NBA On TNT Announced That All-Star Captains Will Choose The Reserves First, Followed By The Starters
The new format that the NBA introduced a few years ago for the all-star game has brought some life and energy back to the event. In seasons past the all-star was nothing more than a glorified scrimmage and now the players have a chance to be more competitive. A new wrinkle added this season was that the all-star captains would be picking teams 30 minutes prior to the game. Now, we’ve learned that reserves will be selected before the starters this year.
By selecting the reserves first, this is supposed to eliminate the discussion of why someone was chosen last in the draft. Why does that even matter at all? These players are lucky enough to be all-star’s and they could truly care less about where they are picked in an all-star draft.
Here’s how the NBA All-Star draft is gonna work on Sunday night:
LeBron and Giannis will pick the reserves first, then the other 8 starters will be picked afterward.
Thoughts? 🤔
(via @TurnerSportsEJ) pic.twitter.com/YhVe0nyXHC
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) February 17, 2023
Does a player really care if they are chosen last in the all-star draft? The league apparently thinks so.
Ernie Johnson and the NBA on TNT crew leaked the information last night about the change to how players were selected. The two captains, LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo will still be choosing their players like it’s been done the past few seasons. However, they were informed that they will be selecting their reserves first and then picking from the pool of starters that are left.
Apparently a number of fans last year were not happy when center Rudy Gobert was chosen last in the all-star draft. A season before that, Kevin Durant and LeBron were the captains of the all-star draft and a similar situation happened.
James Harden and Gobert were the last two players left as reserves in the all-star draft. It was Durant’s turn to pick and he chose Gobert over Harden and it made LeBron and others laugh. Harden had just been traded from the Nets at the time and Durant did not chose Harden out of spite.
That could be another reason why the league is deciding to go this way as well. The starters were chosen as starters for a reason. Letting the reserves go first eliminates anyone feeling a certain way about where players were taken. This years 72nd annual all-star game will start at 8:00pm EST on TNT and the pre-game draft will begin at 7:30.
Source: Basketball Insider
