It’s almost that time of the year again when NBA players get to break away from their original teams and mesh together as an unstoppable force to experience a weekend of fun and friendly competition. The 2018 NBA All-Star Weekend is approaching us and will take place on February 16th through the 18th at the Staple Center in Los Angeles, California.

Now usually, it’s the Western Conference versus the Eastern Conference, but this year they've spiced up the format! By fan vote, Lebron will represent the East and Steph Curry will represent the West as team captains. James and Curry made their selections by drafting players onto their team in a similar style as a backyard pickup game. Only the elite are considered. They can also choose from any conference they prefer.

Here is the starting lineups:

 

Team LeBron

Kevin Durant                                       Golden State Warriors

Anthony Davis                                    New Orleans Pelicans

LeBron James                                     Cleveland Cavaliers

Paul George                                        Oklahoma City

Kyrie Irving                                          Boston Celtics

 

Now originally, New Orleans Pelicans’ DeMarcus Cousins would be suiting up in place of Paul George, but Cousins has recently suffered a torn left Achilles tendon and will be out for the remainder of the season.

It was also a little surprising to see James select Kyrie Irving on his team after all the drama that escalated after Irving requested to be traded from the Cavaliers.

“Kyrie was available on the draft board,” said James. “He’s one of the best point guards that we have in our league, so it was an easy choice for me.”

 

 As for Team Curry:

James Harden                                     Houston Rockets

DeMar DeRozan                                 Toronto Raptors

Stephen Curry                                     Golden State Warriors

Giannis Anteokounmpo                       Milwaukee Bucks

Joel Embiid                                          Philadelphia Trailblazers

 

This is the first time the format of the All-Star game has been conducted in this way, so it’s going to be very interesting for both fans and players to see this performance. With this style, you can potentially have Eastern players playing against other Eastern players, and vice versa for the West. There will also be players that are currently on the same team playing against each other like Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.

Jerseys will also be different! Instead of differentiating the teams with red against blue jerseys that have ‘EAST’ or ‘WEST’ on them, their original team logos will be black and white on the front, and the jersey colors will be grey for away and white for home.

The All-Stars will pocket $100,000 each if their team wins the 2018 NBA All-Star game. This is 50 thousand more than previous years! The losing team will still receive $25,000 per All-Star, so we're looking at a huge price gap. Hopefully this incentive will spark a more competitive attitude from the players than usual. As viewers, we are accustomed to the All-Star games ending up being a dunk contest accompanied with no defense, so this change could spark up a difference!

Stay tuned on February 18th on TNT at 8 p.m. ET.