LeBron James has ‘zero energy, zero excitement’ for All-Star game

Lakers superstar calls plan to hold game a slap in the face to players

Los Angeles Lakers swingman LeBron James strongly disagrees with the NBA’s plan to hold the annual All-Star game in Atlanta on March 7.

Although the plan is not yet official, James indicated that continuing to hold the game is a needless gathering of the league’s best players during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

“I have zero energy and zero excitement about an All-Star game this year,” James said on Friday after his team’s convincing win over the Denver Nuggets. “I don’t even understand why we’re having an All-Star game, but it’s the agreement that the players’ association and the league came about.

“It’s been a short offseason for my teammates and myself for 71 days. And then coming into this season, we were told that were not having an All-Star game, so we had a nice little break from March 5 through the 10, a nice little opportunity for me to recalibrate for the second half of season and my teammates as well and some of the guys in the league, and then they throw an All-Star game on us like this and just breaks all of that up.”

James is currently No. 2 overall and No. 1 in the Western Conference in fan voting, while Anthony Davis was No. 4 in fan voting among frontcourt players in the Western Conference.

The next fan voting update will be released on Thursday, Feb. 11 according to the league.

“It’s pretty much kind of a slap in the face," James said. "And we’re also still dealing with a pandemic, we’re still dealing with everything that’s going on, and we’re going to bring the whole league into one city that’s open. So, obviously the pandemic has nothing to do with it at this point, when it comes to that weekend

“Obviously, you guys can see I’m not very happy about it, but it’s out of my hands and I’ll be there if I’m selected. But I’ll be there physically, not mentally.”