Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James wasn’t listed among the starters for next month’s NBA All-Star Game for the first time in more than two decades. The future Hall of Famer has been selected to and named a starter for a record 21 All-Star Games in his career.
LeBron James Playing In 23rd NBA Season
James, who turned 41 last month, was never close to getting enough votes to move into the starting five after he missed the first 14 games of the season with sciatica and then got off to a slow start once he returned to the court.
The four-time MVP finished eighth in Western Conference voting with 1,819,776 votes.
Through 24 appearances (all starts) this season, James is averaging 22.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 6.9 assists, 1.1 steals, and 33.1 minutes per game while shooting 50.9% from the field and 32.8% from 3-point territory.
Although James made NBA history in November when he became the first player to play in 23 seasons, his run of 1,297 consecutive double-digit regular-season scoring games came to an end at Toronto on Dec. 4.
James’ streak started on Jan. 6, 2007. It was the longest such streak in NBA history: Michael Jordan had 866 consecutive double-digit scoring games, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 787, and Karl Malone posted the fourth-longest run at 575.
During James’ streak, he reached the 10-point mark by the start of the fourth quarter 1,266 times entering that matchup with the Raptors, per ESPN Stats & Information.
Doncic, Giannis Led NBA All-Star Voting
Luka Doncic led the Western Conference in voting, and was joined by Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo led Eastern Conference voting, and will be joined by New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey, Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, and Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown.
Doncic and Antetokounmpo led the first and second fan returns of NBA All-Star Voting 2026.
Fans voting via the NBA App and NBA.com with their NBA ID account for 50% of the vote to determine the five players from each conference selected as starters for the All-Star Game, with current NBA players and a media panel representing 25% each.
In addition, the seven reserve players from each conference will be chosen by NBA head coaches. The reserves will be announced this coming Sunday, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
This year, NBA All-Stars are being selected regardless of their position.
NBA All-Star Game To Feature Three Teams
The league confirmed in November that next month’s NBA All-Star Game will feature a round-robin tournament consisting of two teams of U.S. players and one of international players (the World team).
Each team will have a minimum of eight players, and the event features four 12-minute games.
In the round-robin tournament, Team A will play Team B in Game 1. The winning team from Game 1 will face Team C in Game 2, followed by the losing team of Game 1 meeting Team C in Game 3.
After Game 3, the top two teams by record will advance to play each other in the championship game (Game 4). If all three teams have a 1-1 record after Game 3, the tiebreaker would be point differential in each team’s two round-robin games.
NBC and Peacock will present the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. ET from Intuit Dome, the Los Angeles Clippers’ new arena.
