With less than two weeks to go until the 2020-2021 NBA Season’s All-Star Weekend, the league has just announced the reserves of the rosters who will be joining their respective starting 5 to face off come Saturday, March 7th. With this in mind, we take a lot at our rosters, who made the team, who should’ve made the team, and much more, beginning with the Western All-Stars.
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Western Conference All-Stars
Kicking things off, it comes as no surprise that LeBron James finds himself in his 17th All-Star Selection being the very backbone of the Los Angeles Lakers while fellow All-Star and teammate Anthony Davis has been dealing with injury. Also with guaranteed starting positions are Clippers’ Kawhi 5th appearance and Golden State’s very own Stephen Curry, making his 7th appearance. To top off the Western Conference Starters Pool is the Dallas’ Luka Doncic making only his 2nd appearance and The Joker out of Denver Nikola Jokic making his 3rd.
Moving onto the Western Conference Reserve Pool we have some familiar names to All-Star Weekend, listed as shown:
- Anthony Davis: 8x, Los Angeles Lakers (Questionable due to injury)
- Paul George: 7x, Los Angeles Clippers
- Rudy Gobert: 2x, Utah Jazz
- Damian Lillard: 6x, Portland Trailblazers
- Donovan Mitchell: 2x, Utah Jazz
- Chris Paul: 11x, Phoenix Suns
- Zion Williamson: 1x, New Orleans Pelicans (Reserve)
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Eastern Conference All-Stars
Making his return to the All-Star game after a consecutive 10 visits, Kevin Durant will be making his 11th appearance as a Captain. Also a starter is Durant’s teammate Kyrie Irving making his 7th appearance to the All-Star Game. Last year’s Eastern Conference Captain returns in the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo with his 5th appearances as well as Philly’s very own Joel Embiid with his 4th. To top off the Eastern Starters we have the long awaited, criminally underrated Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards making his 3rd appearance after what was agreed to be seen as an All-Star snub in 2020.
We now take a look into the Eastern Conference All-Star Reserve Pool, filled with some new faces this time around coming 2021:
- Jaylen Brown: 1x, Boston Celtics
- James Harden: 9x, Brooklyn Nets
- Zach LaVine: 1x, Chicago Bulls
- Julius Randle: 1x, New York Knicks
- Ben Simmons: 3x, Philadelphia 76ers
- Jayson Tatum: 2x, Boston Celtics
- Nikola Vucevic: 2x, Orlando Magic (Reserve)
Although all players listed are well deserving of their All-Star Selections this year, their is always some question from fans, players, and media alike as to how/why others didn’t manage to make the cut. Some honorable mentions would definitely include but is not exclusive to:
- Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns
- Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks
- Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat
- Damontas Sabonis, Indiana Pacers
- Demar DeRozan, San Antonio Spurs
- Christian Wood, Houston Rockets
- Fred VanVleet, Toronto Raptors
- Jerami Grant, Denver Nuggets
Surely a case could be made for many more names around the league other than those listed, which promotes the conflict of wanting to reward the younger guys who’ve really found a footing in the league as well as honoring the veterans who have consistently been apart of the conversation of the league’s best. Is the Rising Stars Game enough to satisfy the drive that these players have to be the best? Perhaps a conversation for another time, but for now it remains to be seen. With all that being said, the All-Star Draft begins Thursday, March 4th 8PM ET on TNT, where the teams are assorted and will be competing come All-Star Weekend on Sunday, March 7th.
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