Six NBA reporters at The Athletic, including Sam Amick, Fred Katz, and Joe Vardon, made their picks for the Eastern and Western Conference All-Star starters, with all six writers selecting the same three frontcourt players in the East: Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns.
Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic were the only unanimous choices in the West. Meanwhile, Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, and Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama each showed up on all but one of the six ballots from The Athletic’s reporters.
The NBA will officially announce this year’s All-Star starters on Thursday evening during a TNT broadcast. The starters are determined by votes from fans (50%), players (25%), and the media (25%).
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Veteran NBA big man Bruno Fernando, who was waived earlier this month by Toronto before his full-season salary could become guaranteed, is in talks with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, as Michalis Gioylenoglou reports for Eurohoops.net. Gioylenoglou describes Fernando as becoming more open to making the move to Europe after having initially been reluctant to head across the Atlantic. However, no deal is done yet.
- Hawks head coach Quin Snyder is among the candidates receiving serious consideration to become the next coach of Australia’s national team, sources tell Olgun Uluc of ESPN. The Boomers are seeking a successor to Brian Goorjian, who coached the national team at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.
- Former NBA big man Antonio Davis, who appeared in over 900 games from 1993-2006 and made an All-Star team with Toronto in 2001, has been named the CEO of the National Basketball Retired Players Association, reports Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link). According to Spears, Davis will “drive the strategic visions, business operations, member services, and growth” of the NBRPA, a non-profit association representing former NBA players.
- In a feature story for The New York Times, Bruce Schoenfeld checks in on Adrian Wojnarowski, exploring why the former star news-breaker, who was making $7.3MM annually at ESPN, accepted a job at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure, that pays him about one percent of that amount ($75K per year).
Jeez why was Woj making so much $ lol? He was extremely boring any time I ever heard him speak. Does anyone miss him now that he’s gone? What did he ever bring to the table?
What did he bring? Dude had the best sources and had news before anyone else. That draws eyeballs.
And mostly true, unlike other attention seeking clickbait specialists.
He was 1 of the guys that agents & teams fed news to. Now they use other guys. He wasn’t entertaining in any way.
If Australia goes homegrown over Snyder, I’m out.
The committee of three choosing said head coach is worrying to say the least. We already sacked Goorjian for a reason years ago then bring him back so he could pick nbl guys over nba guys. Haven’t even mentioned the useless rotations Goorjian ran with.
If Quin goes to coach Australia he can stay out there as far as I’m concerned. He’s definitely not a bad coach but I’ve seen enough to know that he won’t be the difference. If Chris Paul retires this off-season then he would be option #1 but I’d love Andre Miller too
Wait….because Snyder wants to coach Fiba you don’t want him back in Atlanta? Players have to win the game sure. These guys coaching in the NBL aren’t coaching in the NBA for a reason, they aren’t as good. Plenty of NBA coaches have and still do coach other national teams.
Snyder has gotten the best out of Daniels, Hunter, Okongwu and bought Johnson on nicely. And on some nights, Atlanta even with Trae on the floor look good defensively. You just said he’s not a bad coach so is this a patriotic thing? Team USA aren’t hiring Snyder so why can’t he go coach in the world’s or Olympics? You guys didn’t have a problem taking Embiid.
I don’t mind him coaching fiba at all but I dw him back in Atlanta unless he wins a playoff series. He’s a good coach but he’s not what we need. I would love to see us get a coach that imparts a culture of toughness on the team similar to Udoka in Houston or Sloan in Utah. Chris Paul, Kelvin Sampson are 2 guys that fit the prototype of what I want the Hawks HC to be like. Laimbeer or Andre Miller are other guys I wouldn’t mind