1973 NBA All-Star Game

Result

MVP: Dave Cowens

Box score

Bench (10+ points): Elvin Hayes (10)

Bench (10+ points): Bob Lanier (10)

Game context

The 1973 All-Star Game, played January 23 at Chicago Stadium — the first time the event had been held in Chicago — saw Boston Celtics center Dave Cowens follow up his rookie All-Star debut the year before with an MVP-winning sophomore turn, finishing with 15 points, 15 rebounds, and an assist as the East cruised to a 104-84 win in front of 17,527 fans. Cowens's undersized-but-relentless style at center, built on hustle, mobility, and rebounding rather than the classic back-to-the-basket post game of contemporaries like Wilt Chamberlain or Willis Reed, was already becoming one of the more distinctive frontcourt profiles in the league, and his rebounding-driven MVP performance here reflected exactly that identity. The East controlled the game from a tied first quarter (27-27) onward, pulling ahead steadily with a 23-18 second and a 26-20 third before closing it out with a 28-19 fourth. The 104-84 final score carries a specific piece of NBA trivia: it is, to date, the last All-Star Game in which a team failed to reach 100 points, a marker of just how quickly scoring in the event would climb over the following years as the league's overall pace and shooting efficiency continued to rise through the mid-to-late 1970s. Both teams' offenses were comparatively subdued by later standards, a contest defined more by defense and rebounding than by the track-meet, high-scoring shootouts that would become the event's dominant character in the 1980s. Bill Sharman, fresh off winning the 1972 championship with the record-setting Lakers, coached the West for a second consecutive year, while Tom Heinsohn, in his second year leading the East, matched him on the opposite bench, continuing a coaching rivalry drawn from the two most recent Finals participants. Chicago's hosting debut reflected the city's growing prominence in the league even in an era before Michael Jordan's Bulls would make it the sport's most closely watched market; the Windy City would go on to host the event on several further occasions in the decades that followed, and Chicago Stadium itself, the storied "Madhouse on Madison," would remain one of the league's most atmospheric arenas until its closure in 1994. Cowens's back-to-back standout All-Star showings in 1972 and 1973 mirrored his rapid ascent with the Celtics more broadly, a rise that would culminate in the franchise's 1974 championship, its first title of the post-Russell era. The 76ers' own miserable 9-73 record that same 1972-73 season, still the worst winning percentage in NBA history, stood as an odd backdrop to a game held in a league otherwise flush with talent, a reminder of just how wide the gap between the NBA's best and worst rosters had become even as the All-Star Game itself continued to showcase the sport at its highest level.

Sources

• Basketball-Reference — NBA All-Star Game History
• Basketball-Reference — NBA & ABA All-Star Game MVP (Kobe Bryant Trophy)
• Wikipedia — 1973 NBA All-Star Game