NBA
LeBron James misses first All-Star game in his career: Why didn’t King James play?
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All posts by Oliver TalikuUpdated17 Feb 2025
There was a late change to the All-Star roster on Sunday night as just hours before the game, LeBron James revealed that he wouldn’t be taking part.
LeBron James withdraws from All-Star late
Fans were left disappointed with just a couple of hours until the All-Star games got underway, as one of the biggest superstars announced that he wouldn’t be stepping onto the court.
LeBron James didn’t play in the All-Star game for the first time in his career, after announcing the shock decision during a press conference just before the games tipped off.
“You will not see anything from me tonight,” James said. “Unfortunately I will not be in uniform tonight.
“Still dealing with ankle and foot discomfort, so I will not be playing tonight, unfortunately. You know I hate that. But I’m looking forward to seeing the format.”
LeBron says that he will NOT be playing in the All-Star game tonight due to ankle and foot discomfort pic.twitter.com/wKzF8B7i72
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 16, 2025
The announcement came as a shock late on Sunday night, as there was no signs that LeBron would miss out on the weekend having been present in San Francisco for all the other events.
It is still unknown whether LeBron will miss out on any Lakers games with his foot injury but the ‘King’ is expected to be back on the court this week after resting during the All-Star break.
As the 40-year-old withdrew from Sunday’ game so late, there wasn’t time for any new players to be called up and so Shaquille O’Neal’s ‘OG’ team were left one short.
Fortunately for Shaq, his team was still able to thrive without James and MVP Steph Curry led his team to the first ever All-Star win under the new format.
Other All-Star absentees
James wasn’t the only player from the West to pull out of the All-Star game late, as Anthony Edwards also didn’t play despite warming up at the Chase Center.
Unlike James, Edwards didn’t announce why he was absent before the game and fans had to wait until postgame to get an explanation from the Ant-Man.
Asked Anthony Edwards, who didn’t play in the All-Star tournament because of a groin injury, how he felt about this format… pic.twitter.com/7AezdVw1h1
— Melissa Rohlin (@melissarohlin) February 17, 2025
The 23-year-old confirmed after the weekend was over that he had been struggling with a groin injury for some time and therefore chose to rest on Sunday afternoon.
