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Dave McMenamin, ESPN writer
SACRAMENTO, California – LeBron James is set to become the NBA’s all-time leader in regular-season minutes played Thursday in the same city where he scored his first when the Los Angeles Lakers play the Sacramento Kings.
It will be another achievement in a career full of them 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’ shootaround Thursday morning. Rather, when asked about the changes announced 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 damn 3-pointers 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 basketball style. [being played]” Silver said. “I wouldn’t reduce it to the so-called three-point shooting problem. “I think we looked more holistically at the skill level on the court, the diversity of the offense, the fan reception of the game, all of the above.”
To offer some perspective on the extent to which the three-point shot has become a staple of NBA offenses, the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors averaged 31.6 three-point attempts per game (No. 1 in the league). 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 break the team’s previous records for 3-point attempts in a season.
As for the All-Star Game, the league announced this week that instead of having the traditional East vs. West, or even that the teams are selected by those who obtain the most votes in each conference, a round robin will be played.
The 24 selected All-Stars will be divided 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 a semifinal and the other two teams will play in another semifinal, setting up a third championship match between the winners. Each of the games will be untimed and will end 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,” when asked about the format change, James was more open about it.
“Something had to change,” James said, alluding to last year’s game that featured a meaningless 397 combined points from the two teams.
“We’ll see, we’ll see when we get there,” he continued. “It’s different. Obviously every time you make some kind of change, they’ll give you some money back. I don’t know. I mean, I have my ideas of what might work… You have to do something. Obviously, “The last few years didn’t “They were a great All-Star Game that Sunday night.”
James enters Thursday with 57,437 minutes played in the regular season, nine behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time mark of 57,446. However, if we 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.
