In the views of an analytics expert and the heart of a child, Warriors guard Stephen Curry is the top all-star this weekend. (Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports)
LOS ANGELES — Josue Dominguez watches his NBA highlights on YouTube and parades into his third-grade classroom in Nashville wearing the apparel of his favorite team, which plays more than 2,300 miles away. So as Josue and his father, Leoncio, walk down Figueroa Street to the Los Angeles Convention Center and brace for their first All-Star Weekend experience on Friday, he pairs KD9 Varsity Red sneakers with a Stephen Curry “I Can Do All Things” T-shirt.
“He’s a really good shooter,” Josue says, explaining his affection for Curry.
Josue, 9, thinks he could beat any all-star team if he could take Curry as his top pick. Leoncio, raised on the Showtime Lakers, prefers LeBron James. The same goes for NBA legend Detlef Schrempf, who began his prime in the late 1980s for the Indiana Pacers and Seattle SuperSonics, because he believes James would give him the best chance to win.
Their selections illustrate the shift between generations of basketball fans. Younger fans view three-point shooting as the supreme strength, while the old school fell in love with size and low-post dominance. If given the power to draft their starting fives for Sunday night’s All-Star Game like James and Curry — this year, the NBA changed the game’s format by allowing the top vote-getters to pick their teammates — the rosters chosen by a rosy-cheeked Warriors fan or even an analytics-influenced writer would contrast significantly with those reared on basketball’s past.
[The All-Star Game rosters as selected by James and Curry]
“Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Giannis Antetokounmpo,” Josue says, naming his starters in order while masterfully navigating through the mash of vowels and consonants of the Milwaukee Bucks phenom.
Then, the 9-year-old pauses.
“Umm, who’s the center,” he asks himself. “DeMarcus Cousins!”
Josue has never heard of the phrase “small ball,” but his lineup of two point guards, a couple of stretchy forwards and the first tall guy who comes to mind would make Steve Kerr proud. The reason behind his roster is profound, even if the youngster’s basketball acumen is limited to highlights posted on social media.
“So we can have better movement, ball movement and shooting,” he says as his Nikes nervously tap the concrete. “And I would pick a center, so we could get rebounds.”
[Fox News’s Laura Ingraham to James and Durant: ‘Shut up and dribble’]
For the last five years, ESPN writer and podcast host Kevin Pelton has produced basketball columns with a statistical slant. Before that, he worked as a consultant for the Pacers. He emphasizes the value metric of Wins Above Replacement Player. His Twitter bio reads: “Using numbers to learn about the game.” And his top pick mirrors that of a 9-year-old.
“I’m starting with” Curry, Pelton says.
As Pelton picks his hypothetical team from the pool of available all-star starters against James, Curry’s counterpart as team caption, he emphasizes shooting as well as matchups. Durant goes second so he could match up against James. Then Anthony Davis. Three-point-gunning James Harden over mid-range-shooting DeMar DeRozan. And finally, even though the sight of defense in an all-star game is more rare than a unicorn, Joel Embiid gets chosen because he’s a better defender than Cousins.
Alas, big men are last on the list. But long live the centers on Team Detlef.
“Shaq!” Schrempf says, laughing, when asked who’d he pick first on his all-star dream team.
Schrempf, 55, is spending Friday afternoon at the Jr. NBA Day event inside the convention center, helping to mold school kids on the fundamentals. Though he loves today’s game, Schrempf, who was a three-time all-star over 16 seasons from 1985 through 2001, believes defense deserves more admiration. Before he picks his top five from the current crop of players, he starts with a question.
“The goal is to win the game?” Schrempf asks.
Assured that victory over entertainment value should be his priority, Schrempf chooses James. Though the King reigns at No. 1, Schrempf explains why the rest of his roster would resemble a 6-foot-11-and-over club (Cousins, Davis, Antetokounmpo and Durant).
“Cousins could be trouble in the post,” Schrempf says. “I would pick people who are all about the same size and play all the same positions. … All the guys who are 6-10, 6-11, very athletic and play multiple positions. So on defense they can just switch. And whoever gets the rebound, runs with it and go.
“In the early ’90s, you’d want to have a big post player who can pound on people in there,” Schrempf recalls. “You’d want somebody if there’s a mismatch. You’re just going to throw it in the post and play off that. Teams don’t do that anymore. Now it’s more [about] who can guard who and who can shoot threes, obviously. When you have a good team where everyone is interchangeable, I think you just play basketball. It would be kind of fun to see.”
Back outside the convention center, throbbing bass lines and buzzing fans all around, father and son talk basketball. As Leoncio Dominguez shares his admiration for the dunking and dribbling in today’s game — which takes him back to the fast-break joys of the ’80s Los Angeles Lakers — Josue zips up his bright-orange KD-emblazoned jacket and begins to organize his trading cards. The boy has brought his collection in hopes of getting his favorite players to sign them. But, of course, dad’s wallet will also be necessary.
Josue already owns two Warriors jerseys. This weekend, he’d like add another to honor his No. 1 pick.
“I might get an all-star Steph Curry jersey,” he says.
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