Why is Luka Doncic not playing in the All-Star Game? New LA Lakers superstar will not be featuring alongside LeBron James

Luka Doncic has been the talk of the NBA over the last couple of weeks after his blockbuster trade to the Los Angeles Lakers. 

So, you’d expect the main topic of the league to be featuring in this weekend’s All-Star Game, right?

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Wrong. 

Doncic won’t be part of the All-Star action, which is likely to be a shock for many fans. 

So talkSPORT.com has taken a look at why he won’t be joining new Lakers teammate LeBron James and co. during the exciting few days…

Why is Doncic not playing in All-Star Game? 

Doncic was not selected to take part this weekend. 

He has only just returned to action following a serious calf injury that had kept him out of action since Christmas Day.

The 25-year-old had missed 22 games of the season at the time of the All-Star selection and draft, so that was sure to have cost him a place in the game. 

Doncic will have made his first two Lakers appearances ahead of the game, in what are the Lakers’ final games before the All-Star Weekend begins. 

But his return to fitness has come too late for him to take part.

The Slovenian has been in every All-Star Game for the last five years up until this point. 

That streak has now come to an end after he was not picked for the 2025 event despite receiving the third-highest fan votes for guards. 

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Doncic received 1.6million votes from NBA fans but that only counts to 50% of the decision to be selected for the game.

His fellow NBA players and a media panel had 25% of the vote too. 

And they must have decided against going for him as he didn’t make the starters or reserves for his conference. 

That will have largely come down to his absence for a lot of the season and his lack of fitness because of that. 

The Lakers may well be pleased that their new superstar isn’t going to be playing as he looks to recover fully from his injury. 

Not featuring with allow Doncic to reduce his chances of overworking so soon after getting back from his long spell out. 

As mentioned, his streak of All-Star games is now going to come to an end. 

In his five appearances so far in his career, he’s averaged seven points, five assists and just over two rebounds per game. 

They have all come in All-Star clashes between two teams. 

But he’s going to miss the brand-new format of the event which sees four teams take part in a mini-tournament beginning with semi-finals. 

Icon James will be featuring in his record-equalling All-Star game while Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama will be playing too.