Houston Rockets: How Chris Paul helped change the NBA All-Star Game

Houston Rockets star point guard Chris Paul won’t be participating in the NBA’s annual All-Star Game tonight but the new changes that you’ve seen gone into effect are directly a part of his movement to give fans a better watching experience. How did this come about? Take a look.

Houston Rockets faithful will have several representatives at this weekend’s All-Star festivities, including James Harden, who was elected as a starter, Mike D’Antoni, who will be coaching Team Stephen and Eric Gordon who was unsuccessfully able to defend his three-point contest crown last night.

I personally think we should’ve had more but the team certainly has to play with the hands that they’re dealt with. As with last season, you’ll see the new format drummed up which features team captains — decided on the vote counts — from each conference.

For tonight, your captains will be LeBron James and Stephen Curry, with the completion of the roster selections having occurred about a month ago. It should be an exciting experience to partake in but how did it all come about?

The season before last, Chris Paul, President of the NBA Player’s Association, watch the game for the first time in awhile as a fan and was not pleased with the product he saw out on the hardwood. And according to Ken Berger of Bleacher Report, he called Commissioner Adam Silver the next day to propose changes to be made to the current format.

Berger describes Paul’s emotions via a source with working knowledge of veteran’s psyche:

"“For the first time, he actually just sat at home and watched it like a fan would watch it,” a person close to Paul told Bleacher Report. “I got the sense that he thought what everybody else thought; there’s very little competition. He’s an ultra-competitive guy. … I think he viewed it from a different perspective and was like, ‘Holy crap, we’ve got to do something.'”"

And so the brainchild of this new format was born with a focus that wasn’t emphasized on East vs. West but with things target on the individuals such as the team captains, with one-on-one play being at the forefront.

Combined with a tad bit less weight on the fan vote for the All-Star starters, this event has truly

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become an event now worth watching.

Things appear to be working and it’s remarkable that both sides — the NBA as well as the NBPA — came together to work toward a sound solution to keep us fans happy. Of course, because of its intense revenue stream, there would be no chance the festivities would be cancelled but to offer a better product for consumers can only be a win-win.

And that’s what we have in front of us.

The roster for Team LeBron is: DeMarcus Cousins (injured), Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and LeBron. The reserves will be LaMarcus Aldridge, Bradley Beal, Goran Dragic, Andre Drummond, Paul George, Kevin Love (injured), Victor Oladipo, Kristaps Porzingis (injured), Kemba Walker, John Wall (injured) and Russell Westbrook. Dwa

ne Casey will coach the team.

The roster for Team Stephen is: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, Joel Embiid and James Harden. The reserves will be Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Al Horford, Damian Lillard, Kyle Lowry, Klay Thompson and Karl-Anthony Towns. As previously mentioned, D’Antoni will be pacing the sidelines.

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So what’s the Beard going to do? It’ll be interesting to see so tune in tonight at 7 p.m. CST as these teams duke it out in Los Angeles on TNT.

Go Rockets.

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