The NBA on Thursday announced the starting rosters for the All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 19. LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks received the most votes in the Western and Eastern Conferences respectively.

Having been named an All-Star player for the 19th time in his career, James matches Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most appearances in the mid-season entertaining event. He will also assemble his lineup as captain of Team LeBron for the sixth straight time since the league chose this way to decide the All-Star squads in 2018. His side has won all of the five previous competitions.

Antetokounmpo became team captain for the third time and he will pick player for Team Giannis. Unlike the previous five times, he and James will draft their teammates 30 minutes ahead of the All-Star Game. Both must make "hard" calls in limited time.

The other starters of the two conferences are:

Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans, Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks in the West.

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East.

Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers became the biggest and the most surprising sub from the All-Star starters, which he had been for five years in arow. He was third among East frontcourt players in the player and media voting, but fans ranked him fourth. The votes of fans, players and media count 50, 25 and 25 percent respectively in deciding the All-Star starting lineups.

Embiid finished second in the NBA Most Valuable Player Award race last season, behind only Jokic. He has averaged 33.4 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.7 blocks in 35 games by Thursday during the 2022-23 campaign. The 76ers are unlikely to rank second in the East without the excellent performance of Embiid.

There will be seven All-Star reserves from the East and the West respectively decided via coaches voting. The results will be announced on February 2.