Miami gets the 2028 NBA All-Star Weekend after 38 years, and the Heat didn’t even bid

NBA All-Star Weekend is going back to Miami for the first time since 1990. The league is finalizing the Heat and Kaseya Center as hosts for February 2028, Shams Charania reported Monday, one year after Phoenix takes the event. The deal ends a 38-year gap that had less to do with basketball than with hotel rooms, convention space and a boat show.

The NBA is finalizing Miami as host of All-Star Weekend in 2028, sources tell ESPN. The Heat last hosted NBA All-Star Weekend in 1990 and now are set to hold the event after Phoenix does this season.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 9, 2026

A person with knowledge of the plans said Monday that the league picked Miami several months ago, that a 2028 logo has already been approved and that much of the logistical work is underway. The NBA is planning a Nov. 30 event in Miami to make it official, with Commissioner Adam Silver and Heat chairman Micky Arison expected to attend. The date is still slightly fluid.

Why it took 38 years

All-Star Weekend usually sits on Presidents’ Day weekend in mid-February. In Miami, that is also the weekend of the Miami International Boat Show, which takes over the Miami Beach Convention Center and a large share of the area’s hotel rooms. The league has rarely been willing to move its showcase to dodge that, and the weeks around it are crowded too: the Super Bowl usually lands the weekend before, and Kaseya Center typically hosts the Premio Lo Nuestro Latin music awards the week after.

What changed is the boat show. It is moving to a different weekend in 2028, Anthony Chiang reported, which frees Presidents’ Day weekend in South Florida. Presidents’ Day 2028 falls on Monday, Feb. 21, which would put Rising Stars and the Friday events on Feb. 18, All-Star Saturday Night on Feb. 19 and the All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 20.

NEW: Heat and Kaseya Center set to host 2028 All Star Game. Here are all the details https://t.co/e8cyooUtFh Miami has hosted the league’s annual showcase event just once before, and that came in 1990 when the All-Star Game was held at Miami Arena

— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) November 9, 2026

The Heat did not bid

The most telling business detail is that the Heat did not put in a bid. Chiang reported that the franchise has been reluctant to chase the event in past years because All-Star Weekend is run by the league, not the host team. The NBA controls the ticket inventory, and Heat season-ticket holders, fans and corporate partners do not get priority. Most of the crowd at All-Star events comes from outside the host city.

That is the trade-off for any host. The team gives up a week of its own arena calendar and does not get the gate. In return, its city gets global TV exposure, a week of hotel and restaurant spending, and a showcase for the building and its sponsors. With the boat show out of the way, the league approached the Heat, not the other way around.

How the weekend is expected to be laid out

Venue	Expected use
Kaseya Center (Heat)	All-Star Saturday Night and the All-Star Game
Miami Beach Convention Center	Part of the weekend’s other events (the space the boat show normally uses)
Watsco Center (University of Miami)	Part of the weekend’s other events

The rest of the program includes the Celebrity Game, Rising Stars, All-Star Media Day, the G League Up Next Game and the multi-day NBA Crossover fan festival. Using several arenas is normal now, and the plans for the University of Miami building are still tentative. Ticket details will come later.

What it means for the building and the league

Kaseya Center is owned by Miami-Dade County and run by the Heat. Kaseya took over the naming rights in 2023, after the arena’s previous sponsor collapsed, with a 17-year agreement worth $117.37 million. Most of that money goes to the county, with about $2 million a year going to the Heat. An All-Star Weekend is the biggest stage that sponsor can get short of the NBA Finals. It also follows smaller brand nights the Heat have built around the arena, like this month’s Vice City uniform night.

For the league, Miami answers a complaint players have made for years. Recent weekends went to cold-weather cities: Chicago in 2020, Cleveland in 2022, Salt Lake City in 2023 and Indianapolis in 2024. “If I could change something about All-Star Weekend, they wouldn’t be in cold cities anymore,” Paul George said in Indianapolis. Bam Adebayo said in 2024 that he would love to have it in Miami because “our fans deserve it.”

It also gives Arison, who chairs the NBA Board of Governors, another big league moment at home after a fall in which he has been pulled into the Trail Blazers’ Moda Center fight.

Recent and upcoming All-Star hosts

Year	Host city	Arena
2024	Indianapolis	Gainbridge Fieldhouse
2025	San Francisco	Chase Center
2026	Los Angeles	Intuit Dome
2027	Phoenix (Feb. 19-21)	Mortgage Matchup Center
2028	Miami (expected Feb. 18-20)	Kaseya Center

What happens next

Phoenix is still first. Its 2027 weekend runs Feb. 19-21, a week later than usual because the NFL moved the Super Bowl onto Presidents’ Day weekend for that year. In Miami, the next steps are the Nov. 30 announcement, the host committee and ticket plans. If LeBron James comes back in 2027-28 for a 25th season, his last All-Star Weekend could be in the city where he won his first two titles.