LeBron James on the All-Star Game format: “Something had to change”

LeBron James on the All-Star Game format: “Something had to change”

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — LeBron James is on pace to become the NBA’s all-time leader in regular-season minutes played Thursday in the same city where he scored his first goal, the Los Angeles Lakers played against the Sacramento Kings.

It will be another success in his career for the four-time MVP, four-time champion and 20-time All-Star, who is also the league’s all-time leading scorer.

But James, 39, was in no mood to celebrate after the Lakers’ shootout Thursday morning. Rather, when asked about the announced changes to the All-Star Game format in February, James lamented the state of the league.

“It’s not just the All-Star Game. It’s our game in general,” James said. “There’s a lot of fucking threesomes being shot. So it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star Game.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver weighed in on the criticism directed at increasing 3-point volume this week ahead of Tuesday’s NBA Cup Championship.

“The answer is yes, (we have) a lot of discussions about the style of basketball that is being played,” Silver said. “I wouldn’t reduce it to a so-called 3-point shooting problem. I think we look more holistically at skill on the field, variety of offense, fan response to the game and all of the above.”

To give a sense of how much the 3-point shot has become an integral part of NBA offenses, the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors averaged 31.6 3-point attempts per game along the way – No. 1 in the league with a 73-9 record. They would finish 29th that season, with only the Denver Nuggets attempting fewer attempts per game (30.4). The defending champion Boston Celtics are in first place with an average of 51.1 3-point attempts per game, which would break the previous team record for 3-point attempts in a season.

As for the All-Star Game, the league announced this week that instead of the traditional East vs. West game or even just having teams selected by the top selectors from each conference, there will be a round-robin game.

The 24 selected All-Stars will be divided into teams of eight and a fourth team of eight will consist of players from Friday night’s Rising Stars game. Two teams play in a semifinal and the other two teams play in another semifinal, creating a third championship game between the winners. Each of the games is untimed and ends when the first team reaches or exceeds 40 points to win.

While James’ teammate, nine-time All-Star Anthony Davis, said, “I don’t really like it,” James sounded more open to it when asked about the format change.

“Something had to change,” James said, referring to last year’s game in which the two teams scored a combined 397 meaningless points.

“We’ll see, we’ll see when we get there,” he continued. “It’s different. Obviously every change costs some money. I don’t know it. I mean, I have my ideas about what could possibly work. …You have to do something. Obviously the last few years haven’t been a great All-Star Game on this Sunday night.

James enters Thursday’s game with 57,437 minutes played in the regular season – nine fewer than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 57,446. However, if you count the 35 minutes James played in the NBA Cup Championship in Las Vegas last year, he has already surpassed Abdul-Jabbar’s mark. The league does not count NBA Cup Championship statistics toward regular season or playoff records.

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