For the 21st straight season, LeBron James will start the NBA All-Star Game.
However, Victor Wembanyama will have to wait.
The NBA All-Star Game starters were announced Thursday and there are a lot of familiar names, such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. While there were some new starters (hello, Jalen Brunson!), there were no big surprises.
As a reminder, the All-Star Game starters — two guards and three frontcourt players — are chosen by a composite of fan votes (50%), player votes (25%), and media votes (25%). The seven reserves for each conference — which will be announced next week — are determined by a vote of NBA coaches, and that is where the real snubs will happen.
Let’s look at the starters:
Western Conference Starters
G. Stephen Curry
G. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
F. Nikola Jokic
F. LeBron James
F. Kevin Durant
Eastern Conference Starters
G. Jalen Brunson
G. Donovan Mitchell
F. Giannis Antetokounmpo
F. Karl-Anthony Towns
F. Jayson Tatum
Notes on these starters:
• Kevin Durant barely edged out Victor Wembanyama for the final starting frontcourt spot in the West. Durant finished third in the fan vote, second in the player vote and was fifth by the media. Wembanyama finished fourth in the fan and player vote but was second by the media. However, when added together (with the fan vote being 50% of the total), that was enough to get Durant another All-Star Game start.
• You can bet this year will be the last year for at least a decade that Wembanyama is not voted an All-Star Game starter, but you can be sure this will be his first All-Star Game. The coaches will vote him in.
• LaMelo Ball led the fan voting to be the East backcourt starter, but he did not get the backing of the media (who had him seventh) or players (who had him third). When all the votes were tallied, he fell short. The real question: Do the coaches feel like the media did and keep Ball from being an All-Star? My guess is will not send him to San Francisco.
• Damian Lillard was fourth in the East backcourt voting.
• Luka Doncic, despite missing considerable time with a strained calf and other injuries this season, finished…
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