![\"mat-ishbia-suns.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/mat-ishbia-suns.jpg\")
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Phoenix Suns<\/a> owner Mat Ishbia has a plan to help improve the star quotient when his team hosts the\u00a0NBA<\/a>‘s All-Star weekend in 2027, and it’s a proposal that comes with a big financial boost.<\/p>\n Ishbia joined The Pat McAfee Show at the NFL<\/a> combine Wednesday, during which McAfee announced Ishbia’s idea: $1 million dollars to the winner and $1 million dollars to charity of the winner’s choice for both the dunk contest and the 3-point contest.<\/p>\n “Let’s get the best guys in it,” Ishbia said<\/a>. “Let’s make it awesome.”<\/p>\n Though the idea may sound intriguing, it’s not as simple as Ishbia and McAfee presented it. Officials from the NBA league office and the players’ union told ESPN<\/a> adding prize money would not conform to the existing bonus structure. Ishbia has not consulted the league office.<\/p>\n The 3-point contest hasn’t had as many issues getting stars to participate as the dunk contest has. Damian Lillard<\/a> won this year’s 3-point contest — his third such title — and prior winners include Stephen Curry<\/a> (twice), Klay Thompson<\/a> and Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>. This year, Lillard defeated several other big names, including Devin Booker<\/a>, Jamal Murray<\/a>, Tyrese Maxey<\/a> and Donovan Mitchell<\/a>. Curry has already committed to participating in this event next year.<\/p>\n The dunk contest, however, has been a different story.\u00a0Keshad Johnson<\/a>, who is averaging about seven minutes per game this year for the Miami Heat<\/a>, won the event over Carter Bryant<\/a>, Jaxson Hayes<\/a> and Jase Richardson<\/a>, none of whom average more than seven points per game. The last player to win the dunk contest the same year he was an All-Star was former Clipper\u00a0Blake Griffin<\/a>, who jumped over a car in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia has a plan to help improve the star quotient when his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[82206,82207,33520,7,2545,978,125,2292,864,3203,762,960,32,563,1248,498,3224,189,6,2065,472,4045,573,604,48740,1263],"class_list":["post-625164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix-suns","tag-1-million-prize","tag-2027-nba-all-star-weekend","tag-3-point-contest","tag-basketball","tag-blake-griffin","tag-carter-bryant","tag-damian-lillard","tag-devin-booker","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-dunk-contest","tag-jamal-murray","tag-jase-richardson","tag-jaxson-hayes","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-keshad-johnson","tag-klay-thompson","tag-mat-ishbia","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenixsuns","tag-stephen-curry","tag-suns","tag-suns-owner","tag-tyrese-maxey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116134528806522673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}