Changes to format could be here to stay
LOS ANGELES — Stephen Curry would love to be an NBA All-Star Game captain again next year, especially because the game will be in the guard’s hometown of Charlotte, N.C.
LeBron James would be OK with someone else taking his place, depending on who the top two vote-getters are, although his draft prowess led to Team LeBron beating Team Stephen 148-145 Sunday night.
And there’s a definite appetite for the NBA to televise the captains’ draft rather than conduct it clandestinely as it was this year.
“Televise it,” said guard DeMar DeRozan of Team Stephen. “Give the people what they want to see. I think everybody wants to see it. At the end of the day, every single person that gets picked, you are an All-Star, so it doesn’t matter where you really go, so I think televise it.”
And though players raved about the new format of having captains draft the teams rather than the traditional format of East against West, TV viewers were apparently lukewarm about the change.
Total viewership for the game was down slightly compared with last year, although it improved over 2014, the previous time the league’s midseason showcase faced competition from the Winter Olympics.
Turner Sports announced Monday that the game drew an average of 7.7 million viewers Sunday night on TNT. Last year’s game attracted an average of 7.8 million viewers. In 2014 during the Sochi Olympics, an average of 7.5 million people watched the NBA’s best at the All-Star Game.
James, who was vocal in his support of the new format, finally revealed his draft order: Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving ( James’ former Cleveland teammate) and DeMarcus Cousins, who missed the game because of a season-ending injury.
“I know who I like watching, and I had a draft board. I had a process,” James said. “Some of it went according to plan. A couple of them fell through, but I was satisfied and happy with the guys that I got.”
James’ original roster was dramatically altered by injuries to Cousins, John Wall, Kristaps Porzingis and Kevin Love, who all missed the game.
“Even with the four guys that got injured, we were able to get four new guys that came in and played well for us.”
James was named the game’s MVP after making the go-ahead, finger-roll layup with 34.5 seconds left and scoring a game-high 29 points. Curry didn’t divulge his draft order. “As the draft kind of unfolded, you start to game plan around positions,” he said. “For me, I tried to get the best shooters. It was kind of cool to see both teams come together as me and LeBron were picking.”
The All-Star draft led to interesting dynamics on court.
Curry chose his Golden State teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, but the three had to play against Durant. James also chose Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook and Paul George to play with Irving, who forced a trade away from James in Cleveland last summer.
Irving and James had no obvious friction, even laughing and joking on the bench. Neither did Durant and Westbrook, who split in 2016 when Durant left Oklahoma City for the Warriors.
Durant helped James smother Curry in the final seconds to prevent him from getting off a potential tying shot.
And then there was Toronto’s Dwane Casey coaching Team LeBron against DeRozan, the Raptors’ guard.
“I think that having the captains and selecting the guys and being able to mix them up gave it a more authentic feel of kind of what us players want to be part of in an All-Star Game,” Irving said.