HOUSTON — The All-Star Game appears to be headed back to the Big Apple.
The Knicks and the Nets have both applied to host the NBA All-Star Game, and deputy commissioner Adam Silver said last night it’s likely one or the other will be hosting the event in 2015 — the next year it is available.
When Silver was asked if that was the case, he responded with a simple, “Yes.”
New Orleans is hosting the game next year.
Silver, who is set to take over for commissioner David Stern next February, said the league still would have to make sure it could secure the proper logistics, including hotel space and availability at the Javits Center for its Jam Session.
But given the league’s biggest market has a billion-dollar new arena in Brooklyn, and the Knicks have spent the past two years putting Madison Square Garden through a massive facelift in order to attract such events, it would be highly unlikely any logistical issues would stand in the way of the NBA bringing the All-Star Game back to New York for the first time since the Knicks hosted the game at the Garden in 1998.
“There are two applications in,” Stern said with a smile. “One from Brooklyn, and one from the Garden, and I really think commissioner Silver is going to have a great time with those applications, I really do, and I asked him to send me a postcard to tell me how they go.”
Stern, who is presiding over his final All-Star Game as commissioner, said his favorite All-Star memory came in 1992, when he presented Magic Johnson with the All-Star Game MVP.
“That is at the top of the list, and it will not easily be dislodged,” Stern said. “Even though I do enjoy every All-Star [Game], that one will resonate for the rest of my life.”
* The National Basketball Players’ Association fired executive director Billy Hunter yesterday.
Hunter was dismissed by a unanimous vote of present player representatives at the meeting, which came in the wake of an independent audit that charged him with nepotism and questioned his use of the union’s resources.
“Going forward, we will no longer be divided, misled, misinformed,” union president Derek Fisher said in prepared remarks. “This is our union, and we have taken it back.”
A source present in the meeting said two of the most forceful voices for change were LeBron James and the Nets’ Jerry Stackhouse, who the source said set the tone for the meeting.
Fisher, who currently isn’t on an NBA team, will remain as the union’s president, while Spurs forward Matt Bonner remains as vice president. The group also elected a new executive committee that included Stackhouse as one of its members.