NBA Announces Captains And Starters For 2023 All-Star Game
Both Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James have been two of the best players in the NBA this season and they will be representing the Eastern Conference and Western Conference, respectively, in the 2023 NBA All-Star Game as this year’s captains.
For James, this is his 19th All-Star Game appearance, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most All-Star appearances in league history. Ironically enough, the Los Angeles Lakers star is trending towards passing Kareem on the NBA’s all-time scoring list within the next couple of weeks.
This is the sixth straight season in which LeBron James will be a captain in the All-Star Game.
In the East, Antetokounmpo has made the Milwaukee Bucks a championship contender once again and he will be an All-Star captain for the third time in his career.
Giannis surpassed Kevin Durant for the top vote-getter in the Eastern Conference in the final fan vote, directly resulting in him earning the captain spot this season.
Joining LeBron James as the All-Star starters from the Western Conference are Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks), Zion Williamson (New Orleans Pelicans) and Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets).
Both Curry and Doncic were highly anticipated to be the starting guards from the West and Jokic, the league’s reigning back-to-back MVP, was pegged in one of the other two frontcourt spots alongside James for quite some time.
Seeing Zion Wiliamson get the All-Star Game starter spot over the likes of Sacramento Kings big man Domantas Sabonis is a little surprising, but when he is healthy, Zion is undoubtedly one of the best and most efficient players in the entire league.
In the Eastern Conference, Giannis Antetokounmpo is joined by Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn Nets), Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers), Kevin Durant (Brooklyn Nets) and Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics).
There was a lot of discussion about who would get the three frontcourt spots between Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid over the last few weeks.
Ultimately, Durant and Tatum got the edge over Embiid, leaving many to question how the voting process should work since there are two starters spots for guards and three for frontcourt players without one being reserved for a true center.
Overall though, Embiid will be an All-Star this year as a reserve from the Eastern Conference.
The rest of this year’s All-Star rosters will be revealed at a later date with the 2023 NBA All-Star Game set to take place in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 19.
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