By Evan Bainbridge

The 2018 NBA All-Star game was done a little differently than in years past. Instead of doing an East vs West game (which is how it is usually done), the NBA decided to switch it up and have two team captains draft their teams for the game this year.

On January 25, team captain, Lebron James, from the Cleveland Cavaliers, and team captain, Stephen Curry, from the Golden State Warriors drafted their teams. James got the first pick in the draft and selected Kevin Durant, from the Golden State Warriors.

Each team was composed of 12 players, and the team captains selected players back and forth until their rosters were filled. The teams, for the first time ever, were made up of players from both the Eastern and Western Conferences.

“I loved the new format they used this year. It made the game a lot more fun and competitive. The only thing that they could have improved would have been televising the All-Star draft,” sophomore Matthew Duffy said.

Much talk has been going on about next year’s game already, and the NBA thinks they will be doing the same format with the team captains, but they will make the draft on TV because everyone wanted to see it. People were tired of seeing the same old East and West teams, so this mix up was a nice way of seeing something that has never been seen before.

The game took place on Sunday, Feb. 18 in Los Angeles, California. The starters for Team Lebron were James, Durant, Kyrie Irving (Boston), Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City) and Anthony Davis (New Orleans). The starters for Team Stephen were Curry, James Harden (Houston), Demar DeRozan (Toronto), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee) and Joel Embiid (Philadelphia).

The final score of the game was 148-145 in favor of Team Lebron. At the end of the game, the winning team selected an MVP of the game, and team captain, Lebron James himself won that honor. James ended the game with 29 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, and he also scored the game-winning bucket at the end to put his team up three points.