1967 NBA All-Star Game

Result

MVP: Rick Barry

Box score

Bench (10+ points): Dave DeBusschere (22)

Bench (10+ points): Don Ohl (17), Chet Walker (15), John Havlicek (14)

Game context

The 1967 All-Star Game, played January 10 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, before 13,972 fans, is widely remembered as the greatest upset in the event's history to that point, as the West stunned a heavily favored East, 135-120. San Francisco Warriors forward Rick Barry, in just his second NBA season and playing in front of a friendly Bay Area crowd, was the catalyst, exploding for a game-high 38 points on 16-of-27 shooting to go with 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 34 minutes, an offensive showcase that announced him as one of the league's brightest young scorers (he would go on to lead the NBA in scoring that same season, averaging 35.6 points per game). The West controlled the game from the opening tip and never trailed, building leads of 39-33 after the first quarter and 77-67 at halftime before pulling away for good in the final period, 31-25, to seal the 15-point win. Western center Nate Thurmond, Barry's own Warriors teammate, provided strong interior support with 16 points and 18 rebounds, while Dave DeBusschere added 22 points on an efficient 11-of-17 shooting. The East, stocked with Wilt Chamberlain (14 points, 22 rebounds) and Oscar Robertson (26 points, 5 assists), simply could not match the West's balanced attack on this particular night, an unusual result given the East's typical statistical superiority across the mid-1960s stretch of the series. The game also produced a notable coaching first: Red Auerbach, in what turned out to be his final season as an active NBA head coach before moving fully into the Celtics' front office, was ejected from the contest, becoming the only coach ever thrown out of an NBA All-Star Game, a fitting, characteristically fiery capstone to Auerbach's remarkable run of All-Star coaching assignments across the 1950s and 1960s. Fred Schaus coached the winning West squad. The Cow Palace setting itself was significant for the Warriors franchise, which had relocated from Philadelphia to the Bay Area in 1962 and, by 1967, had fully established San Francisco as a genuine home for the sport on the West Coast, distinct from the Lakers' presence in Los Angeles — a rivalry and geographic split within California basketball that would persist for decades to come. Barry's breakout performance in this game came during a season that would ultimately end in a Finals appearance for his Warriors against Chamberlain's 76ers, a matchup that pitted two of this very All-Star Game's biggest individual stars against each other on the sport's biggest stage just a few months later.

Sources

• Basketball-Reference — NBA All-Star Game History
• Basketball-Reference — NBA & ABA All-Star Game MVP (Kobe Bryant Trophy)
• Wikipedia — 1967 NBA All-Star Game