The 72nd annual all-star game is being held in Salt Lake City this year. Starters for this season were selected last week with LeBron and Giannis being the captains for their respective teams. All-star weekend is full of festivities and events happening at all times including the Jordan Rising Stars game, three-point and slam dunk contest, along with the all-star game itself. Just last night the league announced the reserves for the all-star game and certain players were absolutely snubbed of a spot.
Ten starters were announced last week and yesterday we found out the pool of 14 players who are the reserves from the Eastern and Western Conferences. Reserves were selected by the league’s head coaches in voting that happened over the past several days.
The reserve groups are comprised of two backcourt and three frontcourt players from the East and West as well as two “wild card” selections from any position. This years all-star game will start at 8:00pm on TNT, Sunday 2/19.
Team Captains @KingJames and @Giannis_An34 will select from the Player Pool in the 2023 #NBAAllStar Draft presented by Jordan Brand.
It will air as a new, live pregame segment at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 pm ET from Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City. pic.twitter.com/fkl1kg3adQ
— NBA (@NBA) February 3, 2023
The 2022-23 reserves for the 72nd annual all-star game
Reserves for each Conference are as follows:
Western Conference
- Paul George (LA Clippers)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder)
- Jaren Jackson Jr. (Memphis Grizzlies)
- Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers)
- Lauri Markkanen (Utah Jazz)
- Ja Morant (Memphis Grizzlies)
- Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento Kings)
Eastern Conference
- Bam Adebayo (Miami Heat)
- Jaylen Brown (Boston Celtics)
- DeMar DeRozan (Chicago Bulls)
- Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers)
- Tyrese Haliburton (Indiana Pacers)
- Jrue Holiday (Milwaukee Bucks)
- Julius Randle (New York Knicks)
First-time all-star’s this season include Tyrese Haliburton, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lauri Markkenan, and Jarren Jackson Jr. Each team will also be supporting two separate causes in which they are raising money for in the all-star game. A total of $750,000 will be contributed to the two organizations they are supporting.
Earning an all-star selection is a huge honor for players especially the ones who haven’t been there before. As always though, players and the media are always going to react to the players that were not selected as well. A few players who were “snubbed” from a selection this year were James Harden, Jimmy Butler, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Booker, Anthony Davis, and Trae Young to name a few.
Michael Malone, the head coach of the Denver Nuggets was selected to be the head coach of team LeBron and he calls it a “travesty” that Aaron Gordon was not selected to be an all-star this season. He thinks Denver being the West’s best team and the leap the Gordon have taken this season were both enough for him to be an all-star.
The new wrinkle added into the all-star game this season is that there will be a draft 30 minutes prior to the start of the all-star game. That is where teams will be chosen on the spot on live TV. It’s like picking players for a pick-up basketball game. A cool new addition the league added trying to keep the fans involved.
