During Thursday’s NBA All-Star Game draft, TNT analyst Charles Barkley made a comment that if a team of players from USA took on the rest of the world that it would be a very good game. One of the team captains, LeBron James, agreed and stated that it is something that the NBA should take a look at.

So why not take a look at how both rosters may look if the NBA had decided to go that route?

We’ll use the same rules that each roster must fill which according to NBA.com includes the five starters (two backcourt, three frontcourt) and seven reserves (two backcourt, three frontcourt, and two wild cards).

Unlike the current All-Star Game format though, we don’t need 12 representatives from each conference.

Team USA roster

Starters

  • Backcourt - Kemba Walker
  • Backcourt - James Harden
  • Frontcourt - LeBron James
  • Frontcourt - Anthony Davis
  • Frontcourt - Kawhi Leonard

Reserves

  • Backcourt - Trae Young
  • Backcourt - Damian Lillard
  • Frontcourt - Jimmy Butler
  • Frontcourt - Khris Middleton
  • Frontcourt - Bam Adebayo
  • Wild card - Donovan Mitchell
  • Wild card - Russell Westbrook

Some snubs from the Team USA roster include real-life All-Stars Jayson Tatum, Chris Paul, Kyle Lowry, and Brandon Ingram.

Team World roster

Starters

  • Backcourt - Luka Doncic (Slovenia)
  • Backcourt - Ben Simmons (Canada)
  • Frontcourt - Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece)
  • Frontcourt - Pascal Siakam (Cameroon)
  • Frontcourt - Joel Embiid (Cameroon)

Reserves

  • Backcourt - Jamal Murray (Canada)
  • Backcourt - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada)
  • Frontcourt - Rudy Gobert (France)
  • Frontcourt - Nikola Jokic (Serbia)
  • Frontcourt - Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania)
  • Wild card - Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia)
  • Wild card - Danilo Gallinari (Italy)

Some of the snubs for Team World include Nikola Vucevic (Switzerland), Clint Capela (Switzerland), Andrew Wiggins (Canada), Bojan Bogdanovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Buddy Hield (Bahamas), Dennis Schroder (Germany), and Al Horford (Dominican Republic).

Roster outlook

While the rest of the world clearly has a lot of talent, it pales in comparison when put head-to-head with the United States. Sixteen of the 24 real-life All-Stars would play for Team USA which already gives them a distinct advantage.

All the size that Team World possesses may not be beneficial in an All-Star format.

There’s nothing wrong with their starting backcourt of Doncic and Simmons, but there’s a pretty steep drop-off at the guard position after those two.

Team USA is loaded to the point that four real-life All-Stars are unable to crack their roster. Other than Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo, Team USA doesn’t nearly have the size that Team World does, although their roster should be able to score at will.

It would be a fun idea to try this format out (as it currently is in the Rising Stars Game) even if Team USA still has the edge on star power. The more-talented team doesn’t always win though, so Charles Barkley and LeBron James may be ok to something when they say it’s a format that the NBA should look into.
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