Suns Owner Offers Up Major Prizes for 2027 NBA All-Star Weekend

Mat Ishbia has big plans for when Phoenix hosts the 2027 NBA All-Star Game.

Feb 13, 2026; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Mat Ishbia arrives on the green carpet prior to an NBA Celebrity All-Star basketball game at Kia Forum. Mandatory Credit: William Liang-Imagn Images | William Liang-Imagn Images

PHOENIX -- With the NBA All-Star Game heading to Phoenix in 2027, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia, who has always tried to do best by the fans, proposed an interesting idea to incentivize players for participating in the events.

Ishbia told ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" that he plans to offer $1 million to the winners of the 2027 slam dunk and 3-point contests, as well as $1 million going to charity in each event.

"I have a say in how we get great players in it (and) how do we make it a great event? How do we make fan experience phenomenal?" Ishbia said before the proposal. "We're gonna make it an amazing event."

"We're hosting the All-Star Game in Phoenix next year..

We're gonna make it an amazing event"

LET'S MAKE IT BIG @Mishbia15 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/1KdBc8RPNC

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) February 25, 2026

The 3-point contest, which Suns star Devin Booker nearly won earlier this month, has become arguably the premiere event of All-Star Weekend as of late because of the stars who participate in it, but the dunk contest has fallen off significantly in large part due to the lack of star power in it.

Mat Ishbia's Plan Could Run Into Problems

Although Ishbia is going to try to do a lot to increase fan engagement for the event, ESPN's Brian Windhorst laid out some complications for Ishbia's plan.

Windhorst wrote Wednesday:

"Officials from the NBA league office and players' union told ESPN such a prize would not conform with the existing bonus structure.

"Ishbia did not consult the league office before making the offer, sources said. But he is motivated to find a way to get more stars into the events."

Ishbia played in the celebrity game in this year's All-Star Weekend and went to several events in Los Angeles to see what Phoenix can improve on when it hosts next season.

Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein described all that the Suns, and Ishbia himself, have done to prepare for hosting the All-Star Game last week on Arizona Sports' Bickley & Marotta Mornings show.

"It's an incredible honor (to host)," Bartelstein said. "We've been working on this for two years, and we have a dedicated team that focuses on All-Star.

"We think about it on a spectrum - what's everything we can do so that when you step foot in Phoenix, when you step foot in Arizona, we can show you what Player 15 Group, the Suns and Mercury are all about? And it's from the biggest things - the events - to the smallest things - the level of care and detail, and that's our job.

"There's different levels to things in sports, and it starts when you have an owner who cares at that level, and it's not just the investment and money, of course that's amazing (and) Mat's amazing with that, but he thinks about all of these things.

"Mat goes to every single event at All-Star to see, 'Hey, what was the awesome stuff they did and how can we replicate that and make it better? And what can we do differently?' When you have an owner who will do that, it makes great for our entire team of people because then we're all going to end up doing the same."

Next year's NBA All-Star Weekend will run from Feb. 19-21 and mark the fourth time Phoenix has hosted the event.