NBA coaches are obviously convinced: Victor Wembanyama is one of the league's very best players.
The San Antonio star and reigning rookie of the year is an All-Star for the first time, one of the 14 players announced Thursday night as members of the reserve pool for the Feb. 16 event in San Francisco.
Wembanyama becomes only the fourth Spurs player to make the All-Star Game in his first or second season. The others: Alvin Robertson in 1986, David Robinson in 1990 and 1991, and Tim Duncan in 1998.
Coaches select the reserves, after the 10 names for the starters pool were announced last week through a combination of fan voting (50%), media voting (25%) and active player voting (25%).
There were seven players picked Thursday from each conference. From the Eastern Conference: Boston's Jaylen Brown, Indiana's Pascal Siakam, Cleveland's Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, Detroit's Cade Cunningham, Milwaukee's Damian Lillard — last year's All-Star MVP — and Miami's Tyler Herro.
From the West: Wembanyama, Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, the Los Angeles Lakers' Anthony Davis, the Los Angeles Clippers' James Harden, Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr., Houston's Alperen Sengun and Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams.
Wembanyama, Cunningham, Mobley, Herro, Sengun and Williams are first-time All-Stars.
There will be at least 15 players who "start" at the All-Star Game this season. It's the first year of a new All-Star format, with three games. The 24 All-Stars will be drafted into three teams of eight players apiece by TNT personalities and former NBA greats Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.
Those three teams will be entered into a four-team tournament, with the remaining squad made up of NBA rookies and second-year players from the Rising Stars event on All-Star Friday. There are two semifinal games, with the winners meeting in a championship game. The games should go quickly; the first team to reach 40 points wins.
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault and an assistant from his staff will coach two of the teams, and Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson and one of his assistants will lead the others.
Among the notable names who did not make it: Charlotte's LaMelo Ball — who narrowly missed out on being picked as a starter, but didn't have enough coach support to be a reserve — along with Atlanta's Trae Young, Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis, Phoenix's Devin Booker, Dallas' Kyrie Irving and the Clippers' Norman Powell.
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