All-Star Weekend Coming As NBA Heads To Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – If desired, and if fellow captain LeBron James cooperates with his candidates, Giannis Antetokounmpo can select Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and Lauri Markkanen to play in his team on Sunday night.

Imagine: the All-International All-Star starting lineup.

This is one of many opportunities for this weekend’s events in Salt Lake City.

NBA All-Star Weekend is almost upon us, with many executives arriving in Utah on Thursday, with a few more scheduled to arrive on Friday, just in time for the start of the official three-day roster. More than 60 players from the NBA and the G League will compete in a showcase with the All-Star Game on Sunday, Dunk, Three-Point and Skill on Saturday, and Rising Stars for first and second place. -year-old players on Friday.

“You can never take it for granted,” said Antetokounmpo, a Milwaukee Bucks forward heading to his seventh All-Star Game. “You never know how many times you will become an All-Star. I don’t take it for granted. And by the way, thanks to all the fans who voted for me as captain. it goes without saying. We have to go there, have fun, enjoy the time with our kids.”

Of the 10 who started on Sunday night, barring any roster changes due to injury, six were born outside the US, a record. The record was set by nine All-Star players of international origin.

It’s a sort of homecoming of Donovan Mitchell, the Cleveland quarterback who spent the first five years of his NBA career in Utah before being traded last summer. Mitchell still has close ties to Utah; This weekend, he’s hosting a benefit comedy show for Kearns High School, a place he worked closely with when he played jazz.

“You learn to appreciate those moments,” said Mitchell, who had to miss last year’s Cleveland All-Star Game with upper respiratory problems. “You learn to appreciate these things because they have seen me grow. I was a little kid, just happy to be drafted and then given a lead role on the team early on, playoffs, hardships, ups and downs, and for being who I am today, I always grateful, eternally grateful.

“So to be there for the first time as a starter, to be back with a team that I was a fan of as a kid, there are so many different things you can point to.”

For some – Anthony Edwards of Minnesota, De’Aaron Fox of Sacramento, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City, Tyrese Halliburton of Indiana, Jaren Jackson Jr. of Memphis and Markkanen of the host Jazz – this will be their first All-Star Game appearance. .

This is James’ 19th trip to the All-Star Game. And it will be unlike anything else: The NBA is set to pay tribute to him, who overtook Kareem Abdul-Jabbar earlier this month as the league’s career leader, at a halftime ceremony on Sunday night. The league started looking at All-Star weekend as the right time to properly honor James a few weeks ago when it seemed like the right time for him to break the record ahead of the Salt Lake City events, and that’s when the plans began in earnest. after it took first place last week.

James said he’d do some preparation for the Los Angeles Lakers’ halftime warm-up, but he also said he was looking forward to the break. He missed three games with foot and ankle problems, then returned and played just 29 minutes in the Lakers’ win over New Orleans on Wednesday – so he should be fully recharged for the last 23 games.

“I have a game on Sunday but we won’t play until Thursday,” James said. “It will be great not only for me, but for the rest of the band.”

And for Utah, hosting has been in preparation for 30 years. The last time the league’s midseason presentation—although in this case, midseason is more like three-quarters of the season when all teams have 21 to 25 games left in their 82-game schedule—was in Salt Lake City in 1993.

“This is a really big moment for our state,” said Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith. “I mean, it’s been 30 years. To give you an idea of ​​what the difference is, hotel rooms needed to be guarded 10 times… and we are ready for that.”