Viewers on DStv can look forward to thrills and spills from the world’s best basketball league, with ESPN and ESPN 2 the premier venues for coverage of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 2021-22 season will continue through the week of Friday 18 to Thursday 24 February 2022.
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There are no Regular Season games on ESPN 2 this week, but the NBA will present the annual All Star clash on the morning of Monday 21 February. The coverage begins at 01:00 with the All Star Weekend Pre Show, followed at 02:30 by the All Star Skill Contest, and finally the All Star Game at 04:00 – all LIVE on ESPN 2. This year’s event will be held at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
The All Star Game is an exhibition match hosted every February by the NBA, showcasing 24 of the league’s star players. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend, a three-day event which goes from Friday to Sunday. The All-Star Game was first played at the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951.
The starting lineup for each squad is selected by a combination of fan, player, and media voting, while head coaches choose the reserves, seven players from their respective conferences, so each side has a 12-man roster. Since 2018, the leading vote-getters for each conference are designated as team captains and can choose from the pool of All-Star reserves to form their teams regardless of conference.
This year’s captains are LeBron James (Western Conference) and Kevin Durant (Eastern Conference), with the former returning to a former stomping ground: James played for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2003 to 2010 and 2014 to 2018, leading them to the NBA Championship in 2016.
One of the major headline grabbers in terms of his selection is Golden State Warriors forward Bradley Wiggins: “It was mind blowing,” the player said of finding out he was an All Star starter.
“I was taking my pregame nap and my girl and daughter woke me up and told me, ‘You are a starter, you are a starter.’ I thought I was dreaming for a second. I was like, what is going on? It was a good way to learn that I made it to the All-Star, and I am thankful. I have been putting in a lot of work and I have found a home here. Hopefully I can keep it going and this is not the last one.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he was happy to see Wiggins’ work rewarded: “One of the proudest moments just to see what Wiggs has done since he got here a couple of years ago,” Kerr said. “The journey he has traveled has been rocky at times, and to see how hard he’s worked and to see all the work rewarded, just could not be happier for him.”
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NBA match broadcast details
All times CAT
Monday 21 February
01:00: All Star Weekend Pre Show – LIVE on ESPN 2
02:30: All Star Skill Contest – LIVE on ESPN 2
04:00: All Star Game – LIVE on ESPN 2
