The NBA All Star Game will take place in Toronto, Canada on February 14th, and it will be the 65th All Star Game ever held.

The All Stars for both the East and the West were announced recently. Many fans have said there are a lot of surprises in the selections this year.

Representing the West All Stars are Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry, and Russell Westbrook.

Representing the East All Stars are LeBron James, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Kyle Lowry.

Kobe Bryant will be in the All Star game for the 18th time in his 20th season and he led all players in votes with 1,891,614 finishing ahead of Stephen Curry who got 1,604,325 votes. Curry will be starting in the All Star game for the 3rd straight year. Kobe Bryant currently averages 15.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. Stephen Curry currently averages 30.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game.

Kobe Bryant, with eighteen All Star appearances is now one behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in most All Star appearances.

San Antonio’s rising star, small forward Kawhi Leonard, who averages 20 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game, was voted as a starter for the first time. Kawhi joins Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players ever in NBA history to be named an All-Star, Kia NBA Defensive player of the year, and finals MVP.

Athletic point guard Russell Westbrook from the Oklahoma City Thunder, is also a starter. Westbrook’s stats are through the roof as he averages 23.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 9.7 assists. He averages nearly a triple double (10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) every game which is unheard-of.

Many people would argue that the point guard from Washington John Wall should have been the starter instead of Kyle Lowry.

John Wall averaged 1 point less a game but he did average 3.3 more assists per game then Kyle Lowry.

The Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James led the East All Stars in votes with 1,089,206 votes. LeBron now will be in his 12th all-star game in his thirteenth season. LeBron thus far has averaged 25 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game.

Carmelo Anthony from the Knicks also made it into the starting five in the All Star Game. Despite Carmelo’s team having a record of 22-24, that’s not stopping him from averaging 21.3 points, 4 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game.

All thirty NBA coaches will select reserves for the game however; they cannot select players from the team they are coaching.

They must vote from seven players within their conference and they must choose two guards, three frontcourt players and two additional players.

All Star Games are always known for spectacular and exciting plays, such as alley-oops, near impossible skills and shots.

Most All Star Games are also known for being extremely dominant on the offensive side of the ball and fans always enjoy explosive offenses.

The fans will definitely look forward to this All Star game, as there are a lot of young and talented players that have a bright future and some veterans that people will look up to that can still play the game of basketball well.