Heat’s Norman Powell in, Bam Adebayo bypassed for All-Star
MIAMI — Amid a less-than-stellar season, the Miami Heat will nevertheless have a representative at the Feb. 15 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.
Bypassed in the combined fan/player/media balloting for starters, the Heat wound up with guard Norman Powell being selected by conference coaches as an East reserve, with the announcement coming Sunday as the Heat faced the Chicago Bulls at Kaseya Center.
It is the first All-Star berth for Powell in his 11 seasons, with the All-Star Game to be played at the Intuit Dome, Powell’s homecourt last season with the Clippers before he was dealt to the Heat in July.
It is the fourth consecutive season the Heat will have an All-Star single. Guard Tyler Herro was the Heat’s lone All-Star last year, with center Bam Adebayo the Heat’s lone All-Star in 2023 and ’24.
Powell expressed disappointment over being bypassed for last year’s All-Star Game despite having All-Star statistics. He said that he fueled this season’s push, as he provided needed perimeter scoring punch in the midst of Herro’s injury-riddled season.
“I think I definitely have made the case,” Powell said of the unlikely script of making the All-Star Game for the first time three months shy of a 33rd birthday. “I’ve learned last year not to get caught up in whether I make it or not.”
But this season’s breakout only further fueled the desire.
“My peers around the league after games and things like that are telling me that I’m an All-Star and that I should be there,” he said. “But I do believe that I am an All-Star. I’ve always seen myself as that, and something that I’ve always wanted to work towards.”
Powell was not at Kaseya Center on Sunday to celebrate the announcement, out for a second consecutive game due to personal reasons as his teammates played the Chicago Bulls.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said pregame he was hopeful of Powell getting his All-Star breakthrough.
“I believe that he deserves it,” Spoelstra said. “And I think probably one of the best compliments you can give him is the fact that he starred in all of his roles that he’s had in his career and he just continues to get better. And he’s having his best years after the age of 30. That’s a credit to his work ethic and his dedication to the craft.
“But I remember when he was in Toronto, he was a great ninth man, eight man, then he worked his way into the seventh man, sixth man. And then when he went out West, he was a great sixth man and reinvented himself as a starter with the Clippers. And now I feel like an All-Star, as a starter for us.”
Although five starters and seven reserves were selected from each of the two conferences, the formal for this year’s event will not be played in the East-West format.
Instead, two teams of US players and one team of international players (known as the World team) will compete in a round-robin tournament featuring four 12-minute games. The three teams will each have a minimum of eight players.
Because he played for the Jamaican national team during last summer’s World Cup qualifying round, Powell is eligible for the World roster.
In the round-robin tournament, Team A will play Team B in Game 1. The winning team from Game 1 will take on Team C in Game 2, followed by the losing team from Game 1 meeting Team C in Game 3. After Game 3, the top two teams by record will advance to face each other in the championship game (Game 4). If all three teams have a 1-1 record after Game 3, the tiebreaker would be point differential in each team’s two round-robin games.
Previously voted in as starters from the Eastern Conference were Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham and Tyrese Maxey. Previously voted in as starters from the Western Conference were Stephen Curry, Luka Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama.
Antetokounmpo (Greece), Dončić (Slovenia), Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), Jokić (Serbia) and Wembanyama (France) all qualify for the World roster.
The other East reserves named Sunday were Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, Atlanta’s Jalen Johnson, New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns, Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes and Detroit’s Jalen Duren.
The other West reserves named Sunday were Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Denver’s Jamal Murray, Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, Houston’s Kevin Durant, Phoenix’s Devin Booker, Portland’s Deni Avdija and the Lakers’ LeBron James.
Commissioner Adam Silver will select All-Star replacements, which likely will be required for Antetokounmpo, who is currently sidelined with a calf injury.
Second-year Heat center Kel’el Ware was previously selected to participate in the Rising Stars at All-Star Weekend for first- and second-year players, with that event on Feb. 13 at the Intuit Dome.
