NBA Announces Big Change To All-Star Game Draft

On Tuesday evening, the NBA announced that the 2023 NBA All-Star Game Draft will take place live on TNT ahead of the NBA All-Star Game on February 19 as a special pregame segment.

The 2023 NBA All-Star Game will be on February 19 in Salt Lake City, Utah and the league is preparing to reveal who will be participating in this year’s All-Star Weekend.

This year’s All-Star Game starters and team captains will be named live on January 26 during TNT’s coverage of the NBA and the rest of the All-Stars will be named at a later time.

While we will know the captains, starters and the rest of the participants in the All-Star Game entering All-Star Weekend, nobody will know which team each star is on until the game is about to begin!

Making a slight change to the All-Star Draft this season, the NBA announced on Tuesday evening that the the 2023 NBA All-Star Draft will air as a new, live pregame segment at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET from Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on TNT.

In past seasons, the captains have made their selections live on TNT, but never before has the draft been done right ahead of the All-Star Game.

The two team captains will be the fan's top vote-getters from each conference and after the most recent voting results the NBA released a week ago, it seems like LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) will be the captains this year.

James will be making his 19th All-Star Game appearance this year, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who he is about to pass this year on the NBA’s All-Time Scoring List, for the most All-Star Game appearances in NBA history.

As for Giannis Antetokounmpo, this will be his seventh consecutive All-Star appearance and should he be the captain in the Eastern Conference, this will mark the third time in his career that he has been the All-Star Game captain.

Among others who will be participating in this year’s All-Star Game, it is expected that Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets), Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks), Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics) and Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers) will all be named All-Star Game starters with Kevin Durant (Brooklyn Nets) and Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn Nets) also likely being starters based on the recent fan vote. 

---

Be sure to catch up on the newest episode of The Fast Break Podcast hosted by Fastbreak's own Brett Siegel!

Streaming on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, The Fast Break Podcast takes you inside the league with the latest news, intel, rumors and interviews from those close to the action for all 30 teams. Be on the lookout for a new episodes every Friday.