From Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic:
CBS, the NBA’s network broadcast outlet at the time, was not high on the All-Star Game, let alone additional programming during a halftime for which it had other plans. But Welts could not escape the seed’s sprouting in his mind.
The bloom was All-Star Saturday, celebrating its 26th year this season in Phoenix.
Welts pitched a second event day with an old-timers game and slam dunk contest to Stern, who in turn pitched the idea to outgoing commissioner Larry O’Brien.
“It did not go over very well,” Welts said.
But Stern called back two weeks later and said, “If it doesn’t cost the league a penny and if you don’t embarrass the commissioner on his last weekend, we could see if we could put it together.”
The name All-Star Saturday was attached. Tickets were $2 and McNichols Arena was sold out. Schick and American Airlines sponsored the old-timers’ game. The NBA worked its first deal with Gatorade, to sponsor the slam-dunk contest. A still-new cable outlet, ESPN, agreed to air it tape-delayed a week later, and wound up showing it dozens of times.
After Erving brought back the free throw dunk and Phoenix’s Larry Nance won the contest, a star event was born. Sports Illustrated covered the dunk contest more than the game after fans showed up with homemade scoring cards.
