Kevin Durant and LeBron James will reprise their roles at the top on opposing sides in the NBA All-Star Game starting lineups to be played at Cleveland. LeBron James will make the latest homecoming as the leading overall vote-getter and as the captain of the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game, 2022 will be played on February 20.
The LA Lakers star forward surpassed Stephen Curry, the guard of the Golden State Warriors’ record in leading the west. For the second straight season, Kevin Durant, the forward of the Brooklyn Nets will face James as a captain of the All-Star Game after edging out Giannis Antetokounmpo, the forward of the Milwaukee Bucks for the role of the leader of the Eastern Conference.
The 37-year-old LeBron was ahead in the fan vote for the 6th yar in a row and 9 times in all. Born in Akron, he was with the Cavaliers for 11 seasons. He received 9.1M votes while Curry came in second with 7.6M votes. Durant received 6.7M votes, while Antetokounmpo came in fourth with 6.4M votes.
LeBron’s Selection For All-Star Game Ties Him For 2nd Joint Spot With Kobe Bryant
LeBron’s All-Star Game selection ties him with the legend of Lakers, Kobe Bryant for 2nd. The 1st all-time is held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Durant got his 12th career All-Star Game selection.
LeBron will be joined in the Western by Stephen Curry, Ja Morant, the Memphis Grizzlies guard, Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets’ center, and Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors forward. It is the first all-star appearance.
Kevin Durant is joint in the Eastern Conference by Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, the center at Philadelphia 76ers, DeDeMare DeRozan, the Chicago Bulls guard, and Trae Young the guard at the Atlanta Hawks.
The All-Star team is decided by a weighted group system that has the vote of the fans with 50%, 25% of media votes, and 25% player vote.
The vote by coaches will decide the reserves for both the conference teams. Once the rosters are finalized, Durant and LeBron will pick their rosters from the mixed players’ pool, regardless of their conference affiliation. Each captain will pick 4 starters each and seven for the reserve pool.
Kevin Durant is down with a knee injury and could miss his 3rd consecutive All-Star Game. Kyrie Irving was not selected. He missed 2 months of the season over the vaccine controversy.
