2025 NBA All-Star Starters Announced
The NBA announced tonight the starters for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game. The game will be held at the Chase Center, home to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, February 16th on TNT. For the first time, the game will feature a four-team tournament. Two teams will face each other in both semifinals then the winning teams will advance to the championship game. For each game, the winning team will be the first one to 40 points.
The Eastern Conference Starters are: Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Karl-Anthony Towns, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jayson Tatum. This is Brunson’s second All-Star selection and Mitchell’s sixth selection. Both guards beat out LaMelo Ball, who won the fan vote and had the lead amongst guards before the night’s selection. Brunson is averaging 26 points per game this season which is good for 10th in the NBA and Mitchell is leading the Cleveland Cavaliers, one of the NBA’s top teams, to a first-place finish at the All-Star break. This is the fifth selection for Towns who was acquired by the Knicks in a trade in early October. Towns has been one of the league's consistent frontcourt players and is averaging a double-double this season. Nothing new for the Greek Freak and Tatum as this has become normal for two of the league’s most popular players. This is the ninth selection for Antetokunmpo and the sixth for Tatum.
The Western Conference Starters are: Stephen Curry, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Durant, Lebron James, and Nikola Jokic. The backcourt for the Western Conference seemed pretty obvious as fans chose the league’s leading scorer in Gilgeous-Alexander, who is averaging 32 points per game, and Curry has been one of the faces of the league since he changed the game by popularizing the three-point shot. This is SGA’s 3rd All-Star selection and Curry’s 11th selection. This is Durant’s 15th selection and the 21st selection for James. This could be the last All-Star game for James as the 40-year-old has contemplated retirement. This could also be the last All-Star game that the three faces of the NBA play in, James, Curry, and Durant. Lastly, this is Jokic’s 7th selection as the triple-double machine looks to further cement his legacy as one of the most dominant centers of all time.
The 14 reserves, seven from the East and West, will be announced next Thursday and will include names such as Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Edwards, and Trae Young. Once all 24 players are finalized the selection of the players by the team captains during the NBA All-Star Draft on February 6th. Each team captain will be named after a TNT NBA analyst, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith, and will consist of eight players. The fourth team will be the winner of the Castrol Rising Stars Challenge. The Rising Stars Challenge is the league’s annual showcase of the top rookies, second-year players, and G-league standouts. Candace Parker will be the honorary general manager of the winning team; therefore, the team will be known as Team Candace on All-Star Sunday. The four teams will compete for a prize pool of 1.8 million dollars with the winning team receiving $125,000 for each player. The second-place team receiving $50,000 for each player and the third and fourth-place teams receiving $25,000 for each player.
