LeBron James is extending his All-Star records. And Giannis Antetokounmpo is the people’s choice, again.
The NBA revealed the starters — some of them, anyway — for the revamped All-Star Game on Thursday night, and there wasn’t much in the way of surprises. James is now officially an All-Star for the 21st year, and Antetokounmpo is now the ninth player to win the fan vote in back-to-back seasons.
The other starters:
— New York’s Jalen Brunson and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell as the Eastern Conference guards.
— Boston’s Jayson Tatum and New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns as the East frontcourt players alongside Antetokounmpo.
— Golden State’s Stephen Curry and NBA leading scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as Western Conference guards.
— Phoenix’s Kevin Durant and Denver’s Nikola Jokic as the West frontcourt players alongside James.
The starters were picked through a system of weighted balloting: 50 percent was fan voting, 25 percent was a media panel and 25 percent was voting by current players.
There are 14 more All-Stars yet to be announced, and they’ll be chosen in a vote of the league’s head coaches. That list will be revealed on Jan. 30, and the All-Star Game — now games, really — happens in San Francisco on Feb. 16.
Among the candidates for those reserve spots: San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama, the Lakers’ Anthony Davis, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Dallas teammates Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, reigning All-Star Game MVP Damian Lillard of Milwaukee, Miami’s Tyler Herro, Atlanta’s Trae Young and Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball — who led East guard fan voting.
There will be at least 15 different players who “start” at the All-Star Game this season. It’s the first year of a new All-Star format, with three games. The 24 All-Stars will be drafted into three teams of eight players apiece by TNT personalities and former NBA greats Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.
Those three teams will be entered into a four-team tournament, with the remaining squad made up of NBA rookies and second-year players from the Rising Stars event on All-Star Friday. There are two semifinal games, with the winners meeting in a championship game. The games should go quickly; the first team to reach 40 points wins.
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault and an assistant from his staff will coach two of the teams, and Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson and one of his assistants will lead the others.
The last two All-Star Games rewrote the offensive record books. Boston’s Tatum set an individual record with 55 points in 2023, and last year’s final score was 211-186 — the highest-scoring All-Star Game ever.
LeBron at 40
James is now in line to become the third player to appear in the All-Star Game after turning 40. The others: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who did so at 40 and 41, and Dirk Nowitzki, whose All-Star finale came when he was 40.
James — a pick for 21 straight years — now has two more All-Star selections than anyone else in NBA history (Abdul-Jabbar was a 19-time pick) and is three years clear of anyone else for the longest streak of consecutive selections. Kobe Bryant was picked for 18 consecutive All-Star Games, the second-longest such streak.
James is also set to start for the 21st consecutive year. The second-longest streak of All-Star starts is 13, by Boston’s Bob Cousy.
Antetokounmpo gets 4.4 million fan votes
Antetokounmpo led the way with more than 4.4 million fan votes, giving him the most in that department for the second consecutive year.
The other players who have been the overall top fan choice in back-to-back seasons: James, Michael Jordan, Julius Erving, Vince Carter, George Gervin, Magic Johnson, Grant Hill and Yao Ming.
Kobe Bryant led the fan voting four times and Dwight Howard did twice, but neither of those players ever did it in back-to-back years.
LeBron James picked for 21st straight All-Star Game, extending NBA record
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LeBron James picked for 21st straight All-Star Game, extending NBA record
- James is now officially an All-Star for the 21st year
Smylie wins on LIV Golf debut, leads Ripper GC to team title in Riyadh
- Jon Rahm and Torque GC finish second in the individual and team competitions respectively
RIYADH: Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith believes his new teammate Elvis Smylie can one day become the best golfer in the world. After the 23-year-old Australian produced four sizzling rounds to win on his LIV Golf debut, the rest of the league may very well share the same sentiment.
Smylie capped off an impressive first week under the lights at Roshn Group LIV Golf Riyadh, shooting a final-round bogey-free 8-under 64 on Saturday to hold off a hard-charging Jon Rahm by one stroke. He also led the Rippers to the team title, as the Aussies swept both trophies going into their biggest tournament of the season at LIV Golf Adelaide next week.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Smylie, who officially joined the team last month. “I really didn’t know what to expect this week. Playing at night is obviously a whole different ballgame out here. I wanted to come out here and make a statement. I wanted to prove that I’m one of the best out here, and I feel like I’ve done that. It’s only up from here.”
Smith agreed. “The crazy thing is I still think he’s got a lot of improving to go, which is pretty scary, really, for the rest of us, because he waxed us this week. I genuinely think he can be the best golfer in the world. He’s got all the tools of the trade. He just needs to keep doing what he’s doing and knuckle down.”
With the win, Smylie earns the projected points allotted by the Official World Golf Ranking to the winner of this week’s LIV Golf tournament. The OWGR announced earlier this week that points will be awarded for LIV Golf tournaments this season to the top 10 and ties. Smylie entered the week ranked 134th and is expected to move up significantly with the victory.
Smylie’s winning score of 24 under is the lowest in league history, a byproduct perhaps of the league’s adjusted format from 54 to 72 holes. He also beat the biggest field in LIV Golf history after an increase from 54 to 57 players this season.
But more impressive than the raw numbers was Smylie’s sublime play, especially with a new blade putter. “Everything looked like a bucket for me, which is nice,” said Smylie, who ranked third in the field in strokes gained putting.
He needed a hot putter down the stretch to create some separation from the field, then withstand the last-ditch rally by Rahm, the Legion XIII captain and two-time LIV Golf individual champion.
Rahm started the day two shots behind co-leaders Smylie and Peter Uihlein and was three strokes behind when Smylie birdied the par-4 12th. But the Spaniard closed fast with birdies on five of his last six holes, including the last four.
He drove the green at the 396-yard par-4 18th but could not convert the eagle putt. Still, his final birdie put the finishing touches on a 9-under bogey-free 63, the lowest round of the week, and reduced Smylie’s lead to one.
Smylie, however, was not aware of the slim margin until hitting his approach shot at the 18th that left him on the edge of the green.
“I actually didn’t know that I had to two-putt the last green,” he said. “I thought I would have had a two-shot lead going into 18. But as soon as I was walking up the green, I saw that I only had one, so I’m like, I’ve got to clutch up here and make sure to get this up-and-down.”
Rahm, who shot a final-round 11-under 60 in his last regular-season LIV Golf tournament in Indianapolis last year to clinch his second consecutive season-long title, pointed to his failure to make birdie at the par-5 sixth and a poor approach shot at the par-4 11th as missed opportunities. Even so, he was pleased with making a run to earn his fifth runner-up finish and 25th top-10 result in 27 regular-season LIV Golf appearances.
“It was a fantastic round of golf, shot 9-under,” he said. “Elvis had a great day and a two-shot lead. If anything, if there’s one or two shots to look at, I’ve got to go to earlier in the week.”
RangeGoats GC’s Uihlein finished third after shooting a 67 for 21 under, while Fireballs GC’s David Puig and 4Aces GC’s Thomas Pieters shot 65s to share fourth place with Torque GC’s Abraham Ancer.
The team competition turned into a battle between Ripper and Torque. The Australians started off fast, with Marc Leishman beginning his round with four straight birdies; the team collectively was 11 under through their first six holes.
Torque responded with Ancer, making his first start for his new team after four years with Fireballs GC, and Sebastian Munoz each shooting 66.
But the 64s by Smylie and Lucas Herbert were supported by Smith’s 65 and Leishman’s 69 to produce a fourth-round team score of 26 under, the third-best single round team score in league history. Ripper’s tournament total of 69 under is a league record as they won their fifth regular-season team title by three shots.
