SALT LAKE CITY — The "last pick" of the All-Star Draft will be a starter.
The NBA has changed the format of Sunday's draft (Monday, Manila time), and LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo — the captains — will make their picks from the pool of reserve players first.
They'll then choose their starting lineups, from the pool of eight other starters. The switch will ensure that no player will have to deal with the stigma of being picked last, even though that hasn't been too much of an issue in the past.
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This is the sixth year of the format where captains — determined by fan voting — choose their own All-Star rosters, but the first year in which those captains will do so on game night and basically right in front of the other All-Stars.
The 2018 draft was not shown publicly. The 2019 draft had Bradley Beal as the last pick among reserves, not including Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki — who were added to the game by Commissioner Adam Silver to commemorate their final seasons. (Nowitzki wound up being the last pick.)
In 2020, Domantas Sabonis, then of Indiana, was the last pick. In 2021, Rudy Gobert, then of Utah, was the last reserve left on the board. And last year, the final pick was James Harden — after Kevin Durant took Gobert, and didn't choose his former Brooklyn teammate in a comical scene.
JABARI ON JORDAN
Houston's Jabari Smith Jr. was asked if Michael Jordan — who turned 60 on Friday — could compete if they were were to play 1-on-1 now.
Smith was pretty sure Jordan wouldn't be getting buckets.
"He's not beating me right now. If a 60-year-old is hooping on me, I need to hang it up," Smith said. He then added, "Happy Birthday, MJ!"
SHORT STUFF
New Orleans guard Jose Alvarado is listed at 6 feet, which might be a tiny bit generous.
He doesn't mind.
When told before Friday's Rising Stars event that he was a hero for the undersized, Alvarado had a message for others who consider themselves vertically challenged.
"Hey short people, I'm just like y'all. We got a lot of heart," Alvarado said. "I see lots of other little guys tagging me on Instagram. I see your love. Keep being yourself, don't try to be nobody else."
Alvarado admitted that the highlights of him hiding behind bigger players to get steals in the backcourt is making it tougher to surprise opponents.
"Everybody seen those clips. Now, so I just got to find another way, but I'm crafty," he said.
WELCOME MOMENT
Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams said the season has been like a dream. He used to wear Derrick Rose's shoes constantly when he was younger and then found himself guarding D-Rose in Madison Square Garden.
"So wild," Williams said before the Rising Stars games. "Going up against people that I watched on TV is definitely kind of surreal."
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