball Association (NBA), matching the league's star players from the Eastern Conference against their counterparts from the Western Conference. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend. 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 as the coach of the respective conference in the All-Star Game. However, regardless of record, a head coach cannot serve as an All-Star head coach in two consecutive seasons. Known as the "Riley Rule," it is due to the fact that former head coach Pat Riley's Los Angeles Lakers teams of the 1980s won so often that Riley ended up earning the right to coach the Western Conference team eight times in nine seasons (1982 to 1990). In the event a coach's team repeats as the best record holder, the head coach from the team with the second-best record will serve as All-Star coach for that conference.
Read more about National Basketball Association All-Star Game: History, Features of The All-Star Game, All-Star Game Results, Other All-Star Events, See Also
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