If there’s one thing LeBron James has proved throughout his career: He knows how to pick teammates.
Aside from how that has played out with his championship teams in Miami, Cleveland and now with the Lakers, it’s been a theme in the annual All-Star Game too: Ever since the NBA transitioned to a playground-style pick-your-own-team format, Team LeBron is 3-0.
While the weekend will be condensed to one day this year, the game is still on, and James picked his former rival captains as his first teammates: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounpo and Golden State’s Steph Curry. Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Denver’s Nikola Jokic rounded out the Team LeBron starters when James and Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant selected their teams on Thursday night on TNT.
Durant, who is not playing in Sunday’s game due to injury, selected Brooklyn teammate Kyrie Irving, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, Washington’s Bradley Beal and Boston’s Jayson Tatum.
All-Star events will begin at 2 p.m. PST, including the skills challenge, 3-point contest and dunk contest. The game itself begins at 5 p.m. PST.
James’ starting unit features the only other active players besides himself to win multiple MVPs, Antetokounmpo and Curry – both of whom have served as captains in previous All-Star Games that James’ team won. He also picked up two of the best triple-double threats in the league in Jokic and Doncic.
“I try to get the best available,” James said, “who I think will fit my skill set with my first pick. I just try to pick players that can complement one another. When we’re on the floor, we’ll try to play the game the right way. It’s the All-Star Game, so there’s going to be some shenanigans out there. But for the majority of the game, we’re going to try to play the right way and come out with a win.”
After selecting from the pool of starters, who were voted on by a combination of fans, players and media members, the leading vote-getters from the Western and Eastern conferences continued back and forth in selecting the reserves, with Durant getting the first choice from that pool.
Durant picked teammate James Harden first, then selected Phoenix’s Devin Booker, New Orleans’ Zion Williamson, Chicago’s Zach LaVine, New York’s Julius Randle, Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic and Utah’s Donovan Mitchell.
James scooped up Portland’s Damian Lillard, Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons, Phoenix’s Chris Paul, Boston’s Jaylen Brown, the Clippers’ Paul George, Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis and Utah’s Rudy Gobert.
The draft order got to be a sticking point at the end, when both Gobert and Mitchell – who play for the NBA’s winningest team – were still on the board. James poked fun at the Jazz’s expense over Charles Barkley’s cries of slander on the broadcast.
“There’s no slander to the Utah Jazz,” James said. “But you guys got to understand, just like in video games growing up, we never played with Utah. As great as Karl Malone and John Stockton was, we would never pick those guys in video games. Never.”
Stockton and Malone, of course, annually battled James’ childhood idol, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls when he was playing video games growing up.
One of the players James has routinely selected for his teams wasn’t available: the Lakers’ Anthony Davis will sit out the game due to injury and was not on the draft board.
While Durant won’t be playing Sunday, James – who sat out Wednesday’s loss to the Sacramento Kings, the first game he has missed this season – will be on the court.
“I’m good,” James said, when asked how he is feeling. “Obviously, it’s a long season, and want to make sure my body, my mind is as fresh as possible going into the second half of the season. So, it’s been a good first half, and hopefully, it can be a better second half, so looking forward to the final stretch.”
Jazz coach Quin Snyder will lead James’ team in his All-Star debut as a head coach. Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers, who played in one All-Star Game, is coaching the game for the third time and will lead Durant’s team.
CHARITY CHOICES
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have committed more than $3 million to aid historically Black institutions as part of All-Star Sunday, with at least $1.75 million coming from the game itself.
Team LeBron will play on behalf of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Team Durant will play for the United Negro College Fund. Both organizations will receive $500,000 to start, and the winners of the first, second and third quarters will collect another $150,000. The team that reaches the target score and wins the game first will get $300,000 more.
NBA RESPONDS TO LAKERS-KINGS OFFICIATING CALLS
The Lakers had more than one bone to pick with the officials after a 123-120 loss to the Kings on Wednesday night, but the one Coach Frank Vogel seemed to have the biggest problem with was a shot by Buddy Hield in the second quarter that replays showed he had a foot on the line.
“We told the officials about it. They said they’d turn it into Seacaucus (N.J. at the league offices), and they gave us some excuse that too much time had passed that they can’t reverse it at that point,” Vogel said. “So when you got a one-point game down the stretch, that’s very disappointing that they weren’t able to look at that.”
After follow-up from the Southern California News Group, the NBA confirmed the ruling: Hield’s shot was at the 8:37 mark of the second quarter, so by rule, the Lakers would have needed to ask for a review at the next timeout. The Lakers asked for the review at halftime.
The NBA also showed some spotty calls in the last two-minute report, most markedly that the field goal by Harrison Barnes with 30 seconds left – the game-winning basket – should have been called for a travel. The Lakers had an offensive foul that was not called as well against Richaun Holmes, but they got the benefit of the doubt on a non-call against Montrezl Harrell on an offensive foul.
Neither the report nor the NBA has yet addressed Harrell’s technical, which Harrell will almost certainly be fined for after calling the technical “soft” and accusing official Jenna Schroeder of being “in her feelings” when she whistled him.
LeBron and KD make their first picks
#NBAAllStar Draft presented by @Nike pic.twitter.com/4DRSTHbgTw
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) March 5, 2021
The 2021 #NBAAllStar #TeamLeBron & #TeamDurant rosters as drafted by @KingJames and @KDTrey5! pic.twitter.com/TWntJccnyP
— NBA (@NBA) March 5, 2021
“You guys gotta understand… In video games growing up, we never played with Utah.”
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) March 5, 2021
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