Thunder guard Chris Paul selected as All-Star reserve,
Thunder point guard Chris Paul has earned the 10th All-Star nod of his career, and his first since 2016.
The coaches voted Paul into the 2020 All-Star Game as a reserve, TNT announced in its NBA Tip-off show Thursday. This marks the 11th straight year that at least one Thunder player has been named an All-Star.
As a member of the New Orleans Hornets, and the Clippers, Paul was voted into the All-Star Game every year from 2008 to 2016. Paul was named All-Star MVP in 2013, when the point guard recorded 20 points, 15 assists and four steals in the West's 143-138 victory over the East.
There was no question that Paul had played a Hall of Fame career, but as he aged deeper into his 30s, his availability decreased. Battling with injury, Paul played just 61 games for the Clippers in 2016-17 and 58 in each of the next two seasons with the Rockets.
This year, Paul's 15th NBA season, the 34-year-old has missed just one game. He was away from the team Monday for personal reasons, after the death of his friend, former opponent and Team USA teammate, Kobe Bryant.
Paul is averaging 17.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game this season.
TNT will televise the AllStar Draft on Feb 6, when captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo will pick their teams from the starter and reserve pools. Chicago will host the 2020 All-Star Game on Feb. 16 New All-Star format The NBA is changing the format of the All-Star Game this year.
The new structure makes each of the first three quarters like their own 12-minute game. The score will be reset to 0- 0 at the beginning of each. Team LeBron and Team Giannis will each choose a Chicago-based charity. The winner of each quarter will receive a $100,000 donation to that charity. If the quarter ends in a tie, the award is added to the next quarter's stakes.
The fourth quarter, which was designed to honor the late Kobe Bryant, is even more unique. Each team will start with the number of points it scored in the first three quarters combined. The final target score will be set to 24 more points than the leading team's starting score. For example, if the score was 100- 90 at the end of three quarters, the target score would be 124. Bryant wore the numbers 8 and 24 in his NBA career.
Then, the two teams play an untimed fourth quarter. The first to the target score is the overall winner. The AllStar Game winner receives a $ 200,000 donation to its charity of choice.
The NBA said in a release that the new format was, “designed to increase the level of competition throughout the game, provide additional excitement at the finish and make the outcome of every quarter count for charity.”