The NBA All-Star Game has made several recent visits Southern California, but this marks its first time in the Clippers’ Intuit Dome since the arena opened in 2024 — and first time the All-Star Game has come to Inglewood, Calif. sine 1983, when the game was hosted in the Forum, which at that time was the famed home venue of the Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-led Los Angeles Lakers (and lowly Clippers).
The Forum still stands just a short walk from the Intuit Dome, serving as a popular concert-only venue as well as a capsule of basketball history. The Athletic’s Dan Woike captured some of that history by speaking to participants of that 1983 All-Star Game, which included Jackson Five members hanging out with players pregame and a spectacular rendition of the national anthem from Marvin Gaye that George Gervin still remembers vividly. Here’s Gervin, the Hall of Famer and San Antonio Spurs legend, speaking to Dan:
“We’re at the Forum. You know it’s one of them arenas where we all looked forward to playing in as players. We were geared up. You’re in Hollywood, and in Hollywood, they all show up.”