LOS ANGELES — It doesn’t take much to get Steve Ballmer excited, but the Clippers’ owner was especially pumped Tuesday.
That’s because NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made it official: The 2026 NBA All-Star Game — the NBA’s historic 75th All-Star Game — will be at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announces that Los Angeles has been selected to host NBA All-Star 2026. The 75th NBA All-Star Game will take place at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, home of the LA Clippers, on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. https://t.co/T6x7IJjc6w pic.twitter.com/4D6WPkcCkQ
— NBA (@NBA) January 16, 2024
“I was giddy when I heard it was possible and even giddier when the NBA said we were getting it,” Ballmer said.
It is the first time the NBA has"awarded an All-Star Game to an under-construction arena. The Dome is set to officially open next August, with the Clippers tipping off next season there.
There’s a quick look around the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Clippers, as it stands today. pic.twitter.com/HOGBAbIIQO
— Kurt Helin (@basketballtalk) January 16, 2024
“The good news is there will be a season here before we play the All-Star Game, so there will be an opportunity to make sure everything is up to grade,” Silver said. “It would have been a riskier proposition if we announced an All-Star Game going into the very next season.”
The All-Star Game has been in the Los Angeles Area seven times before, most recently in 2018 at what was then Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena, where the Lakers and Clippers both currently play). The game was twice held at the Inglewood Forum, just a mile down the street from this arena.
The 2026 All-Star Game will be a Clippers-sponsored event with all three nights at the Intuit Dome.
“There was other events booked in crypto(.com arena), so they opted not to be part of this All-Star experience,” Silver said. “I’m sure at the end of the day, there are things that the Lakers will be doing to host events over the course of, as I say, it’s essentially All-Star week these days. I’m sure the Lakers will find ways, using their huge fan base, to directly connect with the all star activities here in ’26.”
The Intuit Dome will be a state-of-the-art arena with a massive wrap-around video board/scoreboard, very vertical seating designed to make fans feel close to and on top of the action, plus — as Ballmer is proud to say — plenty of bathrooms. He detailed some of what would be going on, including tracking (if a fan approves it) of how much they are standing vs. sitting during the game and how engaged they are, with the more engaged fans getting discounts for things in the arena.
“Steve Ballmer chose to build a basketball-centric arena,” Silver said. “Most arenas — well, this, of course, going to have concerts, too — many arenas are also built to accommodate ice. This one is not.”
It’s also going to be a Clippers All-Star game in a Lakers city.
“I think that Steve understands that he’s got an uphill fight,” Silver said about the new Intuit Dome being"in the heart of Lakers country, a mile away from the Forum where the Showtime Lakers played. “You know, like whether he’s converting Laker fans, probably he’s realistic that it’s about the next generation of fans coming around to his team. But what the benefit of all these Laker fans in this community is that you have a huge interest in basketball, also college basketball, as well as a lot of basketball being played in this community. So I think at the end of the day, the fact that this is such a hoops community and a lot of great players are from this community... this is just there’s a strong association with basketball and the city of Los Angeles.”
Silver said that he wants the 2026 All-Star Game to have a genuine Los Angeles feel (which means tourists getting stuck in traffic for an hour or so, but also much more).
“For example, the All-Star game is in Indiana this year. I think the experience in Indiana should be different from them and experienced if you are in L.A.,” Silver said. “I think the best buildings become part of their communities and they adopt sort of that community flavor, sort of how people see entertainment, how they like their attractions, how they like to come together.”
The 2026 All-Star Game will be on Feb. 15, with All-Star Saturday the night before and the Rising Stars game on Feb. 13, all at the Intuit Dome. Other events tied to All-Star weekend will be at the Ballmer-owned Kia Forum and downtown at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Indianapolis hosts next month’s 2024 All-Star Game, and the 2025 game is at San Francisco’s Chase Center, the Golden State Warriors’ new arena that opened in 2019.
