NBA Scraps East Vs. West All-Star Game Format, Captains Will Pick Teams

The NBA and the NBA Players Association announced changes to the All-Star Game format and for the first time in history, it won’t be East vs. West.

In the new format, the two leading fan-vote-getters from each conference will be named captains. These captains will pick their teams playground-style from the pool of players voted as starters and reserves. This pool of players will still consist of 11 players (not including the captains, naturally) from either conference.

The process of selecting the All-Stars won’t change. The 10 starters – two guards and three frontcourt players per conference – will still be chosen by fan vote (50 percent), current players (25 percent) and media vote (25 percent). Then the seven reserves per conference are still selected by the league’s head coaches.

TNT will reveal the All-Star Game starters and captains on Jan. 18th and the reserves on Jan. 23rd. Fans can begin voting for All-Stars on Christmas Day.

The 2018 NBA All-Star Game will be held in Los Angeles on Feb. 18th.