It’s not official, but plenty of sportswriters with “sources” say that the NBA will soon announce that the 2025 All-Star Game will be played at the Chase Center, which means haha, Charles Barkley will be forced to come back here and get heckled again.

Hot on the heels of this week’s news that San Francisco may very well be getting a WNBA team starting in 2025, on Thursday we get more exciting news that the Chase Center looks likely to get the 2025 NBA All-Star game, according to the Bay Area News Group.

The Golden State Warriors’ arena has not hosted the NBA All-Star Game since the year 2000 (ugh, the  Mookie Blaylock-Antawn Jamison era, when coach P. J. Carlesimo was fired barely a month into the season), a time when Oracle Arena was still known as Oakland Arena. Back in 2017, before the Chase Center was even finished, the Warriors put in a bid for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, but that game went to Atlanta, who already had, you know, a functioning basketball arena.

@ShamsCharania via Twitter

The news was first reported by The Athletic's Shams Charania, who tweeted Thursday morning that “The NBA is nearing plans for the Golden State Warriors (Chase Center) to host 2025 All-Star Weekend, sources tell @TheAthletic.”

@MattHaneySF via Twitter

State Assemblymember Matt Haney seems to think it’s a done deal, though I’m not sure Haney has strong infomation from the NBA league office. But the Bay Area News Group says that “League sources said a deal to have the Golden State host the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco is close to being completed.”

The 2025 NBA All-Star game would be part of the 2024-25 NBA season, as the game is traditionally played in February, near mid-season. Steph Curry would still be under contract with the Warriors at that point, as would be Draymond Green, though Klay Thomson is not guaranteed to be on the team, with a contract ending after this coming season.

But the cable TV network TNT has the NBA All-Star Game through the year 2025, so the game would be carried on that network.

And you know what that means, Warriors fans… TNT on-air personality Charles MF Barkley. The wise-ass Barkley has been beefing with the Bay Area on TNT for more than 15 years, declaring in 2007 that "I would rather stay on Alcatraz than San Francisco or Oakland.'' And who can forget Barkley’s May 2022 taunt to Chase Center fans “​​I’m going to come to your house and fuck your mama!,” which led to fans pelting Barkley with debris on live television the following week.

But on the serious side, if the NBA does give SF a WNBA team in 2025, the SF All-Star Game would basically be a shoo-in. The NBA loves cross-promotion (they call it “synergy”). The NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center in 2025 would be a constant promotion for the WNBA at the Chase Center in 2025.

The NBA and the Chase Center are both all about money, and the smart money would be on  the WNBA, and the All-Star Game, coming to Chase Center in about a year and a half.  

Related: SF and the Warriors Could Be Getting a WNBA Team, Possibly as Soon as 2025 [SFist]

Top image: Stephen Curry #30 of Team LeBron holds the Kobe Bryant Trophy during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on February 20, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)