NBA All-Star reserves: Full rosters unveiled

With the NBA All-Star reserves being unveiled, captains LeBron James and Stephen Curry can finally get to work on picking their teams.

After hearing concerns for a long time about how the NBA All-Star Game was no longer exciting, and that the Western Conference is way better than the East, the All-Star format finally went through some much needed change.

Instead of East vs. West, this year’s All-Star Game will resemble a pick-up game where two players — in this case, LeBron James and Stephen Curry — get to choose their teams from the list of NBA All-Stars. Certain aspects of the game remain the same — five starters are still chosen from both conferences, and there must be 12 representatives from the East and West. But other than that, anything goes.

After learning who the starters for the game would be, NBA fans waited patiently for the reserves to be named. Many of the reserves got leaked early, which ruined TNT’s reveal, but at least now, they’re all conveniently in one place.

Here are the full list of reserves for this year’s NBA All-Star Game:

Unsurprisingly, all four of Golden State’s all-stars made it to the game. However, the most notable name among the West reserves is Damian Lillard, who has arguably gotten snubbed in years past. However, he made it in at the expense of Chris Paul and Paul George. This also means that nobody from either LA team will be represented, despite Lou Williams’ incredible campaign.

All that’s left now is the All-Star draft which will happen behind closed doors, much to the chagrin of many fans. Certainly, people will want to see if LeBron intentionally snubs Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love, splits up Curry and Kevin Durant, if Durant and Russell Westbrook will be forced to play nice with each other or who will wind up being the last pick. That type of pettiness has come to define the NBA this season, and even though the All-Star game is an exhibition, it might not be a surprise if some of that bad blood spills over to that stage.

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While some of these reserves may feel like they should’ve been starting, all that matters is that they’re an All-Star. Hopefully, this change in format gives the Game the shot in the arm that it desperately deserves.