LeBron James Has No Issue With Televising All Star Draft

LeBron James on televising captain's picks: 'What's Bad About It?'

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- LeBron James enjoyed picking his All-Star squad with Steph Curry last season and doesn't see a downside to watching that process play out on television this season.

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ESPN confirmed that the NBA and NBA Players Association have agreed to televise the two All-Star captains selecting their squads for the 2019 All-Star Game in Charlotte. The New York Times was first to report the news. "What's bad about it? It's All-Star Weekend," James said when asked if televising the captains' choices would be a good thing. "You got 24 of the best players in the world that's going to make the team. It doesn't matter if you're first or last, you're 24 of the best in the world at that point in time. I don't think it'll be bad. We'll see."

LeBron James said he and Steph Curry had a "great" time picking the NBA All-Star Game rosters as captains last year. "It was fun," James said. AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Last year, the NBA introduced a new wrinkle to the All-Star Game format with fans continuing to select the five starters for the Eastern and Western Conference. However, the leading vote-getter in each conference would get to draft the other 11 members on their squad like a fantasy draft. James and Curry were the first captains to partake in the process last season. "It was great, me and Steph, we had a great time drafting on the phone just picking," said James, who now is in the Western Conference after signing with the Lakers. "Fantasy basketball for us. It was fun." James said the entertainment value would come down to who is chosen captains. "I think obviously there are certain personalities that can add to it," James said. "But it all depends how much the captains are going to get into it, as far as their draft boards. We'll see."

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UPDATE: ALL-STAR Voting Via Google Search Engine

The NBA is switching up the way it handles All-Star voting for the 2019 iteration of the annual exhibition. For fans, voting for the 2019 All-Star game in Charlotte will begin at 11 a.m. EST on Christmas Day (December 25, 2018) and conclude at 11:59 p.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 21, 2019). The 10 selected starters for the '19 All-Star Game will be officially revealed on TNT on Thursday, January, 24; three days after the voting closes. The reserves for the game will be announced a week later on January 31.

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Five “two-for-one Days” were announced which will allow fans to have their NBA All-Star Game votes count twice on Jan. 3, Jan. 4, Jan. 10, Jan. 11 and Jan. 21 through all voting platforms. In addition to the voting dates, the NBA also announced a new partnership with Google for fan voting, according to a report from Yahoo. Once voting begins, fans will be able to vote for their favorite players by searching "NBA Vote," "NBA All-Star Vote," or a player's name within the search engine, or by using a Google Assistant-enabled device and saying, "Google, talk to NBA All-Star."

Fans will be permitted to fill out one ballot per day, every day while voting is open. On a few specific dates (January 3-4, 10-11 and 21) votes will count twice. As in years past, voting will also be available on the NBA app and NBA.com, and the ballots will feature spots for three frontcourt players and two guards from each conference. All active players are eligible for selection. Unfortunately for fans of NBA Twitter, the #NBAVote hashtag is no longer applicable.

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For the third consecutive season, the tallied fan vote will account for 50 percent of the total vote, with media and players making up the other half. The format of the All-Star team selection will be the same as it was last season, with the leading vote-getter from each conference serving as a captain and then drafting teams from the pool of selected players. However, unlike last season, the All-Star draft will be televised this year. Source: http://www.espn.com/