Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins will both start in the 2022 All-Star Game in Cleveland. It’s Curry’s eighth All-Star Game appearance and Wiggins’ first.
All-Stars are selected by a combination of fan, current player and media member voting. Starters and captains were announced Thursday night on TNT; LeBron James and Kevin Durant will select teams. The starters are picked based on conference, but James and Durant can draft whomever they’d like.
The Western Conference’s starters include Curry, Wiggins, James, Nikola Jokic and Ja Morant. In the East, Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, DeMar DeRozan and Trae Young will start.
Wiggins, who earned the third-most fan votes in the most recent NBA.com returns update, is averaging 18.1 points per game while routinely guarding opponents’ best perimeter players. He’s embraced his role as a secondary offensive option, shooting a career-best 48.1% from the floor and 40.4% from 3.
Draymond Green (if healthy) and Klay Thompson, who also enjoyed significant fan backing, still could be named as reserves, which are announced on Feb. 3.
Curry is averaging 25.8 points, 6.2 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game. As his jump shot has betrayed him — by his standards — in January, he’s taken on more of a floor general role than usual. The all-time 3-point leader is shooting just 36.5% from the floor in January but has boosted his assist rate to 7.2 per game, among the best marks of his career.
Even with his January shooting slump, Curry still leads the NBA in 3-pointers made with 209. Sacramento’s Buddy Hield is second with 171.
Curry now has as many All-Star selections as Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, Yao Ming and Vince Carter, among others. James leads active players with 18 All-Star honors, tied with Kobe Bryant and one shy of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time record.
The All-Star Game will be played on Feb. 20, 2022, in the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Golden State will be well-represented.