- NBA All-Stars Back In a New York Groove as New York Takes Center Court for a Fifth Time -
New York - Feb. 11, 2015 – NBA All-Star 2015 will bring together the league’s most talented players for a global celebration of basketball, transforming ‘The Big Apple’ into the center of the basketball universe. Three days of live game action will be on display at Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center, culminating with the 64th NBA All-Star Game at The Garden on Sunday, Feb. 15.
TNT will televise the All-Star Game for a 13th consecutive year, marking Turner Sports' 30th season of All-Star coverage. Fans in 215 countries and territories and in 47 languages will be able to experience the NBA All-Star celebration through television and radio networks and digital technologies around the world, including TNT, ESPN and NBA Digital domestically.
NBA All-Star in New York
· 5 - NYC has hosted five NBA All-Star Games (1954, 1955, 1968, 1998, 2015), tying Los Angeles for most ever
· 1 Million - NBA will reach more than one million youth in NYC through its season long NBA Cares All-Star community outreach efforts
· 216 - NBA All-Star 2015 will feature 216 current NBA players and legends participating in events, including 41 members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
· 600,000 - NBA and MTA will distribute 600,000 special double-sided MetroCards with the motto for this year’s event: “New York Takes Center Court”
· 500 - More than 500 NYC basketball legends featured on the History of New York City Basketball interactive map, available via NBA.com, NBA All-Star NYC app and NBA Game Time app
· 11,100 - NBA and its partners will canvas NYC with more than 11,100 prominent creative installations, including giant billboards, building wraps, wrapped subway cars, and dynamic signage across the city’s busiest and most high-profile locations
All-Star Global Reach
· 1,800 - More than 1,800 media will cover NBA All-Star 2015, including a record 534 international media
· 19 - Nineteen television and radio networks will broadcast live during All-Star with on-site commentary in languages including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Japanese, Greek and Mandarin
· 39 - 39 of the top players born in 1997 from 23 countries around the world will travel to NBA All- Star 2015 for the inaugural Basketball without Borders (BWB) Global Camp
NBA on TNT and NBA Digital
· 20 - NBA All-Star 2015 will mark TNT NBA play-by-play commentator Marv Albert’s 20th NBA All-Star Game, including the 1968 NBA All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden
· 1998 - Four TNT/NBA TV analysts – Grant Hill (15 pts), Reggie Miller (14), Shaquille O’Neal (12) and Steve Smith (14) – played in the 1998 NBA All-Star Game, the last time NYC hosted
· 4 - Fans will be able to choose their own collection of the four greatest NBA players of all time with NBA.com’s new meme generator, NBA Mt. Rushmore
NBA Social Media
· 780M - More than 780 million followers and likes combined across all league, team, and player pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Sina, and Tencent will have access to All-Star content
NBA Players/Coaches
· 2 - NBA All-Star 2015 will mark first time in NBA history two brothers have been selected as starters; Chicago’s Pau Gasol will start for the East and Memphis’ Marc Gasol will start for the West. The Gasol brothers are also the first two Europeans voted All-Star Game starters by fans
· 17/15 - Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (2nd all time) and Spurs’ Tim Duncan (tied for 3 rd all time) have been selected to their 17th and 15th All-Star Games, respectively
· 1 - Golden State’s Steve Kerr will be the first coach to lead an All-Star team in his first NBA season since Indiana’s Larry Bird guided the Eastern Conference in 1998