Adam Silver wants to expand NBA All-Star rosters, and in practice, he has.
The NBA commissioner has named four injury replacements – DeMarcus Cousins for Kobe Bryant, Damian Lillard for Blake Griffin, Kyle Korver for Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki for Anthony Davis. So, instead of 24 All-Stars, we have 28.
Is that a record for injury replacements? Not quite.
But it sets a record for starters replaced with Kobe, Griffin and Davis having been voted Western Conference starters.
Both 2007 and 1997 featured five injury replacements, and 2010 and 2001 each had four. No other year had more than two.
2007
- Joe Johnson replaced Jason Kidd
- Josh Howard replaced Carlos Boozer
- Ray Allen replaced Allen Iverson
- Carmelo Anthony replaced Yao Ming*
- Mehmet Okur replaced Steve Nash
1997
- Chris Webber replaced Patrick Ewing*
- Joe Dumars replaced Alonzo Mourning
- Detlef Schrempf replaced Charles Barkley*
- Chris Gatling replaced Clyde Drexler
- Kevin Garnett replaced Shaquille O’Neal
2010
- David Lee replaced Allen Iverson*
- Jason Kidd replaced Kobe Bryant*
- Chauncey Billups replaced Chris Paul
- Chris Kaman replaced Brandon Roy
2001
- Latrell Sprewell replaced Grant Hill*
- Dikembe Mutombo replaced Alonzo Mourning*
- Antonio Davis replaced Theo Ratliff
- Vlade Divac replaced Shaquille O’Neal*
*Voted a starter
It’s still possible, though unlikely,, 2015 matches the record for total injury replacements.
Carmelo Anthony seems set on playing, though it’s not a total certainty he will. And if someone can beat Kevin Durant one-on-one, that’s another spot available.
