“No slander to Utah, we never picked Karl Malone or John Stockton on games”: LeBron James hilariously explains why Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert were picked last in the All-Star draft

After making his picks for the All-Star Game last night, LeBron James made a candid admission about never using John Stockton in his video games.

James and Kevin Durant are the two captains for the festivities scheduled for this Sunday. This year’s All-Star Weekend is going to be a bit different. The NBA has chosen to squeeze in all of its usual contest into one day.

This means that the Slam Dunk Contest will take place during halftime of the All-Star Game. In addition, the other contests like the Skills Challenge, 3-Point Contest and the Rising Stars Challenge will take place before.

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Durant and LeBron made their picks on Inside the NBA tonight. James selected Giannis, Steph, Luka and Jokic as his starters. KD, on the other hand, picked Kyrie, Bradley Beal, Jayson Tatum, Kawhi Leonard and Joel Embiid on his side.

LeBron James goes back to the John Stockton era to explain

After all of the selections were made, there were only 2 picks remaining at the last: Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. KD had the first pick among the reserves, so he got to make the first choice between the two. He chose Donovan Mitchell, so James got Gobert.

The Inside crew did not fail to notice that these were the 2 players from the league leaders who got ‘snubbed’ till the last. James was asked why he didn’t pick them earlier, and LeBron certainly did not hold back:

“There’s no slander to the Utah Jazz. You guys got to understand just like with video games growing up, we never played with Utah Jazz. Even as great as Karl Malone and John Stockton was, we never picked those guys .”

Charles Barkley says he won’t go for this “slander”. Then LeBron James talks about John and Karl. Watch Kevin Durant’s reaction. pic.twitter.com/ESpsVjLRgr

— David James (@DavidDJJames) March 5, 2021

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Even Kevin Durant couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the response given by LeBron. Barkley, on the other hand, jokingly seemed to be affronted by how LeBron went for Domantas Sabonis instead of Rudy Gobert after saying he ‘needed size’.