For the first time in 10 years, Stephen Curry will not start at the NBA All-Star Game.
This could partly be due to the Warriors’ record (19-23). The team suffered a 134-133 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night.
Curry came in second in the fan voting, but the player and media tabulations hurt him. The two West Starters instead will be Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the league’s leader in 30-point games this season. He effectively edged Curry for the final West backcourt spot.
Curry will likely be picked as an All-Star reserve. That announcement will be made next week.
Curry apparently has plans for at least one event in Indianapolis over All-Star weekend.
He was wired with a microphone for Golden State’s game Thursday night against Sacramento and had a discussion with Warriors teammate Brandin Podziemski about Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 37 points in the WNBA’s 3-point contest last summer. That topped Curry’s NBA 3-point contest best of 31.
“I think I’ve got to challenge her,” Curry said.
Ionescu responded on social media: “Let’s getttttt it!! See ya at the 3 pt line.” Ionescu posed for a photo imitating Curry’s famous lights-out pose while holding her trophy at the WNBA All-Star event and challenged him to a “shoot out.”
This year’s All-Star Game goes back to the traditional East-vs.-West format, which was utilized in the first 66 NBA midseason classics. The most recent six saw the leading vote-getters from each conference serve as captains who got to draft their teams.
But that format is gone, as is the “target score” format that featured an untimed fourth quarter in the last four All-Star Games. League officials said entering the season that they have been stressing to players the importance of improving the quality of the All-Star Game after last year’s game drew the worst television numbers since such metrics were charted.
