Vote for high school basketball stories you want to see on 2024 All-Star Game sculptures
Indiana will celebrate hosting the 2024 NBA All-Star Game in the way only Hoosiers can: by paying homage to the state's rich high school basketball history.
A public art project called "Hoosier Historia" will commission artists to tell the stories of 24 iconic players, places and moments on two dozen 6-foot basketball-shaped cast resin sculptures, which will be displayed downtown during the big weekend Feb. 16-18, 2024.
And you get to decide what those stories are.
A committee of former IHSAA officials, coaches, players and journalists has come up with 50 of the best narratives from Indiana high school basketball history. The NBA All-Star 2024 Host Committee, Capital Improvement Board and the Indy Arts Council are asking the public to narrow the list to 24.
Starting today, you can vote at pacers.com/hoosierhistoria multiple times a day through March 23.
The final 24 choices will be announced March 24 before the IHSAA Boys Basketball State Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The ballot includes plenty of proud memories like Warsaw's Judi Warren winning the first Ms. Basketball in 1976, Crispus Attucks High School's historic state championships, Indiana family dynasties and the Franklin Wonder Five's championship period of domination 100 years ago.
Hoosier Historia arrives in a spirit similar to another recent art and sports collaboration: the 60 artworks by Indiana artists inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse that illustrate players and stories from Hoosier basketball and entertainment history.
Sports in art: At Gainbridge Fieldhouse, glorious new art tells stories of Hoosier basketball history
The All-Star Game offers an opportunity to show sides of Indiana the rest of the country might not know, said Danny Lopez, Pacers Sports & Entertainment's vice president for external affairs and corporate communications.
"One of the things that's really unique about basketball in Indiana is people's love affair with high school basketball," he said.
"You've got these incredible gyms all over the state, you've got these incredible mascots that are just different and quirky and funny all over the state. You've got all these stories going back 100 years. So we wanted to try to pull those out."
A call for artists will go out toward the end of March, and they'll be selected by the end of May, said Julia Muney Moore, the Indy Arts Council's director of public art.
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Where exactly the sculptures will be placed is yet to be determined, Lopez said, but they will likely be in high-visibility spots downtown during the All-Star Game weekend. After that, they could end up at the Indiana Convention Center and possibly eventually in the home gyms or cities where the moments happened, he said.
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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: NBA All-Star Game 2024: Vote for basketball stories that'll be on art