LeBron James, Kevin Durant named captains again for All-Star Game as starter pool announced
Published: January 27, 2022 US time
Publisher: ESPN
Article by Tim Bontimes
Article translated by de Gaulle
This year's NBA All-Star Weekend event will be held in Cleveland, and the all-star game, as the highlight, will kick off on February 20, US time. Less than a month before the start of the main game, the NBA officially announced the starting lineup of the East and West of this year's All-Star Regular Game. The most notable captainship was won by James from the Lakers and Durant from the Nets.
This is the 18th consecutive year james has been named to the All-Star Team. In terms of the number of games, James will equal Kobe Bryant, who has also been selected 18 times, and tie for second place in NBA history. Ahead of him, Abdul-Jabbar, who has only been named an All-Star 19 times, is waiting for his onslaught for the coming year. At the same time, James' 18 consecutive years of finaliz also equaled Kobe Bryant, and the two were tied to become the players with the most "consecutive all-star teams" in NBA history. If nothing else, this record will continue to be rewritten by James next year.
In addition to the two records above, James is also writing a new record of his own, which is to become the captain of the All-Star Team for the fifth consecutive time. In the 2017-18 season, the NBA reformed the rules of the All-Star Game, no longer continuing the old tradition of the East and West parts, but allowing the players with the most votes in the East and West to become the captains of the team, and they formed their own All-Star teams through the "draft" in the live broadcast. After the restructuring, whether James is in the East or the West, he will occupy a captain position every time. Durant, who received the most votes in the East, became the captain of the All-Star team for the second consecutive year.
In addition to the two captains, the other eight All-Star starters were also announced. The other four starters in the West are The Warriors' Curry and Wiggins, the Grizzlies' Morant, and the Nuggets' Jokic. The other four starters in the East are Trey Young of the Hawks, DeRozan of the Bulls, Antetokounmpo of the Bucks and Joel Embiid of the 76ers. Of the 10 currently identified starters, Durant is currently recuperating from his injured knee ligament, and it is still unknown whether he will play in the All-Star Game at the end of February.
In addition to durant's injury status caused discussion, after the all-star starter was announced, another player who brought a lot of controversy was naturally Wiggins, one of the west's frontcourt starters. Many commentators believe that neither Wiggins' personal performance nor the gap with other candidates seems to be enough to get him into this starting position.
Before discussing Wiggins' starting position, the first thing to make clear is that today's All-Star starting qualification is no longer entirely determined by the votes of fans. Under the NBA's current rules, fans vote for players at only 50 percent of the final vote weight, and then add up the players' votes and media votes by 25 percent each. The lower the score of this weight, the less controversial the player representing the selection. Based on this, the final decision is made for 2 backcourts and 3 frontcourts for a total of 5 starters.
Specific to Wiggins, in this year's All-Star vote, Wiggins fans ranked 3rd in the Western Conference frontcourt, while Wiggins ranked 5th in player voting, and the media voted him 6th, with a weight score of 3×50% + 5× 25% + 6×25% = 4.25. He also beat teammate Draymond Green, who scored 4.75 in weights, and became the starter for the first time in his career as an All-Star. Although the player ranked 3rd in the ticket and the media 4th in the vote, his fans only ranked 6th in the vote and ultimately missed the start.
"I couldn't believe it," Wiggins said after learning he was an All-Star starter, "I was napping and my family and daughter woke me up and said, 'You're the starter, you're the starter.'" I thought I was in a dream and didn't know what was going on. But it feels great to know that I'm on the All-Star team, and I'm filled with gratitude. I've been training and playing hard since I started in the league, and I've found home here. Hopefully I can continue to be an All-Star in the future, and hopefully this won't be the last. ”
According to statistics from the data website, Wiggins became the third in NBA history, and after entering the league for 8 years or more, he became a starting player for the first time to be an All-Star. Before him, only Bob Boozer in 1967-68 and Kyle Lowry in 2014-15 had similar experiences. Wiggins is also the 40th all-Star since 1966 to enter the All-Star team. However, he was the first to make an All-Star debut after eight years or more in the league.
Like Wiggins, the first-time All-Star starter, there is also the Grizzlies guard Morant. Unlike Wiggins, who is slightly controversial, Morant's performance in the last two years is obvious to all. This season, whether it is his personal performance or the team's achievements, Morant deserves an All-Star starting position. In this year's voting, he received fan votes, media votes and player votes to catch up with Curry and ranked Second in the Western Conference backcourt, so he is definitely deserved to be the starter.
Compared with the first two players who entered the starting lineup for the first time in the All-Star, DeRozan, who became the starting backcourt of the East this year, is already an old face of the All-Star, counting this year, he has entered the All-Star five times. But becoming an All-Star starter was the first time since 2017.
DeRozan learned that he had become an All-Star starter on the team's charter flight. At that time, the plane was about to take off and take the Bulls to San Antonio to play away, and DeRozan heard a familiar voice coming from the "Captain's Radio", which was none other than DeRozan's teammate Zach Lavin.
"We're about to embark on our journey to San Antonio, and here there's an important announcement to everyone," Lavin said on the radio, "and our brother, Demar DeRozan, is an All-Star for the fifth time this year, and it's an All-Star starter." Everyone, give our brothers a little applause and cheers. Congratulations, congratulations. ”
As Lavin broadcast, the whole charter aircraft immediately turned into an ocean of joy, everyone was congratulating DeRozan, and the Bulls defender was laughing and waving to everyone. "We can't live in this league and get younger and younger, so for me, I'm just going to overcome everything," DeRozan said, "This season I've come to a new environment and everything I've achieved is thanks to the team." Going back to Being All-Star was so special to me, and I was voted to start as an All-Star. It's a moment when you don't know who to call to announce the good news, and I'm really a little confused, but it feels really good. ”
For DeRozan, his all-star selection this time is indeed a very inspirational process. After playing for the Spurs in the first two seasons, he not only stayed away from the all-star stage, but also gradually faded out of the fans' vision. But before the start of the season, he joined the Bulls as a free agent, and after coming to Chicago, he and the team promoted each other and achieved each other. Currently, DeRozan averages 26.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game for the Bulls, and his stats and performance, combined with the Bulls' Second place in the East, make him the starter this time, and there is not much controversy. In this All-Star vote, DeRozan's fans, players and media all ranked first in the Eastern Conference backcourt.
In addition to the two captains in the East and West, and three more attractive players, the other five All-Star starters are the right choices in the minds of most people.
In addition to James and Wiggins in the Western Conference frontcourt, it is Jokic, the MVP winner of last season's regular season, whose fan votes and player votes are ranked second in the Western Conference frontcourt, and the media vote is tied for first place with James. In addition to Morant in the Western Conference backcourt, Curry is unsurprisingly with a result of 3 votes first, occupying a starting position.
In addition to Captain Durant in the Eastern Conference frontcourt, the other two are Alphabet Brother and Embiid. Alphabet Brother's fan votes and player votes are ranked second in the Eastern Conference frontcourt, Embiid's fan votes and player votes are ranked third in the Eastern Conference frontcourt, and the media votes of the two are tied for first place in the Eastern Conference frontcourt, regardless of Durant. In the Eastern Conference backcourt, although Trey Young only finished third in the player vote, he lost to the Bulls' LaVine, but he finally got a starting position with the second-place fan vote and media vote in the Eastern Conference backcourt.
According to the NBA's schedule, after the launcher is announced, the list of substitute players in the All-Star Team will be selected by the All-Star coaches in the East and West, and then officially announced on February 3, US time. Then, james and Durant, the two captains, have to choose the right teammates through the live draft to form their own all-star team.