James Out: All-Star Game Starting Lineup Revealed

An extraordinary series is over for basketball star LeBron James: The Los Angeles Lakers forward was not nominated for the starting lineup at the NBA All-Star Game for the first time since 2004. This was announced by the North American professional league. The 41-year-old league record scorer could still be invited to the spectacle of the best players of the season on February 15th if he is named as a reserve by the coaches.

James has been a fixture in the top five in his respective conference for 21 years, but this year he only received the eighth most votes in fan voting and therefore has to fall back in line for the first time since his rookie season.

Doncic with the most votes

James’ teammate Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder), Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets), Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs) and Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors received the most votes in the Western Conference. The Slovenian Doncic led the voting with just over 3.4 million votes.

Second overall in favor of fans was Giannis Antetokounmpo, who received just under 200,000 fewer votes and is now the player with the longest streak with ten starts in a row. The Greek from the Milwaukee Bucks forms the starting lineup in the East together with Cade Cunningham (Detroit Pistons), Jaylen Brown (Boston Celtics), Jalen Brunson (New York Knicks) and Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia 76ers).

However, the respective starters will not actually be on the floor for the same team. The tournament will be held in an alternative format this year. Instead of an East versus West game, this year there will be two U.S. teams and one international team competing in a mini-tournament. The two best teams after a kind of preliminary round then play to determine the final winner. The event will take place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Clippers usually play their home games there.