Team LeBron Questionably Favored Before All-Star Draft

• The NBA All-Star Draft is going into its sixth year with LeBron James once again captaining against Giannis Antetokounmpo.
• Team LeBron is undefeated since the format’s 2018 inception at 5-0.
• Team Giannis is the underdog at +125, presenting interesting value since the draft has not happened yet.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – LeBron James will look to draft and lead his team to a sixth straight win Sunday night against 2021 All-Star Game MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. This marks the third matchup with these two as captains, with Team LeBron taking home the victories in 2019 and 2020.

The All-Star Draft is set to happen about one hour before the games and has LeBron with the first pick in the draft. While rosters have not yet been picked, legal betting sites have given Team LeBron -155 odds to win.

All-Star Game Winning Team Odds

• Team LeBron -155
• Team Giannis +125

Prospective Team Members and Odds Analysis

Neither of the captains have begun drafting their team yet, making the odds more speculation than anything. A look back at the players LeBron and Giannis have generally tried to draft each year may illuminate more reasoning behind these odds.

Starting with Team Giannis, who last appeared during the 2020 All-Star Game, there are not too many players that have frequently been drafted by Giannis still in the pool of players. However, some notable ones that he drafted before include: Joel Embiid, Paul George, Nikola Jokic, Pascal Siakam, Bam Adebayo, and Donovan Mitchell.

Embiid is the only player Giannis drafted in both years as the team captain, and he may figure to once again snag the MVP candidate for the dominant scoring as well as allowing Giannis himself to not face the powerful rim protector. Jrue Holiday also figures to be a likely choice as well given that him and Giannis are teammates.

Yet, most of this is speculation and it would be impossible to predict much of anything until entire rosters are selected. Team Giannis does at least hold nice +125 odds that if we assume the playing field is even, makes it a great value to take ahead of time.

Since LeBron has been the team captain every year of the All-Star Game since the draft was created, his five-year win streak is likely a prime reason his team is already favored by so much.

Kyrie Irving in particular seems to be the most likely teammate for LeBron as he has previously joked that “tampering rules do not apply at All-Star Weekend”. Irving was one of the biggest targets for the LA Lakers when he was available so it should come as little surprise that LeBron would want to reunite with his former teammate.

A worrisome note for LeBron fans is that his team has already been given -155 odds to win the game by legal sportsbooks. These odds are not very profitable, especially because the state of the rosters is a complete question. Those betting on Team LeBron will have to put faith in history repeating itself to have James and co. win for the sixth straight year in a row.