Since the NBA All-Star Game began in 1951, 443 different players have been picked for an All-Star Game roster. That’s not very many when you consider that approximately 1,700 spots have been available. But when all-time greats such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar makes 19 appearances, Kobe Bryant makes 18 and LeBron James makes 18 and counting, the teams fill up fast with familiar faces.
When you look at All-Star Game appearances by state, Pennsylvania comes in with the fifth highest state representation behind California, New York, Illinois and Ohio. PennStakes.com takes a break here from your usual Pennsylvania sports betting coverage to determine the states with the most all-stars.
And, as you can see, what the Keystone State loses out to those others in quantity, it sure makes up in quality. Two of the best players in NBA history not only hail from Pennsylvania, they went to high school a few miles from each other.
Philadelphia-born Kobe Bryant, who attended Lower Merion High before jumping directly to the NBA, was an all-time great with the Los Angeles Lakers. He ended his career by scoring 60 points in his final game.
In the 1961-62 season, Philadelphia-born Wilt Chamberlain, who went to Overbrook High School, and later became a 13-time All-Star, averaged more than 50 points per game. That’s right, averaged.
A team with Wilt and Kobe is going to be hard to beat, but we’re going to play Kobe at the small forward slot and slide Philadelphian Kyle Lowry, a six-time All-Star, in at point guard. Lowry is Philly all the way, going from Cardinal Dougherty High to Villanova to the NBA.
At the shooting guard, we have one of the niftiest scorers in NBA history, the way-ahead-of-his-time “Pistol” Pete Maravich. A five-time All-Star whose career was cut short by injuries, Maravich hails from Aliquippa, near Pittsburgh. In the 1976-77 season, Maravich, playing for the New Orleans Jazz, scored 68 against the Knicks in a home game. (I actually saw that game on a black-and-white television as a child, rooting for the Knicks. But when Maravich hit 50, I thought “the heck with it, go Pistol!”)
Playing alongside Wilt up front will be Philadelphia’s Rasheed Wallace, from Simon Gratz High, a four-time All-Star with the Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons.
Coming off the bench at the guard spots are three-time All-Star Richard “Rip” Hamilton from Coatesville, six-time All-Star Jack Twyman from Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic and four-time All-Star Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, from Philadelphia’s John Bartram High. If your team is bringing “Black Jesus” off the pine, you have a good group. Giving Wilt and Rasheed a little help up front is five-time All-Star Tom Gola, who played at Philadelphia’s La Salle College High School and La Salle University.
You can’t bet on the hypothetical, of course, on your Pennsylvania sports betting apps, but could you imagine if these guys ever took the court together in their primes?
Methodology
BetPennsylvania.com utilized NBA.com to gather the list of all NBA players to ever make an NBA All-Star roster, including those players voted in and those who replaced others.
There have been a total of 443 NBA All-Stars (only counting a player once) since the first NBA All-Star game in 1951. We tabulated the amount of NBA players from each state and the percentage of players from that state.
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Top 10 States with The Most NBA All-Stars Since 1951
Here are the state rankings:
