The NBA continues to think about its All-Star Game, trying to increase its appeal to audiences and still not finding the formula to achieve a competitive spectacle. Players do not want to expose themselves to injury or spend too much energy on defense. After last year’s return to the origins with an East against West game, for this season, the NBA has decided to create a mini-tournament with semifinals and a 40-point final. With the new scheme, the election of five members of each Conference by popular vote loses part of its meaning, but at this point the tradition is maintained. And, in what is also another tradition, one of those starters will be LeBron James. For the longtime Lakers player, February 16 will be his twenty-first participation in the All Star.
Two other veterans of the NBA’s old guard accompany him in the Western quintet. Kevin Durant, of the Suns, who will make 15 all-star games with this one, and Stephen Curry, of the Golden State Warriors, selected for his eleventh appearance. Nikola Jokic, star of the Denver Nuggets, will play for the seventh time, while for Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, of the Oklahoma City Thunder, this will be his third All Star.
On the Eastern Conference side, among the starting five there will be two players from the New York Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson; one of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell; another from the Boston Celtics, Jayson Tatum, and one from the Milwaukee Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The five players chosen as starters in each conference have been selected by fans (50% of the vote), NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%).
They will be joined by another 14 players, seven per conference, chosen by the coaches as theoretical substitutes. However, as the 24 selected will form three teams of eight players, there will actually be 15 starters.
That’s because, for the first time, the All-Star Game will consist of a mini-tournament with four teams and three games. Two teams will meet in one semi-final and the other two teams will meet in the other semi-final. The winning teams will go on to face each other in the championship. In each match, the winner will be the first team to reach or exceed 40 points.
Each team will have eight players and will be named by an NBA commentator from the TNT television network. Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith. All three analysts will make their respective picks for Team Chuck, Team Shaq and Team Kenny live on TNT on Thursday, February 6 just prior to the network’s double-broadcast of NBA games that night.
The fourth team will be the winner of the game between the best first- and second-year NBA players and the NBA G League standouts, which will be played on Friday, February 14 during All-Star weekend.
The four teams will compete for a prize pool of $1.8 million, with each player on the championship-winning team receiving $125,000, each player on the second-place team receiving $50,000, and each player on the third-place teams. and fourth place will receive $25,000.
The four head coaches of the NBA All-Star Game will come from the coaching staffs of the teams with the best regular season record in each conference through the games played on Sunday, February 2. Given their current lead, it will be the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The head coach of the Cavaliers, Kenny Atkinson (with dual Spanish and American nationality), and the head coach of the Thunder, Mark Daigneault, will each coach an All Star team, while an assistant coach from one of those teams will coach the third of the teams and the other, to the champion of the new first and second year stars.
