The NBA announced the starters and captains for the 2019 All-Star Game on Thursday, with the Lakers’ LeBron James and Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo being named team captains for their respective conferences.
The Western Conference starters are comprised of James, Warriors stars Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, Rockets guard James Harden, and Thunder forward Paul George.
Antetokounmpo, Hornets guard Kemba Walker, Celtics guard Kyrie Irving, Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard, and Sixers center Joel Embiid were named starters in the Eastern Conference.
James (4,620,809 votes) and Antetokounmpo (4,375,747 votes) received the most fan votes from each conference in the past month, giving them the honors of being captains this season.
James and Antetokounmpo will draft their teams from the list of these starters and reserves on Thursday, February 7, hours after the NBA’s trade deadline. The All-Star Game will take place on Sunday, February 17, with the reserve players set to be announced next Thursday night.
We made our All-Star picks for the Western Conference and Eastern Conference earlier this week.
No arguments from me
Luka was top 3 in votes, second in the west and didn’t make it?
Seems so. It would have been an injustice to PG13 or KD if Luka had made it. Not to mention AD.
Player votes kicked him out
Media votes too
All-Star voting is 50% fan vote, 25% player vote, and 25% media vote. Doncic was 2nd in the West in the fan vote, but was much further down in the player and media vote.
Looks like everyone in Slovenia voted 2x. ZaZa had the same outside voting from “fans” too.
IMO, the teams should try to play real basketball and win the games. That means the coaches should decide the starting lineups. I know nobody plays D in the all-star game, but if they did, this would be a total nightmare for the West.
The 3 best scorers in the world plus the best player in the world would be on the West if these were the teams. I don’t think it would be that much of a nightmare.
“IF” they played D, I’d take the east, “if” it were a real game played with starting 5
And you would lose. LeBron playing bad defense doesn’t equate to the west playing bad defense. Two starters are apart of the league’s best defense, the warriors.
Lebron + Warriors + AD would lose? Lmao
PG13 is a surprise inclusion, thought AD would have had it for sure. Guess that means KD plays C.
Luka will be named as one of the last reserves
If this were an actual game I feel like Embiid would destroy KD in the Paint.
That’s not saying much. He’s obviously the much stronger player.
I think the fan vote had AD behind PG (while the players and media had AD ahead). Both AD and PG actually tied in the voting, but PG won the tiebreaker because he was higher in the fan vote.
Luka ain’t getting in. They don’t let rookies in.
That western starting 5 is possibly best starting 5 I’ve ever seen for a All Star team. When u can’t start DeRozan, u know ur starting 5 is insane. I’m a East guy, as diehard KNICKS fan, but my Lord that West starting 5!
Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Jordan, Shaq, Pippen 1996 AS East Roster.
Imagine if Lebron picks kyrie… the amount of speculation we shall read about!
I am tired of Lebron.
He heard and is absolutely devastated.
As a long-time Bucks fan, I’m thrilled to see how the Greek Freak has brought Milwaukee back to relevancy. To have him place in the Top 2 among NBA fans – and represent a small market – demonstrates what he has done for the city and the league. Very excited.
This is such BS. Why have fans vote? NBA does not respect fans. Media, Players and NBA depend on fans. You couldn’t play without us. None of you would have careers without fans. So disrespectful. Either fans vote count or don’t bother us.
Fan votes are dumb anyways. I’d rather the right guys get in no matter what, then some has been super star who hasent done squat but has name recognition. Don’t blame the NBA, blame all the idiot fans that don’t vote deserving over the yrs, and only vote popular names .
so heres the issue with what you guys are saying. your thinking of the “all nba team” awards given at the end of the year. for 1st, 2nd and 3rd team, thats what should reward the best players in the nba. the all star game is literally a game for the fans. your rewarding the fans not the players. so if fans vote dirk nowitzki in over paul george than thats on the rest of us for not voting. if dewayne wade gets in over ben simmons, thats on us. the only issue thats gotten greater recently in sports is that they have opened up voting to the rest of the world which actually presents a big problem if an entire country rallies around 1 player like zaza pachulia.
Because if it were all fan vote D Wade would undeservedly be starting some other guy could lose a spot he deserves
The fan vote accounts for 50% of the vote. Normally I would agree with you, but fans have proven themselves to be idiots when it comes to voting like this. Fans usually blindly vote for their hometown team’s players/favorite player/a player from their country. If the fan vote was the only measure, D Wade and Doncic would’ve been starters. All respect to Wade, but he’s not an All Star this year and Doncic isn’t an All-Star starter (although he deserves serious consideration for a reserve spot) considering Anthony Davis, Paul George, Kevin Durant, and LeBron (when he was healthy) are all having better seasons.
The game is for the fans, but the voting format is fine as is. Zaza Pachulia was nearly an all star starter last year because of the fan vote. Yao Ming was basically a lock for the All-Star game every year since he had all of China voting for him. As much as you want to give back to the fans, you also have to rightly reward the guys who are getting All-Star nods because of their performance.
coaches, players and media dont always get it right either. blake snell missed the all star team originally this year in baseball. he was the best pitcher in american league at the time and would have missed the game completely had it not been for an injury. he went on to win the cy young this year. look at coach of the year voting where the raptors fire casey. had fans voted either stevens or popovich would have won last year.
point is this game is for the fans, if we screw up the voting, than so be it. all you have to do is change the wording in the players contracts so that the “all nba team” selections carry more weight than all star game selections.
but i would change the fan voting so only countries with nba teams can vote. aka usa and canada
Does anybody really watch game itself?
On ESPN highlights. Same w/Dunk Contest and 3-Pt Contest.
KEMBA!!!!!
So unfair to put kemba, KD and PG-13 ahead of Simmons, ad and jokic!!!
I do not watch the silly all star game. However, shouldn’t e fan vote be the only one that counts because that is who the fans want to see? Because!?!?!?