Currently, Damian Lillard has nine NBA All-Star selections. The 14 players named Thursday night as reserves for the February 16 celebrations in San Francisco include last year’s All-Star MVP, who will return to the tournament.
And it’s clear that NBA coaches agree: Victor Wembanyama is among the top players in the league. For the first time, the San Antonio standout and the current rookie of the year is named an All-standout.
Only four Spurs players have made it to the All-Star Game in their first or second season, including Wembanyama. Tim Duncan in 1998, David Robinson in 1990 and 1991, and Alvin Robertson in 1986 were the others.
When asked last week in Paris about Wembanyama’s chances of being named an All-Star, acting Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said, “It’s just a testament to his first year and a half in this league and the work he put in prior to that and trusting the process of trying to get incrementally better, not skipping steps.” Naturally, that then makes the talent and special skill set stand out.
Following the announcement of the 10 names for the starting pool last week, which were determined by a combination of fan vote (50%), media voting (25%), and active player voting (25%), coaches choose the reserves.
Each conference had seven players selected on Thursday. Lillard, Jaylen Brown of Boston, Pascal Siakam of Indiana, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley of Cleveland, Cade Cunningham of Detroit, and Tyler Herro of Miami are all from the Eastern Conference.
From the West: Wembanyama, Anthony Edwards of Minnesota, Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers, James Harden of the Los Angeles Clippers, Jaren Jackson Jr. of Memphis, Alperen Sengun of Houston, and Jalen Williams of Oklahoma City.
First-time All-Stars include Wembanyama, Cunningham, Mobley, Herro, Sengun, and Williams.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to participate,” Herro added.
Stephen Curry of Golden State, Kevin Durant of Phoenix, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers (who received his record-tying 21st All-Star selection), Nikola Jokic of Denver, Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson of New York, Donovan Mitchell of Cleveland, and Jayson Tatum of Boston were among the ten players selected last week for the starting pool.
The teams with several picks include Cleveland (3), the Lakers (2), Oklahoma City (2), Boston (2), Milwaukee (2), and New York (2). The Clippers, Memphis, Houston, San Antonio, Detroit, Indiana, Miami, Golden State, Phoenix, Denver, and Minnesota each received one pick.
There were no All-Star selections from Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans, Orlando, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento, Toronto, Utah, and Washington.
This season, at least 15 players will start in the All-Star Game. There are three games in the inaugural year of a new All-Star format. Former NBA greats Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith, together with TNT celebrities, will pick the 24 All-Stars into three teams of eight players each.
Next Thursday is when that draft will take place.
On All-Star Friday, February 14, those three teams will compete in a four-team competition, with the remaining team consisting of NBA rookies and second-year players from the Rising Stars event. The winners of the two semifinal matches advance to the title match. The first team to 40 points wins; the games should move swiftly.
In an attempt to make the shorter games more competitive, the league altered the structure this year. With a score of 211-186 and a game that was essentially all 3-pointers and dunks, last year’s All-Star Game had the greatest scoring total in league history.
According to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, we had to start over. We spoke directly with a number of the players, including several of the recurring All-Stars, to discuss what we could assemble from a competitive perspective. This year, I’m hopeful that we’ve found a formula that works.
Two of the teams will be coached by Mark Daigneault of Oklahoma City and a staff assistant, while the other teams will be led by Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson and one of his assistants.
Notable names that were left off the roster included LaMelo Ball of Charlotte, who came very close to being selected as a starter but didn’t have enough coach support to be a reserve; Trae Young of Atlanta; Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento; Tyrese Maxey of Philadelphia; Tyrese Haliburton of Indiana; Devin Booker of Phoenix; De Aaron Fox of Sacramento; Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic of Dallas (who has only played in 22 games); and Norman Powell of the Clippers.
Ball averages 7.3 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and 28.2 points per game, good for fourth place in the NBA. Doncic would rank fifth in scoring with 28.1 points per game, 8.3 rebounds, and 7.8 assists per game if he played enough games to qualify for the league leaders, which he hasn’t due to injury.
They would be the first two players in NBA history to have such season-long numbers and miss the All-Star Game if they maintain such averages and play enough games to earn a spot on the league’s end-of-season leaderboard.
Silver makes those decisions when needed, so it’s possible that one or both might be named as injured replacements in the upcoming weeks.
— AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds
