Report: 2019 NBA All-Star Draft Will Be Televised in January
The NBA and NBPA have agreed to televise the All-Star draft for the 2019 contest in Charlotte, Marc Stein and Kevin Draper of The New York Timesreport.
The draft will likely be aired on TNT and Jan. 30 and 31 are looking like potential target dates, depending on the availability of the two captains.
Last season, the league switched the format of the All-Star game from East vs. West to a playground-style in which two captains picked teams among a pool of All-Stars from both conferences.
The leading vote-getter from each conference is named a captain and those two players pick from the other 22 All-Stars (11 from each conference) to create the teams.
The league caught some flack last season for not televising the draft. The NBPA said the decision to not televise was because there wasn't a consensus among the players who could be affected.
However, captains LeBron James and Stephen Curry both agreed after the draft that it should have been shown to the fans.
James spoke with Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com after the report surfaced the draft would be televised and said last year's draft with Curry was "Fantasy basketball for us."
"What's bad about it?" James asked in response to whether or not televising the draft would be a good decision. "It's All-Star Weekend. You got 24 of the best players in the world that's going to make the team. It doesn't matter if you're first or last, you're 24 of the best in the world at that point in time. I don't think it'll be bad. We'll see."
With James now in the West, there's no shot for he and Curry to both be captains again. Depending on who represents the East this year as the captain, James, Curry or another West All-Star could be in for an amazing event when it's time to pick teams.
"I think obviously there are certain personalities that can add to it," James said. "But it all depends how much the captains are going to get into it, as far as their draft boards. We'll see."
The 2019 All-Star game will take place on Feb. 19.
Last season, Team LeBron defeated Team Stephen 148-145.
