LeBron James approaches Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record, the leading scorer in NBA history. For now, he has reached the legendary player in another area.
James was named an All-Star starter for the 19th time Thursday, tying Abdul-Jabbar for the most selections in league history.. The current player of the Los Angeles Lakers, is the one who has obtained the most votes in general, and will be the captain of one of the teams for the main game on February 19 in Salt Lake City.
By the Eastern Conference, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks was chosen as captain.
This is the sixth year that the NBA has used the captains format for the All-Star Game. James has been captain on each of those occasions and has never lost the game, in five editions. Antetokounmpo is captain for the third time, after earning the honor in 2019 and 2020.
James and Antetokounmpo will choose their teammates shortly before the duel in Salt Lake City, under a recently announced mechanic. In previous years, that selection was made one or two weeks before the match.
The other eight starters they will pick from, barring an injury trade, are: Denver’s Nikola Jokic, a two-time NBA MVP; Dallas’ Luka Doncic, the league’s leading scorer; Golden State’s Stephen Curry; Boston’s Jayson Tatum; fellow Brooklynites Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving; Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchel, and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson.
“I definitely feel blessed and honored to be a part of this,” Mitchell said during the headline announcement broadcast on TNT. “To be part of my fourth All-Star Game and now to be a starter. Could not be happier”.
The big intrigue was the third-place attack in the Eastern Conference, where Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, the NBA’s second-leading scorer in the season going into Thursday at 33.4 points per game, was uncharacteristically left out after Antetokounmpo, Durant and Tatum were the top three in the voting.
The starters, three forwards and two point guards from each conference, were selected through a combination of three different votes: The one carried out by the fans represented 50%, the one from the media 25% and the one from the NBA players added the remaining 25%.
The substitutesthat They are chosen from the vote of the league coaches, will be announced on February 2. Players who are virtually certain to feature include: Portland’s Damian Lillard, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Boston’s Jaylen Brown and Miami’s Bam Adebayo.
LeBron James is 157 points behind the total of 38,387 Abdul-Jabbar has scored in his entire career. At his current average of 29.9 points per game, James will need about five games to break the record, and if he doesn’t miss a game in that time, he would be on pace to beat Abdul-Jabbar in a home game scheduled for February 7 in Oklahoma City.