{"id":421460,"date":"2026-01-20T13:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/421460\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T13:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:11:16","slug":"why-lebron-james-could-still-play-in-nba-all-star-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/421460\/","title":{"rendered":"Why LeBron James could still play in NBA All-Star game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James missed out on selection as an NBA All-Star starter for first time in 22 years, but the Los Angeles Lakers star could still feature in February&#8217;s event.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the NBA announced the 10 players voted as starters, including Milwaukee Bucks&#8217; Giannis Antetokounmpo, Denver Nuggets&#8217; Nikola Jokic, the Lakers&#8217; Luka Doncic and San Antonio Spurs&#8217; Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Fans accounted for 50% of the vote to determine the 2026 starters, while current NBA players and a media panel each accounted for 25%.<\/p>\n<p>The five players with the best score in each conference were named as starters across the three teams, with international players playing for the world team.<\/p>\n<p>James, 41, was ranked ninth overall in the Western Conference by voters.<\/p>\n<p>The NBA&#8217;s all-time leading scorer can still earn selection as a reserve for the game held in Los Angeles on 15 February, but he will have to rely on a panel of NBA coaches to play as one of the 14 reserves.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>James was selected in 2025 but did not play in the event after picking up an injury.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/basketball\/articles\/c1e3yxpvlj0o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bsport%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The All-Star game has been revamped this season;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The All-Star game has been revamped this season<\/a> and will feature two teams of players from the United States and one team of international players.<\/p>\n<p>They will compete in a round-robin tournament comprising of four 12-minute games. The top two teams will then face each other in a championship game.<\/p>\n<p>Players selected from Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Giannis Antetokounmpo &#8211; Milwaukee Bucks<\/p>\n<p>Jaylen Brown &#8211; Boston Celtics<\/p>\n<p>Jalen Brunson &#8211; New York Knicks<\/p>\n<p>Cade Cunningham &#8211; Detroit Pistons<\/p>\n<p>Tyrese Maxey &#8211; Philadelphia 76ers<\/p>\n<p>Players selected from Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Curry &#8211; Golden State Warriors<\/p>\n<p>Luka Doncic &#8211; Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n<p>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander &#8211; Oklahoma City Thunder<\/p>\n<p>Nikola Jokic &#8211; Denver Nuggets<\/p>\n<p>Victor Wembanyama &#8211; San Antonio Spurs<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This article is the latest from BBC Sport&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/ask-me-anything?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bsport%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ask Me Anything;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Ask Me Anything<\/a> team.<\/p>\n<p>More questions answered&#8230;<img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768914676_511_.gif\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James missed out on selection as an NBA All-Star starter for first time in 22 years, but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[1222,49,24617,48,2898,8028,23934,8228,8217,19284,21091,2327,1522,8231,12887,8216,459,81478,2901,5725,3555,1528,2696,6691,82,13596,19746,21217,10627],"class_list":["post-421460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-boston-celtics","tag-ca","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-canada","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-eastern-conference","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-nba-players","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-sports","tag-stephen-curry","tag-tyrese-maxey","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}