This year, NBA fans will get what they wanted, an All-Star Game featuring the best American players versus the best players from around the world. Adam Silver and the league office hope the new format will bring out competitiveness and encourage players to actually show effort.<\/p>\n
Fans considered the last two All-Star Games a joke due to a lack of defense and influx of threes. Right now, it seems like players from the World Team might make the game challenging for the Americans.<\/p>\n
The All-Star Game might be an exhibition or showcase event<\/a>, but there are deeper stakes at play. The 2028 Olympics is scheduled be held in Los Angeles. The NBA hasn\u2019t had an American<\/a> player win the regular season MVP since the 2017\u201318 season. And judging by the start some of the international players are having, that might not change this year.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quick look at some of the best starts through the first few games by World players.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say those five headline the World Team in the All-Star Game. That\u2019s one incredible starting lineup. And even though Joki\u0107 and Luka don\u2019t usually care much about the All-Star Game, Giannis and Wemby are known for their competitiveness, even in exhibition settings.<\/p>\n When Giannis made his first few All-Star appearances, he defended hard and tried to win at all costs. Wembanyama, meanwhile, showed his frustration about losing even at the Skills Challenge.<\/p>\n The World Team could also feature players like Domantas Sabonis<\/a>, Franz Wagner<\/a>, Jamal Murray<\/a>, Pascal Siakam<\/a>, Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>, Lauri Markkanen<\/a>, and Alperen Sengun<\/a>, a truly formidable roster.<\/p>\n The challenge for the Americans will be finding enough big men. They\u2019re stacked on the wings and in the backcourt with players like Anthony Edwards<\/a>, Trae Young<\/a>, Cade Cunningham<\/a>, Stephen Curry<\/a>, Devin Booker<\/a>, Jalen Brunson<\/a>, LeBron James<\/a>, Jalen Williams<\/a>, and Kevin Durant<\/a>. But their frontcourt rotation is thinner, with Evan Mobley<\/a>, Anthony Davis<\/a>, and Jaren Jackson Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n The good news for the Americans is that all of these World players don\u2019t play on the same national team. If they did, Team USA might have a real challenge on its hands heading into the 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n For now, fans can simply enjoy a USA vs. World matchup during All-Star Weekend. But one thing is clear, the rest of the world is catching up. Who knows when the next American regular-season MVP will come along?<\/p>\n \u00a9 Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This year, NBA fans will get what they wanted, an All-Star Game featuring the best American players versus the best players from around the world. Adam Silver and the league office hope the new format will bring out competitiveness and encourage players to actually show effort. Fans considered the last two All-Star Games a joke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":164343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62],"tags":[2815],"class_list":["post-164305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-nba-all-star-game"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164305"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164344,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164305\/revisions\/164344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Projecting the USA vs. World All-Star Rosters<\/h3>\n
Is the Olympic Gold at Stake?<\/h3>\n