The 2022 NBA All-Star Game will take place in Cleveland on Sunday, and LeBron James and Kevin Durant are captains once again after they selected rosters and drafted their team from a pool of starters and reserves.
The NBA ditched their old format with the Eastern versus the Western Conference. Instead, the top player in each conference became a captain and then they drafted players. Durant is injured and he will not participate in the All-Star Game.
Coaches are selected based on the top team from each conference. The Phoenix Suns have the best record in the NBA and top record in the Western Conference, so Monty Williams will coach Team LeBron. The Miami Heat had the best record in the astern Conference, so Erik Spoelstra will coach Team Durant. This marks the first All-Star Game appearance for Williams, but Spoelstra earned his second trip.
Team LeBron vs Team Durant
LeBron had the most overall votes, so he earned the first pick in the starters pool. Durant got the first pick in the reserves pool. LeBron selected Giannis ‘Greek Freak’ Antetokounmpo with his first pick out of the starters, while Durant picked Joel Embiid.
| 2022 NBA ALL-STAR GAME ROSTERS |
| TEAM LEBRON | TEAM DURANT |
| LeBron James (Captain) | Kevin Durant (Captain) |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo (S) | Joel Embiid (S) |
| Stephen Curry (S) | Ja Morant (S) |
| DeMar DeRozan (S) | Jayson Tatum (S) |
| Nikola Jokic (S) | Trae Young (S) |
| Luka Doncic | Andrew Wiggins (S) |
| Darius Garland | Devin Booker |
| Chris Paul | Karl-Anthony Towns |
| Jimmy Butler | Zach LaVine |
| Donovan Mitchell | Dejounte Murray |
| Fred VanVleet | Khris Middleton |
| James Harden | LaMelo Ball |
| Jarrett Allen | Rudy Gobert |
When it came time to select reserves, Durant selected Devin Booker with his first pick and LeBron went with Luka Doncic.
Both players avoided James Harden on their NBA All-Star Game rosters, especially his ex-teammate Durant. Harden and Ben Simmons were traded for each other only a couple of hours before LeBron and Durant drafted teams on live TV. LeBron had the final pick, so Harden went on Team LeBron.
Global NBA All-Stars
The 2022 NBA All-Star Game has a global touch once again this year. This current batch of All-Stars ties a record with four international starters out of six total players including Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and Andrew Wiggins.
Antetokounmpo is known as the Greek Freak because he grew up in Greece, but he’s the son of Nigerian immigrants. Wiggins often gets overlooked, but he’s actually Canadian. Embiid is original from the Cameroon, and Jokic — the reigning MVP — is from Serbia.
There are two international reserves that made it to the Al-Star Game including Luka Doncic from Slovenia, and Rudy Gobert from France.
The NBA All-Star Weekend has a slew of events such as the Clorox Rising Stars game, which takes place on Friday evening. There’s a slightly different and unique twist this year so the NBA can showcase more of their up-and-coming stars. There will be a four-team tournament with seven players on each team. Six out of the 28 Rising Stars are international players including Chris Duarte (Dominican Republic), Josh Giddey (Australia), Dyson Daniels (Australia) Franz Wagner (Germany), Precious Achiuwa (Nigeria), and Alperen Sengun (Turkey).
This year’s All-Star Game will have global distribution through 72 different broadcast partners to reach 215 different countries and territories. International fans will be able to vote for the MVP via the NBA app, Twitter, and NBA.com.
The All-Star Game will be broadcast in 60 different languages. The Netherlands, India, and Norway will provide their own commentary (albeit remote) for their first broadcast of the All-Star Game.
