From left to right, Golden State Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, pose for a photograph next to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Golden State Warriors President Brandon Schneider after announcing the 2025 All-Star game will be hosted at the Chase Center, at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO — The NBA All-Star Game is returning to the Bay Area in 2025 for the first time in a quarter century, commissioner Adam Silver announced Monday afternoon from the court inside Chase Center, but the Warriors’ glistening, $1.4 billion waterfront arena wasn’t the only draw.
The economy of Steph Curry might be even larger.
“Being honest, that’s something that came as part of the package, to still be here in Steph’s prime,” Silver said. “Steph has such global appeal that everywhere he goes, the games sell out. People want to see him in every market he’s in. … I’d say it’s a true bonus that we’re coming here while we’re still in Steph’s prime.”
Curry will be a month away from turning 37 when the NBA’s 74th All-Star Game takes place in his home arena, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025. The game — the third iteration hosted by the Bay Area, joining Daly City’s Cow Palace in 1967 and the Oakland Arena in 2000 — will act as the culmination of a weekend of festivities that spans both sides of the Bay, a nod to the Warriors’ extensive history in Oakland, where they won three of their championships and called home from 1971 to 2019.
While the game itself will take place inside Chase Center, the Oakland Arena will host Friday’s celebrity game before an jam-packed All-Star Saturday, with an open practice for the All-Star teams, the HBCU Classic and the G League Up Next game all taking place across the Bay.
On stage with the commissioner and executives from the Warriors was San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who suggested that the game will bring 135,000 visitors and $350 million in economic impact to the city. She pumped her fist when Silver made the announcement official. But in the audience, in the first row of seats to her right, were the mayors from Oakland and San Jose, Sheng Thao and Matt Mahan.
“We view this still as the Bay Area’s team,” Silver said. “I heard it directly from the mayor. She’s very appreciative that we think of the Warriors still as a team for the entire community, not just San Francisco and not even just Oakland for that matter. I just think for us, it’s a recognition that we’re fortunate to have such great success from the whole area. We want to make sure that we’re not forgetting our fans everywhere in the area. It’s not just about the city of San Francisco.”
While Silver said “there was no arm twisting involved,” the idea to involve the Warriors’ former home stemmed from their ownership group.
“We say we’re the Bay’s team, but we like to show it,” President and COO Brandon Schneider said. “To be able to say we’re going to host events here at Chase Center but there are great venues in Oakland and other parts of the Bay Area, so to be able to integrate that and be part of the special weekend was really, really important to us and to our fans, quite frankly.”
Securing an All-Star Game was the last thing to check off the list for the ownership group that purchased the team in 2009, co-executive chairman Peter Guber said. They won three championships, opened a palatial arena and then christened it with another NBA title.
“You dream of these things when you start the process 14 years ago, way back in Oakland,” Guber said. “We always envisioned building a new venue; we did it, a world-class venue. We always envisioned having a great team; we did it, the Warriors. We always envisioned having a great fan base that was all of the Bay Area; we did it, and we’ve been successful together with all of you and the whole community.
“But we also promised ourselves that we would bring the All-Star Game back to San Francisco and we would bring it with style and great grace.”
Compared to the 1967 game, hosted at the Cow Palace, CEO Joe Lacob said, “We like to think this is a little bit of an upgrade.”
This year’s game, which takes place in Indianapolis, will return to the traditional Eastern vs. Western conference matchup, moving away from the player draft of recent years, and focus on “just straight up basketball,” Silver said. More changes could be coming to the format by the time it arrives in San Francisco next February.
“People are out there talking about concepts about a Ryder Cup-type format. Maybe U.S. players against global players,” Silver said. “I just know we’re looking at all different approaches to All-Star, and this is a great market to try new things. When you think of innovation, you think of the Bay Area. Stay tuned.”
The last time the Bay Area hosted All-Star weekend, the most memorable moment involving the Warriors were the boos that rained down on then-owner Chris Cohan. The team was so dreadful — a 19-63 finish — that no players participated in the game or any of the weekend’s festivities.
Instead, the most notable on-court action came from Vince Carter, who turned in his legendary dunk contest performance.
“It would be hard to forget that Vince Carter slam dunk contest,” Silver said.
But another memory stuck out for Silver and many of the attendees who were on hand for the festivities in 2000.
“I do remember the rain,” Silver said. “It was a very rainy weekend. Some people had trouble moving around.”
This time, there should be more local participation, with Curry showing no signs of slowing down.
“I think in some ways the fans here in the Bay Area are a bit spoiled because they get to see Steph play and warm up all the time,” Silver said. “They get to see him play golf. They get to see just how multidimensional he is.”
The rain, they hope, stays away.
Except, of course, unless Curry wants to unleash a storm in front of his home fans. He looks ageless now, but it won’t last forever.
“Wait, Steph’s not going to be playing in five years or seven years?” Joe Lacob joked. “What I think we’re really looking forward to, we have this game here locally and our own Steph Curry, hopefully, is in this game. He put 50 on in Cleveland — 16 3s, I think it was — maybe we can see something even greater when he gets to play (in an All-Star Game) in front of his home fans. That would be one of my great wishes for it.”
Originally published at Evan Webeck