On Thursday night, both LeBron James and Kevin Durant selected their teams for Sunday’s All-Star Game. Since James was the leading vote-getter this season with the first pick, he selected Giannis Antetokounmpo. Meanwhile, with the second pick, Durant elected to go with his Nets teammate Kyrie Irving.
Later in the evening, after the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, Antetokounmpo was informed of the starting lineups while eating lemon pepper chicken, according to ESPN’s Eric Woodyard. “It’s Memphis,” he says, laughing.
Giannis shows up to the post-game press conference eating lemon pepper wings. “It’s Memphis,” he says laughing.
— Eric Woodyard (@E_Woodyard) March 5, 2021
Woodyard informed Giannis that he was the first number one pick on Team LeBron.
Watch Giannis’ reaction to being selected 1st overall to #TeamLeBron (via: @Bucks) pic.twitter.com/huxI7JH3U2
— Eric Woodyard (@E_Woodyard) March 5, 2021
He was later read the starting lineups of team LeBron and then had a strong message for team Durant.
“It’s over, guys! Me, LeBron, Luka, Jokic, and Steph. Man, that’s a good starting 5.”
Of course, as we know, they still have to play the game, but to Giannis’ point, Team LeBron starting lineup is stacked. James did very well for the reserves as he added Damian Lillard, Ben Simmons, Chris Paul, Jaylen Brown, Paul George, Sabonis, and Gobert. Kevin Durant selected James Harden, Devin Booker, Zion Williamson, Zach LaVine, Julius Randle, Nikola Vucevic, and Mitchell.
This will be the first time James and Giannis will be on the same team since his first trip four years ago. As for playing with James, Giannis shared that he has to make the right plays, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
“He just makes plays. Most of the time, you’re just wide open, and I’ve never been used to that with somebody else creating the attention and me being wide open all the time,” Antetokounmpo said. “So, I’ve just got to do my job, make the right play too, and do what I always do: just play hard and hope I can help him get a win.”
Despite having the best record in the league, Jazz all-stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were the last two selected. Meanwhile, James shared that no one picked Utah as their team while playing video games growing up.
“I just want to say something because there’s no slander to the Utah Jazz,” James said with a smile. “But you guys got to understand, just like in video games growing up, we never played with Utah. Even as great as Karl Malone and John Stockton were, we never would have picked those guys. Never!”
