The 2018 NBA All Star is next week and as expected, the format under which the game will be played has been changed YET AGAIN. Instead of a classic Eastern Conference vs Western Conference showdown, this year the two top vote getting players in each conference were named Team Captains. Unsurprisingly, Lebron James led the voting in the East and Stephen Curry took the West. As a result, this year we now have Team Lebron vs Team Stephen highlighting NBA All-Star Weekend in just a few days.
After being announced as Captains, Lebron and Steph were then able to draft their team’s starters based on a pool of players decided upon by fans, NBA players and media without any consideration for which conference those players played in. The reserve players for the two teams were chosen by their two respective coaches, with Mike D’Antoni coaching Team Steph and Dwane Casey coaching Team Lebron. Here’s the starters for each of the two teams:
| Team Lebron | Team Stephen |
| Lebron James | Stephen Curry |
| Kevin Durant | James Harden |
| Kyrie Irving | DeMar DeRozan |
| Demarcus Cousins | Giannis Anteokounmpo |
| Anthony Davis | Joel Embiid |
We decided that it wouldn’t quite be an All-Star Game without us making a bold prediction. We turned to the historical sales data of each player’s rookie card. To keep things fair, we used the highest completed sales data available on COMC of each player’s Topps Chrome Refractor RC or Panini Prizm Silver Prizm RC, when available. In the event that the player didn’t have a rookie card in either of those sets, we defaulted to the player’s best available rookie autograph from a comparable set. As expected, the result was fun but not quite perfect, as some historical sales data was rather old due to the scarcity of the cards and did not accurately reflect the card’s current market value.
Team Lebron
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Lebron James
The team Captain and top vote getter led all All-Star Game starters with an $802 sale in June 2012 of a BGS 9.5 graded 2003-04 Topps Chrome Refractor.
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Kyrie Irving
Now Celtics star Kyrie Irving reunites with Lebron for one night only in the ASG. His ’12-13 Silver Prizm BGS 9.5 netted a $202.40 sale in June 2016.
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Kevin Durant
KD gets robbed in this contest due to lack of recent sales of his Chrome Ref RC on COMC. His ’07-08 Topps Chrome Refractor last sold on COMC back in 2011 for a paltry $76.07.
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Anthony Davis
The Pelicans first overall pick of the 2012 draft and now 5x All-Star carries his weight with a $250.60 sale in November 2015.
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Demarcus Cousins (INJ)
Injured after he was named a starter, Boogie is the only All-Star Game Starter not to have a Chrome or Prizm RC. His Gold Standard /299 auto notched a $49.49 sale about a year ago.
Total Team Value = $1380.56
Team Stephen
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Stephen Curry
Steph’s team features three rookie cards from the 09-10 Topps Chrome set. This BGS 8.5 refractor sold for $301.11 as Steph really heated up in 2015.
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James Harden
At $154.23 for a chrome refractor in August of 2016, it’s safe to say the Rockets superstar got snubbed in historical sales data as well. We’re also not sure who the player depicted in his rookie card is, we don’t see the resemblance to this guy.
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DeMar Derozan
The most well represented set for RC’s in the 2018 All-Star Game easily had the worst representation of sales data. The highest sale of DeRozan’s refractor RC from the fabled ’09-10 Chrome set only fetched $32.78 back in February of 2012.
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Giannis Antetokounmpo
The Greek Freak leads Team Steph with a $605.99 sale last July. His Silver Prizm RC remains one of the hottest cards in the hobby today and will only continue to gain value as his career unfolds.
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Joel Embiid
The Process rounds out Team Steph with a $431.99 sale last October. Making his first of what should be many All-Star Game appearances, we trust the process enough to believe this card will only continue to gain value.
Total Team Value = $1525.10
There you have it! On the backs of the silver prizm rookie cards of The Greek Freak and The Process, Team Steph bests Team Lebron by nearly $145, making Steph & Co. our pick to win the 2018 NBA All Star Game. Despite our Super Bowl prediction not going so well a couple weeks ago, we have faith that our highly in depth analysis of the 2018 NBA All-Star Game Starters will prove us right!
NBA All-Star Weekend kicks off February 16th at 9pm EST with the Rising Stars Game . All-Star Saturday Night (Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Slam Dunk Contest) will be held February 17th at 8pm EST) and capping off the weekend will be the Team Lebron vs Team Stephen All-Star Game on February 19th at 7pm EST).
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