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The NBA All-Star Game is markedly different this year in terms of how the teams that play against each other will look.
Gone are the days where players from the same conference face off against players from the other conference. Instead, the conferences will be mixed on each team because the leading vote-getters from each conference will get the chance to pick their own teams.
But even with that major shift, one aspect for both teams will not change. If a player gets injured, their respective conference definitely comes into play, per Chris Haynes of ESPN.
And although NBA has ditched the East-West All-Star format, if a player is injured before the game, I'm told the replacement would still come out of the conference of the injured player.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 22, 2018
On some level, this makes sense. If, for example, Kristaps Porzingis was hurt and could not participate in the All-Star game, why would the league pick someone from the other conference? The NBA still wants both conferences represented equally, and there's likely another player from the Eastern Conference that did not make the cut.
Then again, why not do it that way? Maybe if there's an injured player, there could be a flash vote by the players or coaches to see who is most deserving of that replacement spot. Maybe the two parties hold a vote in advance just for the purpose of having backup players in case of injury or some other reason that the selected player can't go in the game.
The NBA has 12 players on each conference make the game for a reason — parity. It may be true that there aren't as many All-Star-worthy players in the East than in the West, so replacing injured players from the opposite conference may not satisfy that desire for parity.
But it would be interesting.
