The 2023 NBA All Star players were announced

LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo will be captains of the 2023 NBA All-Star Game.

LeBron James is closing in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbars NBA career scoring record. And now he’s got Abdul-Jabbar’s All-Star record book on the other side.

James was named an NBA All-Star for the 19th time on Thursday, tying Abdul-Jabbar for the most selections in league history. James, the overall leading vote-getter, will captain one team in the Feb. 19 All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, while Eastern Conference voting leader Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks will captain the other team.

2023 NBA All-Star|All Star roster

Eastern Conference starters

• Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks)
• Kevin Durant (Brooklyn Nets)
• Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics)
• Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers)
• Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn Nets)

Western Conference starters

• LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers)
• Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)
• Zion Williamson (New Orleans Pelicans)
• Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors)
• Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks)

This is the sixth year that the NBA has used the captain format for the All-Star game; James has been the captain each time and has never lost, taking a 5-0 record into the year. Antetokounmpo is the captain for the third time, having also earned this right in 2019 and 2020.

James and Antetokounmpo do choose your team shortly before the Salt Lake City game, the newly announced twist is a departure from years past when the captains chose a week or two before All-Star weekend.

The other eight starters they will choose from, barring changes due to injuries, are: Denver’s two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, NBA leading scorer Luka Doncic of Dallas, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Brooklyn teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving , Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson.

“I’m definitely blessed and humbled to be a part of this,” Mitchell said during TNT’s televised commencement announcement. I couldn’t be happier to be a part of my 4th All Star and now a starter.

The big plot was the third spot in the East frontcourt, where Philadelphias Joel Embiid No. 2 in the NBA scoring race Thursday at 33.4 points per game was the odd man out after Antetokounmpo, Durant and Tatum were the top three in the voting.

The starters, three frontcourt players and two guards from each conference were selected by a combination of three different votes: the fan vote was 50%, the media vote was 25%, and NBA player votes made up the final 25%.

The reserves chosen by the league’s coaches will be announced on February 2nd. Among the players who certainly deserve strong consideration: Portlands Damian Lillard, Oklahoma Citys Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Bostons Jaylen Brown and Miamis Bam Adebayo.

James is 157 points shy of Abdul-Jabbars career total of 38,387 points. At his current average of 29.9 points per game, James needs just over five games to break the record, and if he doesn’t miss a game in between, he would be on pace to pass Abdul-Jabbar at home on February 7th. Oklahoma City.

The #NBAAallStar Western Conference Starters:

LeBron James
Nikola Jokic
Luka Doncic
Zion Williamson
Steph Curry pic.twitter.com/3m6IER1Og1

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 27, 2023

The #NBAAallStar Eastern Conference starters:

Giannis Antetokounmpo
Kevin Durant
Donovan Mitchell
Jayson Tatum
Kyrie Irving pic.twitter.com/B2UDisxSv2

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 27, 2023

And that means All-Star weekend, if James overtakes the record early, could be a celebration of him breaking the record held by Abdul-Jabbar for nearly 40 years.

“Calculating when that might happen, it seems likely at this point that it will happen before our All-Star break,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last week in Paris. If it were to happen before our All-Star break, it looks like this year’s All-Star Game in Salt Lake City might be the perfect opportunity to honor him.

James is now tied with Abdul-Jabbar for most All-Star selections, and if James plays in Salt Lake City, he will become the first player in NBA history to actually appear in 19 All-Star games. Abdul-Jabbar was drafted into the 1973 game but did not play.

It’s just another entry on James’ long list of All-Star records. He is the first player to be selected to 19 consecutive All-Star games through Thursday. He shared this record with 18-time Kobe Bryant, the Lakers legend who died on January 26, 2020, exactly three years from Thursday.

If he does start, it will be James’ 19th time doing so, four more than anyone else in league history; Bryant started 15 times. 19 consecutive starts extends second All-Star record; Bob Cousy has the second longest such streak with 13 straight starts.

James is also the career All-Star leader in minutes, points, goals scored and attempts.