Three times in the history of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the franchise has had three players make the All-Star Game.
The most recent time was in 2017, when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love joined LeBron James at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans. Before that you have to go back 24 years to the 1993 All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, Utah, when the triumvirate of Mark Price, Brad Daugherty and Larry Nance (Sr.) all made it. Four years prior, those same three made it to the 1989 All-Star Game in Houston.
The All-Star Game is again in a Western Conference city this year, this time in San Francisco where the Golden State Warriors will host, and they will be welcoming three members of the Cleveland Cavaliers after Thursday's announcement.
Darius Garland and Evan Mobley are All-Star Reserves
As announced by Inside the NBA on TNT, both Darius Garland and Evan Mobley were selected as All-Star Reserves by the league's coaches and will join Donovan Mitchell for the All-Star Game on Sunday, February 16th.
Garland, 25, will be playing in his second career All-Star Game, having previously made it in 2022. He is averaging an identical 21.7 points per game as he was that season but on career-best efficiency, shooting 42.5 percent from deep on 7.0 attempts per game and 56 percent from 2-point range. Garland is also averaging 6.8 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals and has appeared in 45 of the Cavaliers' 47 games.
Mobley, 23, is a first-time All-Star thanks to a breakout fourth year where he has become perhaps the team's best two-way player. Mobley is averaging a career-high 18.2 points per game on 57 percent shooting from the field, including an efficient 39.8 percent mark from deep on 2.8 attempts per game. He is also averaging 9.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. Mobley has appeared in 41 of Cleveland's 47 games.
Garland, Mobley and Mitchell will compete in a brand-new format of All-Star Game. The 24 All-Stars will be drafted into three teams by the hosts of Inside the NBA on TNT -- former players Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny "The Jet" Smith. Those three teams will then compete in a single-elimination tournament with the winner of the Rising Stars competition from Friday night (Rising Stars rosters are made up of the best rookies, sophomores and G League players from around the league).
The winning teams from the first two games will compete together in the final to be crowned champions. The games will be played to a target score, rather than with a game clock. The hope is that shorter games and the extra pizazz of the miniature tournament will encourage players to play harder and help to staunch the criticism that the All-Star Game is not worth watching because of a complete lack of effort.
However the games themselves turn out, the Cavaliers are excited to have three representatives; there was hope of a fourth Cleveland player, Jarrett Allen, making the roster, but it is rare for an NBA team to have four All-Stars, no matter how strong their performance.
Tune into the All-Star Game on Sunday, February 16th at 8:00 PM to see Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley compete under the lights in a celebration of the tremendous season the Cavaliers have had this year.