The NBA All-Star Game is Feb. 19. And nobody will know the All-Star rosters until that night. Not even the players themselves.
The team captains — probably LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and either Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo or Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant — will make their picks in a live, televised pregame segment shortly before the game begins in Salt Lake City.
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced the format change Tuesday night.
This will be the sixth time the league has used the format in which captains choose their teams, but in each of the first five instances the rosters were selected several days before the game. The captains and starters will be announced Thursday.
James has been a captain in each of the first five years and, based on the results of voting released by the league late last week, is virtually certain to be one again this year. The leading vote-getter from both the Eastern and Western Conferences earns the right to be a captain.
Durant was the early leader among East players, then fell slightly behind Antetokounmpo in the most recent balloting. He’s still expected to be selected as a starter, and it won’t be known until Thursday if he reclaimed the East voting lead in the final days.