MIAMI — Amid a less-than-stellar season, the Miami Heat nonetheless will have a representative at the Feb. 15 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
Bypassed in the combined fan/player/media balloting for starters, the Heat wound up with guard Norman Powell being selected by conference coaches as an East reserve, with the announcement coming Sunday as the Heat faced the Chicago Bulls at Kaseya Center.
It is the first All-Star berth for Powell in his 11 seasons, with the All-Star Game to be played at Intuit Dome, Powell’s homecourt last season with the Clippers before he was dealt to the Heat in July.
It is the fourth consecutive season the Heat will have a single All-Star. Guard Tyler Herro was the Heat’s lone All-Star last year, with center Bam Adebayo the Heat’s lone All-Star in 2023 and ’24.
Powell expressed disappointment over being bypassed for last year’s All-Star Game despite having All-Star statistics. He said that fueled this season’s push, as he provided needed perimeter scoring punch in the midst of Herro’s injury-riddled season.
“I think I definitely have made the case,” Powell said of the unlikely script of making the All-Star Game for the first time three months shy of a 33rd birthday. “I’ve learned last year not to get caught up in whether I make it or not.”
But this season’s breakout only further fueled the desire.
“My peers around the league after games and things like that are telling me that I’m an All-Star and that I should be there,” he said. “But I do believe that I am an All-Star. I’ve always seen myself as that, and something that I’ve always wanted to work towards.”
Although five starters and seven reserves were selected from each of the two conferences, the formal for this year’s event will not be played in the East-West format.
Instead, two teams of U.S. players and one team of international players (known as the World team) will compete in a round-robin tournament featuring four 12-minute games. The three teams will each have a minimum of eight players.
Because he played for the Jamaican national team during last summer’s World Cup qualifying round, Powell is eligible for the World roster.
In the round-robin tournament, Team A will play Team B in Game 1. The winning team from Game 1 will take on Team C in Game 2, followed by the losing team of Game 1 meeting Team C in Game 3. After Game 3, the top two teams by record will advance to face each other in the championship game (Game 4). If all three teams have a 1-1 record after Game 3, the tiebreaker would be point differential in each team’s two round-robin games.
Previously voted in as starters from the Eastern Conference were Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham and Tyrese Maxey. Previously voted in as starters from the Western Conference were Stephen Curry, Luka Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama.
Antetokounmpo (Greece), Dončić (Slovenia), Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), Jokić (Serbia) and Wembanyama (France) all qualify for the World roster.
Commissioner Adam Silver will select All-Star replacements, which likely will be required for Antetokounmpo, who currently is sidelined with a calf injury.
Second-year Heat center Kel’el Ware previously was selected to participate in the Rising Stars at All-Star Weekend for first- and second-year players, with that event on Feb. 13 at the Intuit Dome.