NBA Scraps 'East vs West' All-Star Format; Player Drafting to Be Implemented
A longstanding tradition in the world's most popular basketball league has just been scrapped.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) announced on Tuesday that they will be implementing a new format in the 2018 edition of the All-Star Game, reported NBA.com.
No longer will the annual extravaganza showcase players from the Eastern Conference and Western Conference competing against each other. With the new format, two captains representing two All-Star squads will draft the participants from a pool of players who will be voted either as starters or reserves.
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This means that players, regardless of the conference their mother teams belong to, may become teammates in the All-Star Game.
The two captains will be determined based on the top two players who will get the most number of fan votes from his conference.
"I'm thrilled with what the players and the league have done to improve the All-Star Game, which has been a priority for all of us," said NBPA President and recent Houston Rockets acquisition, Chris Paul. "We're looking forward to putting on an entertaining show in L.A." he added.
"We're excited about the new All-Star format and appreciate the players' willingness to try something new," NBA President of League Operations, Byron Spruell, added.
With the landmark change, players have started to make a buzz even as the 2017–2018 NBA regular season has yet to start officially. According to a CBS Sports report, Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry welcomes the revamped format with open arms.
"I think it's great for the game to kind of spice it up a little bit," Curry told ESPN while practicing for a preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in China. The two-time champion said that the change will create "more interest" for the fans, especially on how the two teams will be created.
He said that the different possible combinations of players crossing from one conference to another "should be a pretty cool vibe to test it out and see how it goes."
The 67th NBA All-Star Game takes place on Sunday, February 18, 2018, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
