Kevin Durant has been selected to start the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, to be held Sunday, Feb. 20 at Rocket Mortgage Arena in Cleveland.
For the second straight season, Durant was also the leading vote-getter in the Eastern Conference and will be one of the two All-Star Game team captains, along with LeBron James. He and James will draft their teams from among the players voted as starters and those selected as reserves. All-Star reserves, to be chosen by the coaches, will be announced on Thursday, Feb. 3 and the All-Star Draft will be held on Thursday, Feb. 10. The State Farm All-Star Saturday night participants will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
Durant becomes the first Net to be voted as an All-Star starter twice. Jason Kidd and Vince Carter both started two All-Star Games while with the Nets, once each after being voted in and once each as a replacement. Durant’s second All-Star starter selection is the seventh in Nets history, along with Kidd (2008), Carter (2005), Derrick Coleman (1994), Kenny Anderson (1994), and Kyrie Irving (2021).
Durant has now been chosen for 12 All-Star Games and 10 starts in his 14 seasons, though he was unable to participate in 2021 due to injury. Durant was an All-Star for 10 consecutive years before missing the 2019-20 season due to injury. He was the game’s MVP in 2012 and 2019 and his All-Star Game scoring average of 25.0 points per game is the second highest in NBA history.
This season, Durant is leading the NBA in scoring with 29.3 points per game, his highest scoring rate since leading the league with 32.0 points per game during his 2013-14 MVP season, which was also the fourth time in five seasons he led the NBA in scoring. Durant is also averaging 7.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists while shooting 52.0 percent from the field.
All-Star starters were selected based on a fan vote that accounted for 50 percent of the total, while players and media vote totals accounted for 25 percent each.