Look back at the 1993 All-Star, star-studded Salt Lake City with a basketball extravaganza

It's been exactly 30 years since Salt Lake City hosted an All-Star, what were the highlights of that All-Star Game in '93?

30 years ago, the hottest movie in Salt Lake City movie theaters was "Groundhog Day" and cost only $1, while now the most popular movie "Avatar: The Way of Water" usually costs $6 and can cost $12 if you go in prime time.

Thirty years later, 30 years after Salt Lake City hosted its first All-Star, Dave Areid, then Jazz's head of public relations, recalls: "It was probably the top priority in Salt Lake City at the time, the Olympics had not yet been held, and we felt that hosting an All-Star was the greatest event, which gave us the opportunity to show Salt Lake City to audiences around the world."

Star-studded

The 1993 All-Star Game may have included some of the greatest basketball talents since the league's inception, and nine of the All-Star players who were selected that year competed at the Barcelona Olympics six months earlier, arguably the greatest dream team. In addition, 11 of them were inducted into the Top 50 Stars announced three years later, and 16 of the 24 were eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame.

In the East, Isaiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Dominic Wilkins were already famous at the time, and at the same time, there were many young talents in that team who later became the mainstay of their respective teams, such as Scott Pippen, Larry Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Detloff Schremf, Mark Price and Joe Dumas, and the head coach was Pat Riley, who was the head coach of the Knicks at the time.

In the West, John Stockton and Karl Malone have home advantage, while Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley and Hakim Olajuwon are also in their playing years. In addition, young leaders such as David Robinson, Sean Elliott, Tim Hardaway, Sean Kemp, Dan Majer and Danny Manning also appeared in this All-Star appearance. At that tournament, the Western team was coached by then Suns head coach Paul Westphal.

A gathering of heroes

In that All-Star, Michael Jordan scored a game-high 30 points, his last All-Star before retiring for the first time (he went on to play five more).

Isaiah Thomas has been named to a total of 12 All-Stars, and the Salt Lake City All-Star 30 years ago was the last All-Star stage of his career. He started and played 32 minutes with eight points and four assists.

Big man Shaquille O'Neal from Orlando made his All-Star debut that year. In his 18-year career, O'Neal was named an All-Star 15 times and won the All-Star Game MVP three times.

Charlotte forward Larry Johnson became the Hornets' first All-Star since the Hornets, scoring four points.

Charles Barkley was first drafted to the Western Conference All-Star as a Suns player that year, after spending six All-Star seasons in the East, where he scored 16 points and seven rebounds.

At that year's All-Star Three-Point Contest, Cavaliers guard Mark Price won the first of two consecutive three-point contest titles. Harold Mina, a Heat rookie known as "Little Jordan," won the first of two career slam dunk contest titles.

Wolf smoke is everywhere

That year's All-Star Game was extremely intense, and it was always full of gunpowder on and off the court. Even on the same team, Malone and Barkley are fighting each other, and Isaiah and Jordan's feud, despite being known to the world, has to unite against a common enemy. On the field, Isaiah always wants to single out Stockton, while the big men in the West are ready to face the menacing "baby shark".

With one minute left in the fourth quarter, trailing by five points in the East, Jordan hit a mid-range shot, and Malone quickly responded with a two-point salute. Hardaway hit two free throws in the final minute, the ball returned to the East, Jordan held the ball, and Ewing hit a two-point jumper, and the two sides immediately went into overtime, after only six overtime games in All-Star history.

Heading into overtime, Malone opened the inside to give the team the lead, while Jordan continued to assert his power. Facing Jordan in the West was Stockton, who hit a jumper from mid-range, then split Barkley, who was on the outside, and made a three-pointer. In the final two minutes of overtime, Stockton turned to the defensive end, first cleverly dialing the rebound to his partner Malone and then stealing a key rebound from O'Neal. Twice helped the team to seize valuable possession, and the West began to take the initiative on the field. However, Stockton's performance was not over, and in the final moments of the game, he showed the style of all-time stealing king, with key tackles to help the team seal the victory and eventually lead the West to a 135-132 victory over the East.

For the first time in history, AMVP is shared

If the East wins, Michael Jordan will have a good chance of being named All-Star MVP, as the defending MVP leads the team with 30 points, in addition to contributing five assists and four steals.

But the West emerged as the eventual winner, with 3 votes for other players and 4 votes for Stockton when counting MVP votes, and although he scored only 9 points, he gave out a team-high 15 assists. Another four votes went to Malone, who finished with 28 points and 10 rebounds.

As a result, the Jazz Duo, who played on his doorstep, was named a joint MVP, the first time in history that an All-Star MVP was shared. In that instant, Utah became the center of the basketball world.

"That All-Star was definitely the highlight of my jazz career." Dave Ared recalls that he had been with the Jazz for 12 years. Ared joined management when the Jazz moved from New Orleans to Utah, where the Jazz were downcast, severely short of funds, and even needed to borrow money to pay their salaries.

That year's Salt Lake City All-Star was clearly a landmark moment. Not just for the Jazz, but for the entire state of Utah. In the early '80s, the Jazz were a poor team with poor attendance and dismal attendance, but over the next decade, thanks to the strong support of All-Stars Carl Malone and John Stockton, coaches Frank Lydon and Jerry Sloan, and owner Larry Miller, the Jazz quickly became the top team in the league. Just the year before the All-Star program, the Jazz reached the Western Conference Finals, while Stockton and Malone went on to win Olympic gold with the Dreams.

(NBA official website)