2019 NBA All-Star Game

Result

MVP: Kevin Durant

Box score

Draft format continued: captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Bench (10+ points): Klay Thompson (20), Damian Lillard (18), Karl-Anthony Towns (11), Bradley Beal (11), Ben Simmons (10)

Bench (10+ points): Khris Middleton (20), Russell Westbrook (17), Blake Griffin (10)

Game context

The 2019 All-Star Game finally brought the event to Charlotte, two years after North Carolina's House Bill 2 had forced the league to relocate the originally scheduled 2017 game to New Orleans; with the underlying law since repealed, the Spectrum Center hosted the rescheduled event on February 17, 2019. The draft format, in its second year, continued with LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo as the top vote-getters and thus team captains, producing Team LeBron and Team Giannis. This was the first year the draft itself was broadcast live on television, adding a layer of in-season theater to the selection process: the format called for the first eight picks to fill out each team's starters, the next fourteen picks (seven per conference) to be chosen by NBA head coaches as reserves, and a final two picks — Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki, both playing their farewell NBA seasons — added afterward as special roster additions in recognition of their careers. In a notable in-broadcast twist, James traded his 16th overall pick, Russell Westbrook, to Team Giannis in exchange for Ben Simmons, the 13th pick, a live trade that added an unusual transactional wrinkle to the draft-show format. On the court, Team LeBron pulled away in the second half, outscoring Team Giannis 50-36 in the third quarter and 46-33 in the fourth to turn a competitive first half into a comfortable 178-164 win. Kevin Durant earned the game's MVP award — his second, following his 2012 honor in the old East-versus-West format — making him one of the few players to win All-Star MVP under both the conference and draft formats. Team Giannis, despite the loss, technically retained "home team" designation for the broadcast because the Eastern Conference, from which Antetokounmpo hailed as the Milwaukee Bucks' star, held that nominal home status under the league's scheduling conventions that year, an increasingly vestigial distinction now that the conference alignment no longer determined the actual team rosters. The game's return to Charlotte closed the loop on the HB2 controversy in a low-key, celebratory way, with the city's hosting duties finally fulfilled without incident. Wade's and Nowitzki's ceremonial inclusion as "special roster additions" reflected a broader trend of the draft-era All-Star Game leaning into nostalgia and player tributes as part of its entertainment value, a tradition that would continue in various forms — jersey numbers honoring departed stars, farewell selections for retiring veterans — throughout the format's run over the following several seasons.

Sources

• Basketball-Reference — NBA All-Star Game History
• Basketball-Reference — NBA & ABA All-Star Game MVP (Kobe Bryant Trophy)