LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) will be the captains in the NBA All-Star Game. The All-Star Game takes place on February 19 in Salt Lake City (Utah). Both players were the most voted by the public in the Western and Eastern conferences, respectively. Since 2018, however, the game no longer takes place in both conferences, instead the captains choose the players from their teams. This time they will also do it just before the game starts for the sake of the show.
For LeBron James, the man set to break nearly every NBA record, it’s his 19th All-Star Game. He will overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was picked 19 times between 1979 and 1989 but missed the 1973 game.
When selecting the All-Star starters, 50% of the votes came from fan votes, while a media panel and a player panel each weighted 25%. Five players will be selected from each conference
In the Western Conference, alongside LeBron James, the chosen few were Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets), Zion Williamson (New Orleans Pelicans), Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) and Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks). In the East, with Antetokounmpo as captain, the other four selected were Kevin Durant (Brooklyn Nets), Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn Nets). They are the undisputed stars of their respective teams.
So there are 10 players from new different teams (Irving and Durant play together for the Nets) who will take the court on the first bounce of the great American pro basketball party that will close out a weekend that will also include mate and trebles competition, among other activities. Three Europeans are in the starting blocks.
choice of equipment
The seven All-Star alternatives from each conference, voted on by the 30 East and West coaches, will be announced on Thursday, February 2nd. James and Antetokounmpo, as captains, will choose the components of the two teams from the pool of players selected as starters and reserves. For the first time, the NBA All-Star Draft extravaganza takes place right before the game. Players will arrive at the Vivint Arena, which has a capacity of more than 18,000 spectators, not knowing which team they will be playing for.
The captains, starting with the one with the most votes, first select players from the group of the remaining 8 starters. This is how the first quintets are formed. Then they re-elect seven alternates from the 14 chosen by the coaches, whether from East or West.
The coaches for each team are determined by the rankings two weeks before the All-Star Game. The coaching staff of the East and West leaders are paired with their respective conference captains. However, if the leader’s coaching staff trained in the previous All-Star match, the secondary coaching staff is selected. Coaches in 2022 were Erik Spoelstra (Miami Heat/Team Durant) and Monty Williams (Phoenix Suns/Team LeBron).
Currently the leaders in the east are the Boston Celtics and in the west the Denver Nuggets, both with big advantages. This makes Joe Mazulla, newcomer to the NBA as head coach, and the experienced Michael Malone the favourites.
special rules
The game is played with special rules. The biggest difference from a normal NBA game is that a point goal is set to determine the winner. Each team fights for victory in the first three quarters, each starting 0-0 and lasting 12 minutes. In the last quarter, it’s not the time that counts, it’s the achievement of the points target.
This score is determined by taking the cumulative total of the team in front by adding the points from the first three quarters, adding 24 points, in homage to Kobe Bryant’s jersey number over his last 10 NBA seasons. With the clock stopped, whoever reaches the point goal first wins the game. For example, if the cumulative score of the first three quarters is 105-95, the final score is set at 129 points. Whoever reaches this number first wins the match. In the example, the team that already has 105 points would need to score those 24 more points, while the rival would need to score 34 points.
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