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Dave McMenamin, ESPN Staff WriterDec 19, 2024, 05:06 PM ET
- Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.
- Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — LeBron James is set to become the NBA’s all-time leader in regular season minutes played Thursday back in the same city where he logged his first, when the Los Angeles Lakers play the Sacramento Kings.
It will be another accomplishment in a career teeming with them for the four-time MVP, four-time champion and 20-time All-Star who also happens to be the league’s all-time leading scorer.
But the 39-year-old James was not in a celebratory mood after Lakers shootaround Thursday morning. Rather, when asked about the announced changes for the All-Star game format in February, James lamented the state of the league.
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“It’s not just the All-Star Game. It’s our game in general,” James said. “There’s a lot of f—ing 3s being shot. So it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star Game.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed criticism aimed at the increase in 3-point volume this week ahead of the NBA Cup championship on Tuesday.
“The answer is yes, [we are having] many discussions about the style of basketball [being played],” Silver said. “I would not reduce it to a so-called 3-point shooting issue. I think we look more holistically at the skill level on the floor, the diversity of the offense, the fan reception to the game, all of the above.”
To offer some perspective as to just how much the 3-point shot has become a staple for NBA offenses, the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors averaged 31.6 3-point attempts per game – No. 1 in the league – en route to a 73-9 record. They would rank 29th this season, with only the Denver Nuggets attempting fewer per game (30.4). The defending champion Boston Celtics are first, averaging 51.1 3-point attempts per game, which would shatter the previous team records for 3-point attempts in a season.
As for the All-Star game, the league announced this week that rather than have the traditional East vs. West game, or even have the team’s drafted by the top vote getters in each conference, there will be a round robin played instead.
The 24 All-Stars selected will be split up into teams of eight and a fourth team of eight will be comprised of players from the Rising Stars game on Friday night. Two teams will play in one semifinal and the other two teams will play in another semifinal, setting up a third championship game between the winners. Each of the games will untimed and will end when the first team reaches or surpasses 40 points to win.
While James’ teammate, nine-time All-Star Anthony Davis said, “I don’t really like it,” when asked about the format change, James sounded more open to it.
“Something had to change,” James said, alluding to last year’s game that featured 397 combined, meaningless points by the two teams.
“We’ll see, we’ll see when we get there,” he continued. “It’s different. Obviously anytime you make some type of change it’s going to be some buck back. I don’t know. I mean, I have my ideas of what could possibly work. … You got to do something. Obviously, the last couple of years have not been a great All-Star Game that Sunday night.”
James comes into Thursday with 57,437 career regular season minutes played – nine behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time mark of 57,446. However, if you count the 23 minutes James played in the NBA Cup championship in Las Vegas last year, he has already passed Abdul-Jabbar’s mark. The league does not count the NBA Cup championship statistics towards regular season or playoff records.
