Houston’s Alperen Sengun was named to this season’s NBA All-Star Game roster on Sunday, replacing Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Sengun, Turkey’s first two-time All-Star who was also selected last season, will replace Gilgeous-Alexander on the World Team when the game begins on Feb. 15 at the Los Angeles Clippers’ home court in Inglewood, Calif.
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Gilgeous-Alexander had to exit the game with a strained abdominal muscle. Sengon averaged 20.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game for the Rockets this season.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver selects injury replacement. The top 10 All-Stars are selected through a weighted voting system of fans, media and current NBA players, while the 14 players designated as reserves are voted on by the league’s head coaches.
Silver also named the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard to the All-Star team last week. Leonard needs to bring the total number of U.S. All-Stars in the new USA vs. World format to the required 16, ensuring each team has at least eight players.
There are two American teams and one world team in this competition. The two teams will play a round robin, and then the top two teams will meet again in the All-Star Finals. All four games will last 12 minutes, or a standard NBA quarter.
Sengun is one of only two All-Star players in Türkiye. Mohamed Okur is another who made his only All-Star appearance in 2007.
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