NEW YORK – LeBron James and French prodigy Victor Wembanyama could line up alongside each other at the National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star game, after the league announced on Wednesday that the annual showpiece will return to a classic Eastern Conference versus Western Conference format.
The showdown of elite NBA talent will take place on Feb 18 in Indianapolis at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers. Indianapolis will host the All-Star Game for the first time since 1985.
The voting process for the All-Star Game to determine the line-ups will remain the same, with 12 players chosen from each conference.
James’ Los Angeles Lakers and Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs are both in the Western Conference.
For the past six years, the league had used a format in which the top vote-getters from each conference were named team captains and held a draft to select the rest of the players, regardless of conference.
In 2020, the NBA changed the scoring format to create a “target score” in which the points total of the leading team after three quarters was raised by 24 points, in a nod to the late Kobe Bryant’s jersey number, and whichever team reached the target score would win the contest.
All-Star team captains will continue to be the starter from each conference who receives the most votes.
Under the earlier format, Team LeBron James won five All-Star Games in a row before losing to Team Giannis Antetokounmpo last season. Up to 2017, the East had earned a 37-29 edge over the West in the annual rivalry.
Meanwhile, the NBA and China may have encountered turbulence in their relations over the years but retired great Yao Ming said the league is still “first class” in his home country.
Yao, the president of the Chinese Basketball Association, soared to stardom at the Houston Rockets as an affable, 2.29m big man who dominated the league before retiring in 2011.
The eight-time All-Star propelled the league’s popularity in his home country but relations between China and the NBA have not always been smooth.
Chinese broadcasters stopped airing Rockets games in 2019 after then general manager Daryl Morey posted a message in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong and, earlier in 2023, former NBA player Dwight Howard appeared in a promotional video in which he referred to Taiwan as a country, prompting backlash.
“I have to say, the NBA is in the first class... (because) you know the players being exposed in China for so long,” Yao said, when asked about the past issues between China and the NBA.
“The players, the teams (are) all still very well welcome in China and (we had) a couple of players (in) China just this past summer.”
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kyle Anderson played for China at the Fiba World Cup, while the Miami Heat’s six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler went on a tour of the country over the summer. AFP, REUTERS
