OAKLAND, Calif. _ The game is still roughly four months off, but Warriors guard Stephen Curry already sounds like he's preparing mentally for what he might do if he is selected as one of the new all-important captains for the 2018 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
In a compelling revamping of the All-Star selection process, fans, players and media will still vote for 10 starters and coaches will pick the 14 reserves, but the 24 players will go into a pool, and the leading vote-getters from each conference will become captains that select 12-man squads from the complete pool.
As the leading Western Conference vote-getter two of the last three years _ he was second in 2015-16 behind the retiring Kobe Bryant _ Curry stands a decent chance of being one of the All-Star captains making picks under the new format.
The pressure is already on a bit. Curry was asked Wednesday following practice who he might select first if he's a captain, and who some of the subsequent picks might be as well. He was not unprepared to answer.
"Probably one of my teammates ... until you run out of those options," he said with a knowing grin. "Then you've got to figure it out. You don't go into a draft knowing what pick 9-10-11 is going to be. You have to see how it all unfolds."
To be sure, the players doing to picking could be facing some potentially awkward scenarios with members of their own teams and friends around the league. Curry isn't worried.
"If I'm the one picking, nah, it's fun," he said. "It's a different type of set-up, and a different look, especially on the court when you mix up the conferences and the different lineups you can get out there. From a fan standpoint, I know it's going to be a huge story line just to see who's playing with who and even what they name the teams, what the jerseys look like, the whole set-up. It's going to be a different look."
Then there's the old playground issue with picking teams _ somebody's going to have to be picked last. Curry admitted that could prove a bit embarrassing, even for a player who gets an All-Star nod.
"You're an All-Star, but obviously, somebody has to get picked last, or second-to-last," he said. "I'm sure the noise that's evident in our society every single day is going use that as ammunition to try and make fun of somebody. But I guarantee you, anybody would want to trade places with the 24th All-Star if they had the opportunity to do so. That's kind of the unfortunate circumstance of the whole drafting situation. But at least they're playing in the All-Star Game."
