Atlanta guard Trae Young is headed to the NBA All-Star Game after all, and Dallas guard Kyrie Irving has been picked once again as well.
Commissioner Adam Silver announced Monday that he has added Young to the All-Star roster as an injury replacement for Milwaukee forward because of a calf injury. Later Monday, Silver chose Irving as the injury replacement for his Mavs teammate Anthony Davis 鈥�
for the game through the balloting for the starters or the coaches' selections of reserve players. 鈥淚t鈥檚 getting 鈥楾raed鈥� at this point,鈥� he wrote on social media, coining a new word in reaction to being snubbed.
Young is the NBA鈥檚 assist leader this season and now a four-time All-Star selection. The All-Star Game 鈥� now a mini-tournament of three games 鈥� is Sunday in San Francisco.
Young will replace Antetokounmpo on Team Chuck, the eight-man squad drafted last week by TNT analyst Charles Barkley. Antetokounmpo was the fourth of the 24 players drafted by Barkley, Shaquille O鈥橬eal and Kenny Smith to the All-Star rosters.
Young joins a roster with a decidedly international feel. He鈥檒l play alongside Denver鈥檚 Nikola Jokic (Serbia), Oklahoma City鈥檚 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), San Antonio鈥檚 Victor Wembanyama (France), Indiana鈥檚 Pascal Siakam (Cameroon), Houston鈥檚 Alperen Sengun (Turkey), New York鈥檚 Karl-Anthony Towns (whose mother is Dominican) and Cleveland鈥檚 Donovan Mitchell (whose mother is from Panama).
Young leads the NBA in assists per game by a significant margin; he entered Monday averaging 11.4, well ahead of Jokic鈥檚 10.3 per game.
This is the second consecutive year Young was added to the roster as an injury replacement. He also made All-Star appearances in 2020 and 2022.
on Saturday and is expected to miss multiple weeks. Irving, the 2014 All-Star MVP, is now a nine-time selection.
Irving joins Team Shaq as Davis' replacement, which also features Davis' former Los Angeles Lakers teammate LeBron James, Golden State's Stephen Curry, Boston teammates Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Phoenix's Kevin Durant, Milwaukee's Damian Lillard and the Los Angeles Clippers' James Harden.
The other All-Stars selected to the game are on Team Kenny: Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, New York's Jalen Brunson, Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr., Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams, Cleveland teammates Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, Detroit's Cade Cunningham and Miami's Tyler Herro.
___
AP NBA:
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
