The last time the NBA held its All-Star Game in Boston, it was played at the old Boston Garden, and the participants included Bill Russell, Sam Jones and Tommy Heinsohn.

Yes, it’s been quite a while since the league’s winningest franchise got to host the annual midseason showcase — 61 years, to be exact.

One of Boston’s current All-Stars would like to see that drought end.

Speaking with reporters Sunday night in San Francisco, Jaylen Brown said he would be in favor of bringing the All-Star weekend to TD Garden.

“That would be great,” Brown told reporters after Team Shaq, which featured himself and teammate Jayson Tatum, defeated Team Chuck to win the 2025 All-Star mini-tournament. “That would be awesome. I think the city is equipped for it. I think the fans — we’ve got the craziest fans in the world in Boston, so I’m sure that they would enjoy it. It kind of seemed like it was a little empty in here tonight. I don’t think in Boston that would happen. So if we bring the All-Star Game to Boston, I would love to be there, and I would love to participate. I think that would be great for the game.”

Since the last All-Star Game in Boston in 1964, which was the city’s fourth in 14 years, the NBA has staged the event in 30 different markets. Eighteen cities have hosted multiple All-Star Games during that span — including cold-weather ones like Utah, Denver, Cleveland, Indiana, Philadelphia and New York —  and every other Eastern Conference team has done so at least once. The only clubs who have yet to host All-Star festivities are Oklahoma City, Memphis, Portland and Sacramento.

Boston hasn’t been a desired All-Star destination in other sports, either. The MLB and NHL versions haven’t been there since the turn of the century, with the Red Sox last hosting in 1999 and the Bruins in 1996.

The NBA already booked the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome and the Phoenix Suns’ Footprint Center for its next two All-Star Games, so the earliest the event could return to Boston is 2028.

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All-Star tribute missed the mark

In a desperate attempt to breathe life into a game that had grown bland, stale and boring over the previous decade, the NBA implemented a new, four-team All-Star tournament this year.

The revamped setup did improve the on-court action, but it was offset by some baffling broadcast decisions by TNT, including the choice to honor the “Inside the NBA” panel with a 15-minute ceremony during the championship game.

Players said that extended intermission, which came with Tatum and Brown’s team leading 11-1 in the first-to-40 matchup against a squad headlined by Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama, halted the momentum of the game.

“The format was cool,” Tatum told reporters. “I think the toughest part (was) they stopped the game to do the presentation while we were halfway through it. We were sitting down for 20 minutes, whatever it was. It was kind of tough to get back into the game after that. But besides that, I thought it was cool. The first two games were pretty competitive or whatever. So if they could just find a way to not have that long intermission in between the games — or during the game — I think it would be a lot better.”

The in-game presentation was intended to be a sendoff for the popular “Inside the NBA” program, which will leave TNT when the network’s NBA contract expires at the end of this season. The show isn’t ending, however — it’ll shift to ESPN beginning next season — and the tribute wasn’t received well by fans or players.

At one point during the ceremony, the broadcast showed Brown appearing to say, “Get them out of here,” eager for Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to vacate the court and let the game resume.

“I didn’t know if the rest of the guys knew (the game would be stopped). I didn’t know,” Brown told reporters. “So that kind of like, yeah, took the gas out of everything for a little bit. I know we’re just trying to be great professionals and do different things and explore how to keep generating viewership. Tonight was just us trying to do something different.”

Tatum scored a game-high 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the final, including a game-winning dunk that closed out All-Star weekend. Brown scored four points off the bench after scoring eight in Team Shaq’s first game, a 42-35 victory over a team of young players that won the Rising Stars challenge two nights earlier.

Hometown favorite Stephen Curry earned All-Star Game MVP honors.

Up next for Boston

The Celtics’ eight-day All-Star layoff ends Thursday with a visit to the reeling, injury-riddled Philadelphia 76ers. They’ll then play eight of their next 10 games at home, including marquee matchups against the New York Knicks (this Sunday), Cleveland Cavaliers (Feb. 28), Denver Nuggets (March 2), Los Angeles Lakers (March 8) and Oklahoma City Thunder (March 12).

The Cavs and Thunder are the only NBA teams with better records than the 39-16 Celtics, who won seven of their last eight games entering the All-Star break. The Knicks own the NBA’s fifth-best record but were routed in each of their first two Celtics matchups, including a 131-104 Boston beatdown at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 8.

The Nuggets and Lakers are sixth and eighth in the league’s overall standings. Denver nearly beat the Celtics without its three-time NBA MVP, Jokic, on Jan. 7, and LA steamrolled Boston 117-96 on Jan. 23. This also will be the Celtics’ first time seeing their longtime Western Conference rivals since the Lakers swung their blockbuster trade for superstar Luka Doncic.

The closing stretch of Boston’s schedule features more travel (10 of its last 16 games are away from TD Garden) but lighter competition. Of those final 16 contests, just three are against teams ranked in the top eight in their respective conferences.