Where to buy tickets, players, prices

From Friday, Feb. 17, through Sunday, Feb. 19, Salt Lake City’s Vivint Smart Home Arena will be home to hoops heaven, aka NBA All-Star weekend.

Of course, the main attraction is Sunday evening’s NBA All-Star Game, where captains Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks and LeBron James of the Lakers (playing in his record-breaking 19th consecutive All-Star Game) will select their squads on the spot.

They’ve got quite a bit of talent to choose from, too — other starters voted in by fans include the Pelicans’ Zion Williamson, the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, the Mavericks’ Luka Doncic and the Warriors’ Steph Curry from the Western Conference.

Repping the Eastern Conference are the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum, the Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell and the Nets’ Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

And that’s just the starters.

Reserves won’t be announced until Feb. 2.

If you guessed it wouldn’t be cheap to see that much talent all at once, you’d be right.

At the time of publication, the lowest price we could find on NBA All-Star Game tickets was $1234 before fees on Vivid Seats.

For those hoping to get closer to the action, lower-level seats start at $3192 before fees.

All prices are subject to fluctuation.

But there’s still so much more.

There’s the Dunk Contest as part of NBA All-Star Saturday Night, the NBA Rising All-Stars Challenge on Friday, then the All-Star Celebrity Game.

So, keep reading. We’ve got the scoop on each event below.

Ruffles NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

Although the celebrities haven’t been announced for this year’s contest yet, there is typically an eclectic mix of former NBA’ers, NFL Players, singers, Olympians, comedians and occasionally politicians.

You wouldn’t believe it, but in 2014, the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, squared up against Victoria’s Secret model Erin Heatherton.

Last year, the biggest names on the bill were rappers Machine Gun Kelly, Quavo and Jack Harlow, as well as comedian Tiffany Haddish and Peloton instructor Alex Toussaint.

Best of all, tickets to this game on Friday night at Salt Lake City’s Hunstman Center won’t require you to take out a loan.

Prices start at $18 before fees, and some lower-level seats are going for as low as $29 before fees on Vivid Seats.

NBA All-Star Rising Stars Challenge

Friday night’s Rising Stars Challenge is the official title of the Rookie Game, where the league’s best first and second-year players compete for bragging rights.

Tickets can be snagged for $59 before fees to see the future stars before they become household names.

Wanna sit in the lower-level?

We found tickets going for $242 before fees.

NBA All-Star Practice

If going to the big game isn’t in your budget, you can still see all the NBA’s most elite stars go toe to toe at Saturday’s afternoon practice.

For just $59 before fees, you can see LeBron post up, Nikola go iso on Luka and any other number of hypothetical scenarios that probable coaches Joe Mazzulla and Michael Malone dream up.

Lower-level seats will run you $146 before fees.

NBA All-Star Saturday Night

Saturday night is when things get really fun.

The annual skills challenge, made up of the Dunk Contest, Three-Point Contest and, yes, the Skills Challenge, generally draws more “oohs, ahhs, and whoas” than the games themselves.

To see the highest fliers, sharpest shooters and crispest passers, tickets start at $916 before fees.

$2426 before fees is the cheapest lower-level seat we spotted.

NBA G League Next Up Game

This year’s G-League game features a familiar name.

Representing the South Bay Lakers is Scotty Pippen Jr.

Yes, that Scotty Pippen’s son.

Other notable players set to take the court include Isaiah Mobley, Luka Garza, Kenneth Lofton Jr. (no relation to the MLB’er), Charles Bassey and Gui Santos.

Tickets to the Sunday afternoon event at the Huntsman Center start at $23 before fees — all tickets are General Admission.

How to watch the NBA All-Star Weekend festivities

If you can’t make it out to Salt Lake City last minute, don’t worry.

You can catch the All-Star game on TNT.

No announcements have been made about which station will broadcast the other events.

Huge concert tours in 2023

Sadly, NBA All-Star weekend comes only once every February.

On the other hand, huge concerts drop into cities all over the country year-round.

Here are just five tours we’re most excited about that may be coming to a venue near you soon.

• SZA

• A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie

• Lizzo

• Lil Durk

• Usher

Want even more options? Check out our list of the 52 biggest concert tours in 2023 here.