LeBron James on All-Star Game format: ‘Something had to change’

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – LeBron James is set to become the NBA’s all-time regular season scoring leader Thursday back in the same city where he logged his first when the Los Angeles Lakers play the Sacramento Kings.

It’ll be yet another accomplishment in a career brimming with them for the four-time MVP, four-time champion and 20-time All-Star, who also happens to be the league’s leading scorer.

But James, 39, wasn’t in a celebratory mood after the Lakers shootaround Thursday morning. When asked about the announced changes to the All-Star Game format in February, James rather lamented the state of the league.

“It’s not just the All-Star Game. It’s our game in general,” James said. “There’s a lot of f—ing 3s being shot. So it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star Game.”

NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed criticism aimed at the increase in 3-point volume this week ahead of the NBA Cup championship on Tuesday.

“The answer is yes, (we have) a lot of discussions about the style of basketball (being played),” Silver said. “I wouldn’t reduce it to a so-called 3-point shooting issue. I think we look more holistically at the skill level on the floor, the diversity of the offense, the fan reception to the game, all of the above.”

To put into perspective just how much the 3-point shot has become a staple of NBA offenses, the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors averaged 31.6 3-point attempts per game. match – no. 1 in the league – en route to a 73-9 record. They would rank 29th this season, with only the Denver Nuggets attempting fewer per game. battle (30.4). The defending champion Boston Celtics are first, averaging 51.1 3-point attempts per game, which would shatter the previous team records for 3-point attempts in a season.

As for the All-Star game, the league announced this week that instead of having the traditional East vs. West game, or even the teams drafted by the top votes in each conference, there will be a round robin instead.

The 24 selected All-Stars will be divided into teams of eight, and a fourth team of eight will consist of players from Friday night’s Rising Stars game. Two teams will play in one semifinal and the other two teams will play in a second semifinal, creating a third championship game between the winners. Each of the games will be untimed and will end when the first team reaches or exceeds 40 points to win.

While James’ teammate, nine-time All-Star Anthony Davis said, “I don’t really like it,” when asked about the format change, James sounded more open to it.

“Something had to change,” James said, alluding to last year’s game that featured 397 combined meaningless points by the two teams.

“We’ll see, we’ll see when we get there,” he continued. “It’s different. Obviously, when you make some kind of change, it’s going to be some money left. I don’t know. I mean, I have my ideas about what could possibly work. … You has to do something. Obviously, the last few years haven’t been a great All-Star game that Sunday night.”

James enters Thursday with 57,437 career regular-season minutes played — nine behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark of 57,446. But if you count the 35 minutes James played in the NBA Cup championship in Las Vegas last year, he has already passed Abdul-Jabbar’s mark. The league does not count NBA Cup championship statistics into regular season or playoff records.