Last year, the NBA switched up the structure of the All-Star Game by allowing the two players who received the most votes in each conference to serve as captains. LeBron James and Steph Curry selected the 11 players for their team from the pool of All-Stars but, unfortunately, the draft process was conducted behind closed doors.
After the teams were announced, LeBron, Steph and others around the league said they hoped the league would televise the draft in 2019. DeMar DeRozan told reporters at the time, "Televise it. Give the people what they want to see. I think everybody wants to see it. At the end of the day, every single person that gets picked, you are an All-Star, so it doesn't matter where you really go, so I think televise it."
Today, The New York Times' Marc Stein reported that the league will do just that. According to the report, the league and union have agreed to televise the All-Star Draft sometime in late January, with the 30th and 31st emerging "as two potential targets for a TNT broadcast."
Last season, LeBron James led all vote-getters with more than 2.6 million votes - slightly ahead of Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had the second most All-Star votes of any player in the league. With LeBron now playing for the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference, we could be looking at a Greek Freak vs King James All-Star Draft.
The 2019 NBA All-Star Game will be held in Charlotte on Sunday, February 17.