Despite his hectic travel schedule, LeBron James has managed to spend quality time with his family during the Los Angeles Lakers’ six-game homestand.
With the cаptiоn, “She’s crаzy!” Jаmes shаred the heаrtwаrming mоments he cаptured during а speciаl lunch dаte with his dаughter Zhuri оn Instаgrаm stоries.
As his daughter meticulously piled French fries on top of each other, the NBA great from the Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Along with the boomerang, he captioned his Instagram post, “My lunch date.”In their most recent game, the Lakers fell to the Clippers 116-127 without LeBron James, who is dealing with left ankle discomfort. The Lakers dropped to 22-23 after suffering their fourth straight road loss.
The Lakers will be up against the 21-24 Chicago Bulls in their next game.
For the record, LeBron James has made the NBA All-Star squad 20 times, while Kevin Durant has done so 14 times.
At this year’s NBA All-Star Game, LeBron James will be accompanied by many familiar faces, and he has entered yet another exclusive group.
On Thursday night, the league revealed the results of this season’s starter balloting, and James was named to the All-Star team—and started every game—for the 20th time. Not only that, James has more All-Star appearances than any other player in NBA history—20. James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record last season, but Abdul-Jabbar was a 19-time pick.
Indy will play host to this year’s event on February 18th.
James will be joined in the starting lineup by Kevin Durant of Phoenix, Nikola Jokic of Denver, Luka Doncic of Dallas, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City. Gilgeous-Alexander was the league leader in 30-point games this season and beаt out Golden State’s perennial All-Star starter Stephen Curry for the final backcourt spot in the West. Now that he has been selected fourteen times, Durant joins an elite group of eleven players in NBA history who have accomplished this feat.
Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, and Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers—the current NBA scoring leader, two-time defending champion, and reigning MVP—will form the frontcourt for the Eastern Conference. Last year, Tatum won Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors after setting an All-Star Game record with 55 points in the game at Salt Lake City.
The guards for the Eastern Conference are Damian Lillard of Milwaukee and Tyrese Haliburton of Indiana, who will start when playing at home.
“You should always be grateful, don’t you?” In an interview with TNT, which aired before Boston’s game in Miami, Tatum revealed the starting lineup. It is a tremendous pleasure for the fans to vote for me time and time again, especially since there are 450 players in the league. I do not consider it a given. Being able to fulfill a lifelong ambition of mine and attend All-Star weekend in person is quite amazing.
A number of notable players were left out of the starting lineup, including: Curry, Jaylen Brown of Boston, Jalen Brunson of New York, Trae Young of Atlanta, Donovan Mitchell of Cleveland, Bam Adebayo of Miami, Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers, De’Aaron Fox of Sacramento, Devin Booker of Phoenix, Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers, Tyrese Maxey of Philadelphia, and Anthony Edwards of Minnesota.
A method is used to choose the starting lineup, with fan vote accounting for 50%, player voting for 25%, and a panel of NBA writers and broadcasters for the remaining 25%.
The list of reserve players will be revealed on February 1st after a vote by the head coaches in the league. If a player is injured or otherwise unable to play, Commissioner Adam Silver is authorized to add them to the rosters.
Very few players in the main professional sports in the United States have been named to the All-Star team or its equivalent for twenty separate seasons. When it comes to the NBA, James is the pioneer in that regard. On that list, he is included with hockey great Gordie Howe and three baseball greats: Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays.
Howe made it into the NHL All-Star Game 23 times. Aaron, Mays, and Musial were all named to the MLB All-Star game for twenty-one separate seasons. Throughout 16 seasons, Mickey Mantle was selected to compete in 20 baseball All-Star games. Some seasons even had two All-Star tournaments.
In keeping with the first sixty-six NBA midseason classics, this year’s All-Star Game will pit the East against the West. James was a captain all six times, Antetokounmpo was the other captain three times, Durant was the captain twice, and Curry was the captain once. In the most recent six, the top vote-getters from each conference were captains and got to pick their teams.
The ‘target score’ model, which had an untimed fourth quarter in the previous four All-Star Games, is also no longer used. These games were won by whichever team managed to score the same amount as the leading team after three quarters plus 24 points (a number that was a tribute to Kobe Bryant’s final jersey number). There will be no special rules or overtime this year; just a regular game.
Before the season began, league officials stated that they had been emphasizing to players the significance of elevating the standard of the All-Star Game. On average, 4.6 million people tuned in to watch the game on TNT and TBS last year, the lowest total since SportsMediaWatch began tracking this data.
“When you turn on an NBA All-Star Game, I think people expect to see some competition,” stated Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations, just before the season began.