The 2024 All-Star Game, which will be held on February 18 in Indianapolis, will revert back to the old format of East vs. West, with no captain’s draft, the NBA announced on Wednesday (via Twitter).
According to the league, the All-Star Game will also go back to the normal game format — the fourth-quarter target score with no time limit will be removed, in place of the traditional 12-minute quarter.
The voting process for players to be selected will remain the same, with 12 players chosen from each conference, per the NBA.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former All-Star center Yao Ming, who is in the Hall of Fame and is currently president of the Chinese Basketball Association, says the NBA is still “first class” in his native country despite past conflicts, according to Amy Tennery of Reuters. “I have to say, the NBA is in the first class… (because) you know the players being exposed in China for so long,” Yao said. “The players, the teams (are) all still very well welcome in China and (we had) a couple of players with (in) China just this past summer.” As Tennery notes, former Rockets (and current Sixers) president of basketball operations Daryl Morey was criticized in China for tweeting support of protestors in Hong Kong, which strained relations between the country and the league.
- Dwight Howard, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year who has been out of the NBA since 2021/22, is seeking to have a civil lawsuit he’s facing in Georgia dismissed, per Baxter Holmes of ESPN. Howard is accused of sexual assault and battery by a man named Stephen Harper, with the incident taking place in July 2021. According to Holmes, Howard has denied the claims, saying the encounter was consensual and that he’s being blackmailed for money.
- Tim Bontemps of ESPN takes an in-depth look at what’s happening between Regional Sports Networks and the NBA, primarily focusing on Diamond Sports Group, which filed for bankruptcy and airs games for 15 teams via Bally Sports.
After yrs of denying it. Howard has finally come out. Or forced out …….
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Glad the All Star game is back to original format. Team Lebron won every year anyways it was not interesting to have them pick. The other team was usually too far back of the target score to make it interesting.
It’s not going to be any different with the old format… There’s no pride on the line and no stakes for the players in that pick up game…
Does this make Howard the first openly gay man in the NBA? Or at least openly bi sexual? Kind of hard to say you had consensual sexual relations with a person but deny that it’s part of your sexual orientation.
Nah, former Nets Center Jason Collins came out in 2013, shortly before signing witj the Nets for his final season.
Dwight Howard is not in the nba.
The Orlando Magic used to have to warn Howard to leave the girls alone on game nights. I bet they never imagined how much he would take it to heart….