The 16th National Basketball Association All-Star Game was played on January 11, 1966, at

Cincinnati Gardens Cincinnati Gardens was an indoor arena located in Cincinnati, Ohio, that opened in 1949. The 25,000 square foot (2,300 m²) brick and limestone building at 2250 Seymour Avenue in Bond Hill had a entrance that was decorated with six three-dimens ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. The coaches were

Red Auerbach Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (September 20, 1917 – October 28, 2006) was an American professional basketball coach and executive. He served as a head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Boston Celtics. ...

for the East, and

Fred Schaus Frederick Appleton Schaus (June 30, 1925 – February 10, 2010) was an American basketball player, head coach and athletic director for the West Virginia Mountaineers, West Virginia University Mountaineers, player for the National Basketball Ass ...

for the West. Much of the game would focus around the local team's three named All-Stars. Cincinnati's Oscar Robertson had been named the event's MVP in 1964, and Cincinnati's Jerry Lucas had been named MVP in 1965. At game time, the East Division's top three teams, Boston, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, had the three best records in the league, with New York trailing far behind. This led East Coach Red Auerbach to name Cincinnati's Adrian Smith as a reserve and not New York's sharpshooting Dick Barnett, a source of some controversy at the time. The home crowd rallied behind Smith as he emerged as the game's star. It was Smith's only All-Star appearance, and he remains to-date the only one-time NBA All-Star ever named the event's MVP. The overmatched West suffered not just from poor shooting, but also from losing key All-Star Jerry West to an eye injury in the first quarter. The game was nationally televised, with an attendance of 13,653.

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Score by Periods

*Halftime— East, 63-36 *Third Quarter— East, 101-68 *Officials:

Norm Drucker Norm Drucker (July 4, 1920 – February 6, 2015) was a major influence in professional basketball officiating for over 35 years. His NBA and ABA officiating career as both a referee and Supervisor of Officials spanned the careers of all-time pro ba ...

and

John Vanak John Joseph Vanak (1933 – November 26, 2016) was a referee in the American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association.Pluto, Terry, 'Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association, New York: Simon & ...

*Attendance: 13,653.

References

* * National Basketball Association All-Star Game All-Star Events in Cincinnati {{Cincinnati-sport-stub