Today the NBA made a couple of big announcements for the All-Star game. The first thing was the change to the structure of the game, which is confusing to put it lightly. The two teams will still be playing a four-quarter game, but the first three quarters will be a mini-game in itself where the score will be reset to 0-0 at the beginning of each quarter. The winning team each quarter will have $100,000 donated to the Chicago based charity of the team captains choosing. After those first three quarters have played they will tally up the total score for each team through each of those quarters and add 24 points to the winning teams score and then will play an untimed fourth quarter until one team hits that score. The 24 is an obvious ode to Kobe Bryant which will make this all-star game that much more competitive than normal. If the first 3 quarters end in a total score of 100-98 the two teams will play to 124 points and the team who reaches that mark first wins $200,000 for the charity of their choice, for a total possible amount of $500,000. As weird and complicated as that may sound the league has found a way to make every single quarter more competitive so hopefully a little more defense will be played especially towards the end of each quarter if the score is close. Also, putting money on the line for charity makes the game that much more worth it because you don't just have a bunch of superstars coming together for a glorified practice. We should applaud the NBA for trying to include more ways to give back to the community especially when these cities put so much work and effort into hosting these big events. All things considered, I am excited to see what this does to the All-Star game this year and I'm hopeful it works out and is brought back long-term.
The other announcement that the NBA made today was the All-Star reserve members. I think the choices this year were pretty spot on with only a couple of questionable names left off. There will be nine players making their All-Star game debut in Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Pascal Siakam, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Brandon Ingram, Bam Adebayo, Domantas Sabonis, and Jayson Tatum. Of those nine players Doncic, Young, and Tatum are all under 21 which is the first time that at least three players under 21 have made the All-Star game in over 20 years. The other reserve choices were Damian Lillard, Nikola Jokic, Chris Paul, and Russell Westbrook for the Western Conference and Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons, and Kris Middleton for the Eastern Conference. Some popular names that were left out this year were Paul George and Kyrie Irving due to missing too many games because of injuries. Karl-Anthony Towns has been an All-Star the past couple of seasons, but Gobert has been just as deserving the past couple of seasons and his team is currently a top 4 team and only a few games out of first in the West. The only two names that I think you could argue were left off this year are Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. Both of these guys are top 10 scorers in the league, but they also benefit from being the best shooter on a not so great team. Another thing to look at when discussing snubs is who should they make it over. Looking over the Eastern and Western lineups I don't see anyone who I would be able to leave out for either Booker or Beal. They've had tremendous seasons so far but the rest of the All-Stars have better stats and/or better team success which also seems to play a part in who gets selected.