How the All-Star Game works: A breakdown of the NBA's new format
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The NBA All-Stars have been selected. Next up: Assigning them to teams.
The 10 players designated as starters were announced on Jan. 23, the remaining 14 players designated as reserves were revealed Thursday — and now, those 24 players will be drafted onto eight-player teams for the games that will be played on Feb. 16 in San Francisco.
TNT analysts and basketball greats Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith will draft the teams on Feb. 6. The eight-player teams will bear their names — Team Shaq, Team Charles and Team Kenny.
They’ll pick from this pool of players:
— LeBron James and Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers
— Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Darius Garland of the Cleveland Cavaliers
— Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics
— Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks
— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder
— Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves
— Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons
— Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves
— James Harden of the Los Angeles Clippers
— Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns
— Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets
— Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors
— Pascal Siakam of the Indiana Pacers
— Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat
— Alperen Sengun of the Houston Rockets
— Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies
— Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs
How the tournament works
The games will be fast. Games are to 40 points; first one to reach that total wins. The two semifinal winners will meet in the All-Star final, that game also goes only to 40 points.
Voting format
There was a weighted formula to pick the 10 players designated as “starters.” It was 50% fan vote, 25% media panel vote, 25% current player vote. NBA head coaches picked the 14 players designated as “reserves.”
But the starter and reserve columns won’t mean much on game night, since there will be 15 different players starting — five from each of the three teams — and only nine players coming off the bench in those semifinal games.
How the tournament works
The Rising Stars event winner — that tournament will be held Feb. 14, another four-team event made up of first- and second-year players — will be the fourth team in the All-Star games on Feb. 16. That team will be called Team Candace, for Candace Parker.
Why the change
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has wanted a more competitive All-Star event for some time, and this change comes after the teams combined to score a record 397 points — 211-186 was the final — in last season’s game at Indianapolis.
The teams combined to take 289 shot attempts in last year’s game, 94% of those being either inside the paint or beyond the 3-point line.
Coaching staffs
Kenny Atkinson of the Cleveland Cavaliers will coach one All-Star team, Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder will coach another, and two of their assistants — one from each team — will have the other teams under their direction.
Cleveland and Oklahoma City are sending their staffs to the game because those are the teams with the best records in the Eastern and Western Conferences.
Prize money
There is a prize pool of $1.8 million for the All-Star Game.
Each player on the All-Star champion team gets $125,000, each player on the runner-up team will get $50,000 and the players on the teams eliminated in the semifinals will each get $25,000.
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