Lakers star Luka Doncic was named an All-Star starter for the Western Conference on Monday, but teammate LeBron James, who has been a starter for 21 consecutive All-Star Games, was not.
The league leader in scoring at 33.3 points per game to go with 8.6 assists and 7.5 rebounds, Doncic was the leading vote getter among all players in both conferences for the Feb. 15 event to be held at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. It is the Slovenian guard’s sixth selection in his eight NBA seasons.
Doncic, who was traded to the Lakers last season from the Dallas Mavericks, joins Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs as starters for the Western Conference.
Milwaukee Bucks center Giannis Antetokounmpo led all Eastern Conference vote-getters despite his team struggling for most of the first half of the season. He will join Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics, Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons and Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers as starters.
James, who had been selected to and named a starter for every All-Star Game since the 2005 game in Denver, was never close to getting enough votes to move into the starting five this season. The four-time league MVP missed the first 14 games of the season with sciatica and then started slowly once he rejoined the lineup, including having his staggering streak of 1,297 consecutive games with at least 10 points end last month in Toronto.
The voting process is made up of three groups: fan voting, which makes up 50%; a panel of media voters, which makes up 25%; and player voting, also 25%.
Doncic was the No. 1 overall choice among fans, voted second overall by the media and sixth by fellow players for a weighted score of 2.5.
Jokic had the highest weighted score with 1.75 after the players voted him No. 1, the fans No. 2 and the media No. 2.
The reserves will be announced Sunday and are selected by the NBA’s coaches.
This year, the All-Star Game has adopted a “Team USA versus the World” format, with the pool of All-Stars eventually being broken up into three rosters; two will be made up of American players, with the third comprising international players.
Monday’s starters were made up of five American and five international players. If, after the 14 reserves are announced, there are fewer than either 16 American or eight international players selected, NBA commissioner Adam Silver will add more All-Stars until those minimums are met to fill out the three rosters in the game.
The commissioner has also in the past made special exemptions to add a few players to rosters toward the end of their careers (Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade in 2019, for example).
The three-day All-Star Weekend festivities begin on Friday, Feb. 13.