On Sun, Feb 1, the NBA announced its reserves for the 2026 All-Star Tournament, featuring two teams that will be made of players born in the United States and one team filled with players born in countries outside the U.S.A. One of the reserves who got in on the Western Conference side was LeBron James, who secured his 22nd All-Star selection after being denied a spot among the starters from both conferences in fan voting totals revealed a few weeks beforehand. In spite of playing in fewer games than most All-Star candidates, James was chosen by the coaches in the Western Conference as a reserve along with Kevin Durant(who gained his 16th All-Star selection), Jamal Murray(Denver Nuggets), Chet Holmgren(Oklahoma City Thunder), Deni Avdija(Portland Trail Blazers), Anthony Edwards(Minnesota Timberwolves) and Devin Booker(Phoenix Suns).

Chosen over well-deserving candidates such as Houston Rockets center Alpheren Sengun(who might get in as a potential replacement for the injured Giannis Antetokounmpo on the International Squad), Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and Dillon Brooks, LeBron might be playing in his final All-Star contest following him being inactive for last season’s All-Star Game due to injuries to his left ankle and foot. But he is now set to play in the All-Star Tournament on Sun, Feb 15 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif as the Los Angeles Clippers will officially host their first solo All-Star Weekend ever. Luka Doncic was already penciled in as a starter out of the Western Conference and he will be a starter on the International squad along with fellow foreign-born players such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander(Canadian nationality), Nikola Jokic(Serbian-born) and Victor Wembanyama(French-born). There will be one extra Lakers player taking place in an All-Star event as Jaxson Hayes accepted an invite to the All-Star Dunk Contest occurring on Sat, Feb 14.

The All-Star Tournament between the two USA squads and International team will feature four separate games that will take 12 minutes and occur in a round-robin formation. Whichever two teams have the best record in head-to-head matchups and have the higher overall point differential will advance to the championship match to decide the winning squad. The International squad is mostly set with the exception of the injured Antetokounmpo, who will be replaced by either a fellow foreign-born player or an American-born player. The two U.S squads will be split up across the amount of 16 total American-born players set to participate in the tournament. For now, LeBron James is going to be a part of a unique NBA All-Star Game format. Last season featured a tournament featuring teams that had the names of four NBA television personalities in Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Candace Parker as the league celebrated the final All-Star Game broadcasted on TNT. Now this season it’s the best of the U.S versus the best of the rest of the world in a basketball celebration unlike any other in the City of Stars. The tournament will occur in the afternoon hours locally in L.A as the earlier start time was prompted due to NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage that will occur later in the day. The rosters for all three teams will be announced at a later date, so stayed tuned for that.

Even though the Lakers lost the seventh game(they have a 4-3 record overall on the trip with one game left in Brooklyn) on their Grammys Road Trip to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden 112-100, there was some good pregame news as LeBron James kept up his streak of being selected to the All-Star Game in purple and gold colors. Being a team captain for six straight years due to the amount of fan votes he received from 2018-23(the length of the Team Captain Era in the All-Star Game), the King is going to either be a reserve or a starter on one of the two All-Star teams. Although he was chosen as a reserve, LeBron could still be in the starting lineup on one of the two USA teams. It all depends on how the chips fall and in his potential final All-Star appearance, a starting role for James is still a possibility. With six more games left to be played by the Lakers before the All-Star Break, LeBron will hopefully stay healthy enough to participate in the entertaining midseason staging of the best players in the NBA, something he has had the pleasure of doing since 2005.