For the second year in a row, the NBA All-Star Game will not feature a player from the Chicago Bulls.
Zach LaVine — a two-time All-Star in 2021 and ’22 — was passed over Thursday for a reserve spot in the Eastern Conference despite ranking 10th in the East in scoring (24 points per game) and shooting 51.1% from the field and 44.6% from 3-point range.
After a frustrating 2023-24 season cut short by injury, LaVine has returned to the most lethal version of himself on offense while providing stalwart defensive effort as the Bulls cornerstone. Only one other top-25 scorer in the NBA — three-time MVP Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets — is shooting more accurately behind the arc.
Yet LaVine has flown under the radar for most of this season, a product of his team’s inability to pull above .500 in the weaker conference.
The Bulls hadn’t gone two years without an All-Star since a three-year span from 2018-20. Such a gap signifies the team’s plummeting relevancy as it vies with the Philadelphia 76ers for the final spot in the play-in tournament.
Rookie Matas Buzelis will be the Bulls’ sole representative at All-Star Weekend on Feb. 14-16 in San Francisco as one of four young players participating in the Slam Dunk Contest. The other three, according to an ESPN report, are reigning champion and Orlando Magic two-way player Mac McClung, the San Antonio Spurs’ Stephon Castle and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Andre Jackson Jr.
Buzelis was not selected, however, as one of 10 rookies in the Rising Stars Challenge, which features the top young talent in the league. Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu was selected for the Rising Stars in both his rookie (2022) and second (2023) seasons.
The dunk contest will be the finale of the Saturday skills competitions Feb. 15, with the All-Star Game taking place the next night with a new format featuring four teams in a short-form tournament.
The East reserves named Thursday were the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, the Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham, the Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro, the Bucks’ Damian Lillard and the Indiana Pacers’ Pascal Siakam.
The West reserves are the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards, the Los Angeles Clippers’ James Harden, the Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr., the Houston Rockets’ Alperen Sengun, the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Jalen Williams.
Starters named last week were the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell and the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum in the East; and the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry, the Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant, the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Lakers’ LeBron James and Jokić in the West.