Curry would love chance to pick his squad
used to play open gyms or whatnot,” Curry said before practice Wednesday at Shenzhen City Arena. “In a lot of ways, it’ll be fun to see how that plays out. Just for the fans, to see how that plays out with different combinations.”
Five players from each conference will be tabbed as starters. The fan vote will count for 50 percent, the player vote will be worth 25 percent and media vote will be worth 25 percent. Each conference’s head coaches will pick the seven reserves for each team. Starters will be selected first, ensuring that the 10 players voted as starters will open the game.
The new format injects a bit of intrigue into a game that has become somewhat of a high-scoring farce in recent years. In addition to allowing teammates to play against each other, it’ll enable conference rivals to meet.
In picking the players, team captains will have to consider a range of factors. Among them: Do they prioritize team loyalty?
Asked if he’d pick Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant for his All-Star squad, Curry said, “Definitely. They’d be upset if I don’t.”
Passport snafu: Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is ready to move past the passport issue that forced him to miss Sunday afternoon’s team charter to Shenzhen.
“I ended up getting maybe the better end of the bargain,” Kerr said. “All’s well that ends well.”
By no fault of Golden State or Kerr, a batch of passports were delayed being transported back to the team from the East Coast processing center. The NBA arranged for Kerr to fly first-class on a direct flight to Hong Kong, which landed Tuesday morning. Kerr stayed in Hong Kong and joined several Warriors players and team personnel on a tour later Tuesday through the autonomous territory south of mainland China.
On Wednesday, after three days away from basketball-related activities, Kerr was pleased to return to practice. Golden State played Minnesota in a game that began at 11 p.m. PDT Wednesday in Shenzhen.
“We’re ready to get back to work,” Kerr said. “It’s weird in the middle of training camp to not have practice for three straight days.”