The NBA All-Star Draft was held on Wednesday (airing on Thursday night), as LeBron James and Kevin Durant, the leading vote-getters in the West and East respectively, selected their rosters for the upcoming All-Star Game on Sunday. Durant won’t be playing in the game himself, as he works to rehab a lingering hamstring injury, so he had to make an extra selection in the first round, while James selected players for the fourth straight year, as he’s been a captain each time.
Back in 2019, while Anthony Davis was in the midst of his trade request that was focused on getting himself to Los Angeles to play with the Lakers, and James selected him first in the draft and immediately got called out for tampering by Giannis Antetokounmpo. This year, Giannis (who just signed a supermax in Milwaukee) went first to Team LeBron. As James explained when pressed by Kenny Smith if he’s drafting for the All-Star team or for the Lakers this year, there aren’t any free agents on the list so his selections were all about this weekend.
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The results were strong for Team LeBron, as his starting group is himself, Giannis, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Jokic. Still, it was a funny moment, at least for some, while others might not have enjoyed the lighthearted joking about LeBron swiping players from other teams to join him.
