The 68th NBA All-Star Game will be held at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte on February 17th. As was the case last year, the game will not feature Eastern and Western Conference teams. Instead, we have Team LeBron going up against Team Giannis. LeBron James used his first pick to draft Kevin Durant while Giannis Antetokounmpo made Stephen Curry his first pick.
Team LeBron will feature Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and, of course, James in starting roles. Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, Ben Simmons, LeMarcus Aldridge, Karl-Anthony Towns, Bradley Beal, and Dwayne Wade are listed as reserves.
Team Giannis’ starters will be Curry, Joel Embiid, Paul George, Kemba Walker, and Antetokounmpo while the reserves are listed as Khris Middleton, Nicola Jokic, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin, D’Angelo Russell, Nikola Vucevic, Kyle Lowry, and Dirk Nowitzki.
Both teams boast past NBA All-Star Game MVPs, so who will be the one to take home the award this year?
Related: NBA Eastern Conference Betting | Western Conference Betting
Obviously, reigning NBA All-Star Game MVP LeBron James is a good candidate to repeat. However, he was just reinserted into the Lakers’ lineup after missing over a month with that pesky groin injury. It’s not like he’s just going to be a bystander but he’s probably not going to push himself all that much. Kemba Walker will have his home crowd cheering him on and he should be considered a bit of a dark horse as should Russell Westbrook. However, nobody in their right mind would leave James Harden out of the picture. In fact, plenty of basketball fans will be inclined to believe that Harden, who leads the NBA with 36.6 points per game, is a favorite to take MVP honors.
Nevertheless, one of the most interesting storylines heading into this annual extravaganza is Durant going up against fellow Golden State Warriors star Curry. Both players are workhorses who put up similar numbers. This game will be a great opportunity for these two studs to try to outdo each other. The big question is whether Durant can outshine his Team LeBron teammate, Harden. Team LeBron definitely has a ton of talent and lots of mouths to feed.
With guys like Westbrook and Lowry feeding him the ball, Curry could be in a great situation to have a monster game. It also helps that Team Giannis has a couple of premier rebounders in Embiid and Antetokounmpo. This should be an entertaining affair and Curry, playing in his hometown, could easily be the one doing most of the entertaining on his way to his first NBA All-Star Game MVP award.
My Pick For NBA All-Star Game MVP: Stephen Curry
