How is the 2023 NBA All-Star Game MVP selected? Who votes?

The best players of the NBA will go head-to-head for the 2023 All-Star Game with the weekend being staged in Salt Lake City (Utah). This year’s teams will be captained by LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. The game caps off a weekend of basketball excitement, and has evolved from the time the All-Star Game was conceived.

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The first contest took place in 1951, when 24 of the league’s best were divided into two teams- the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.

The NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player is the award given to the standout player in the the annual All-Star Game. The award was established in 1953 when NBA officials decided to designate an MVP for each year’s game.

Deciding the MVP

The winner is voted upon by a panel of media members, who cast their vote after the conclusion of the Game. The fan voting accounts for 25% of the voting. In February 2020, Commissioner Adam Silver renamed the NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player in honor of four-time winner Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash a few weeks earlier.

As of 2022, the most recent recipient is Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry. Kobe Bryant and Bob Pettit are the only two players to win the All-Star Game MVP four times. Pettit first earned the award in 1956, the year of the sixth NBA All-Star Game, and won it again in 1958, 1959 and 1962 with Kobe bagging the honor in 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011.