Pacers and Indianapolis use 3-year delay to add new wrinkles to 1st NBA All-Star weekend since 1985

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The signs are all around downtown Indianapolis now: NBA All-Star weekend finally has arrived.

Yes, nearly seven years after Larry Bird drove a blue-and-gold IndyCar down New York's Fifth Avenue to hand-deliver the city's bid, and three years after Indianapolis' game was moved to Atlanta amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Circle City is about to host another big basketball bash.

And it could be even better than organizers initially thought.

"We could have done it in 2021 like Atlanta with 1,500 people, but we wanted to do it in Indy style," Indiana Pacers COO and president Rick Fuson said Tuesday. "We said, 'Hey, we’re going to do this thing bigger and better.’”