The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James and Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo will serve as captains for next month’s NBA All-Star Game, which will revert to the traditional Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference format for the first time since 2017.

The 39-year-old James earned his record 20th All-Star selection, the league announced Thursday, breaking a tie with Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who retired in 1989 with 19 selections. After not being chosen during his rookie season with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003-04, the forward has earned an All-Star nod in 20 consecutive seasons and has been named a captain for seven straight seasons. James was named the All-Star Game MVP in 2006, 2008 and 2018.

Antetokounmpo, who finished as the overall leading vote-getter for the first time in his career, was selected as captain for the fourth times in the past six years. Despite a turbulent start to the Bucks’ season that led to the firing of coach Adrian Griffin this week, the imposing forward earned his eighth All-Star selection and received 5.4 million fan votes to top James (5.1 million), who led all Western Conference players. Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (4.8 million) Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (4.7 million) and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (4.5 million) rounded out this year’s top five vote-getters.

The 29-year-old Antetokounmpo is joined on the list of Eastern Conference starters by Tatum, Embiid, Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton and Bucks guard Damian Lillard.

Joining James among the Western Conference starters are Jokic, Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. None of this year’s starters from either conference was a first-time All-Star selection.

“I remember when I was a kid and I tried to watch the All-Star Game and my parents wouldn’t let me,” Doncic told TNT. “It was like 3 a.m. [in Slovenia]. I just wanted to be in the NBA.”

Antetokounmpo and James will lead their conferences in the midseason showcase, set for Feb. 18 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, after serving in the same capacity during the 2023 All-Star Game in Salt Lake City. Unlike last year, the two former NBA MVPs will not draft their rosters for the game and will instead compete in the traditional East vs. West format, which was the standard from the game’s inception in 1951 until the advent of the draft format in 2018.

The All-Star starters were chosen by a weighted group process that used the fan vote (50 percent), a media vote (25 percent) and a player vote (25 percent). All-Star reserves from both conferences will be selected by a vote of the league’s coaches and announced Feb. 1.

“You never want to take it for granted,” Tatum told TNT in a televised interview. “There are 450 guys in the league, and for the fans to consistently vote for me is truly an honor.”

This year’s starting lineups included several changes from last season. Durant’s cross-conference move from the Brooklyn Nets to the Suns in February opened an East starting spot for Embiid and bumped New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson from the West’s starters.

“Thanks to the fans, media and most importantly my peers for voting me into my 14th All-Star Game,” Durant wrote on social media. “Can’t wait to lock in and hoop with some of the greatest ever in Indy.”

Gilgeous-Alexander also replaced Stephen Curry in the starting lineup by outperforming the Golden State Warriors guard in votes cast by the media and players. Curry’s exclusion qualifies as a modest surprise given his long track record as a starter and his narrow lead in this year’s fan vote, but his Warriors sit 12th in the West standings and trail Doncic’s Mavericks and Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder.

Haliburton claimed a spot that was held by Kyrie Irving, who was traded from the Nets to the Mavericks before last year’s trade deadline. Lillard, who arrived in Milwaukee following an offseason trade from the Portland Trail Blazers, replaced Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell.

New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, who is enjoying a career year, and Mitchell had cases to start over Lillard, and both will almost certainly be named All-Star reserves. Lillard and Brunson finished tied in the starter selection process, but Lillard received more fan votes, which served as the tiebreaker.

This year’s All-Star Game will return to a standard four-quarter, 48-minute game rather than using the Elam Ending, which includes a “target score” in the fourth quarter that ensures every contest ends on a game-winning shot. The NBA adopted the Elam Ending, which uses an untimed fourth quarter, in 2020, with the goal of creating a more tense late-game atmosphere. The tweak was initially hailed as a success, but the scoring format proved confusing to some viewers and didn’t prevent blowouts in 2021 and 2023.

Joe Dumars, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, said in October that the league wanted to rejuvenate its All-Star Game as part of a wide-ranging effort to improve the quality of the regular season.

“Slowly, over time, you see all this slippage in missing games in the regular season and the All-Star Game devolving into what it did this year,” Dumars said. “None of that happened in one year. At some point, you have to stop the slide.”

The NBA is hosting the All-Star Game in Indianapolis for the first time since 1985.