James makes NBA All-Star team for record 20th time
LeBron James joined yet another exclusive club, and he’ll have plenty of familiar faces alongside him at this season’s NBA All-Star Game. James is now an All-Star – and an All-Star starter – for the 20th time, with the league unveiling the results of this season’s starter balloting on Thursday night. James is the first 20-time All-Star in NBA history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose career scoring record was broken by James last season, was a 19-time selection. This year's game is February 18 in Indianapolis. Joining James in the Western Conference starting lineup: Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league's leader in 30-point games this season who edged perennial All-Star starter Stephen Curry of Golden State for the final West backcourt spot. Durant is a 14-time selection now, one of only 11 players in NBA history to be picked that many times. In the Eastern Conference, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo will be joined by Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid – the reigning NBA MVP, two-time defending scoring champion and current NBA scoring leader – in the frontcourt. Tatum set an All-Star Game record last season, scoring 55 points in the contest at Salt Lake City on the way to MVP honors. The East guards are Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton – who’ll be a starter on his home floor – and Milwaukee's Damian Lillard. Among the notables not picked as starters: Curry, Boston's Jaylen Brown, New York's Jalen Brunson, Atlanta's Trae Young, Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell, Miami's Bam Adebayo, the Los Angeles Lakers' Anthony Davis, Sacramento's De'Aaron Fox, Phoenix's Devin Booker, the Los Angeles Clippers' Kawhi Leonard, Philadelphia's Tyrese Maxey and Minnesota's Anthony Edwards. The starters are selected through a formula where fan voting counts for 50%, voting by players themselves counts for 25% and voting by a panel of writers and broadcasters who cover the NBA counts for the other 25%. This year’s All-Star Game goes back to the traditional East vs. West format, which was utilised in the first 66 NBA midseason classics. The most recent six saw the leading vote-getters from each conference serve as captains who got to draft their teams; James served as one of the captains all six times, with Antetokounmpo the other captain three times, Durant twice and Curry once. But that format is gone, as is the ‘target score’ format that featured an untimed fourth quarter in the last four All-Star Games. The winner of those games was the first team to reach whatever the leading team had after three quarters, plus 24 points — the 24 being a nod to Kobe Bryant’s last jersey number. This year, it’ll be a regular game with overtime if necessary. (AP)